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A SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
AND GREATER BRITAIN 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO - DALLAS 
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MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

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TORONTO 



MODERN 
ENGLAND AND WALE^ 



ENGLISH MILES 




A SHORTER 
HISTORY OF ENGLAND 



AND 



GREATER BRITAIN 



BY 

ARTHUR LYON CROSS, Ph.D. 

RICHARD HUDSON PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH HISTORY IN 

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 

AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 



Nefo gork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1920 

All rights reserved 



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a 



Copyright, 1920, 
By THE MACM1LLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1920. 



NorfoooU ^«S2 

J. S. dishing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



OCT. 14 1820 
©CU597767 

I 



PREFACE 

• i 

The present work is a shortened form of the author's History of 
England and Greater Britain, brought up to the beginning of 19 19. 
Four chapters have been added, two of which aim to re-survey 
the relations between the Mother Country and the Self-governing 
Dominions beyond the seas and British foreign relations from 1870 
to 1914, and two of which seek to describe the activities of Britain 
and Greater Britain in the World War, as well as the problems of 
government and administration which the War involved. 

In treating of the causes which drew the British into the War it 
has been necessary, for the sake of completeness, to repeat much that 
has of late been frequently well described and is now oppressively fa- 
miliar. Unfortunately the Kautsky documents and the latest Austrian 
Red Book which would have caused the writer to modify his statements 
concerning the Kaiser's alleged conference and the respective respon- 
sibility of the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments in the 
negotiations following Serajevo, were not at hand when his chapter 
went to press. However, the first part of the story has been admirably 
told, in the light of the new evidence, by Professor S. B. Fay in the 
American Historical Review for July, 1920, and the second part is 
promised in October. 

In revising and condensing the earlier parts of the book the writer 
has confined his abbreviating largely to the political narrative, retain- 
ing the surveys of social, industrial, intellectual and religious condi- 
tions with comparatively little curtailment. He wishes to repeat 
his thanks to those who have so kindly assisted him in his first under- 
taking, and further to express his obligations to his colleagues Pro- 
fessors Campbell Bonner, A. E. R. Boak and W. R. Frayer for very 
helpful suggestions. 

Arthur Lyon Cross. 

University of Michigan, 
August, 1920. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



PAGE 



I. The British Isles: Theer Physical Features and Resources i 
II. The Earliest Inhabitants of Britain 8 

III. The Coming of the Anglo-Saxons. The "Heptarchy" and 

Struggle for Supremacy 18 

IV. The Ascendancy of the West Saxons. The Growth and De- 

cline and Fall of the Anglo-Saxon Monarchy . . 29 

V. The State of Society at the Close of the Anglo-Saxon 

Period 4 2 

VI. The Anglo-Norman Kings (1066-1154). The Strengthening 
of the Central Power of William and His Sons. The 
Interval of Anarchy in the Reign of Stephen . .53 

VII. Henry II (1154-1189). The Restoration of the Royal 

Power and the Rise of the English Common Law . . 71 

VIII. Richard I (1189-1199) and the Transition from Absolute 
toward Limited Monarchy. Conditions at the Close of 
the Twelfth Century 80 

IX. The Reign of John (1 199-12 16). The Loss of Normandy, 
the Quarrel with the Church, the Baronial Revolt, 
and Magna Carta 89 

X. Henry III. The Struggle of the Barons to Maintain the 
Charter, to Expel Foreign Influence, and to Control 
the Administration of Kingdom. Conditions at the 
Close of the Reign 98 

XI. Edward I and Edward II (12 7 2-13 2 7). The Completion of 

the Foundations of the English Constitutional System hi 

XII. The Reign of Edward III (1327-1377). The Beginning of the 
Hundred Years' War. Chivalry at Its Height. The 
Growing Importance of the Commons. The Increase of 
National Sentiment. First Attacks on the Power of 

Rome 125 

vii 



v jii TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

XIII. Life in England under the First Three Edwards (1272- 



PAGE 



1377) x 37 

XIV. Richard II (1377-1399)- The End of the Plantagenet 

Dynasty 153 

XV. The House of Lancaster in the Ascendant. Henry IV 
(1399-1413), Henry V (1413-1422), and "The Constitu- 
tional Experiment" in Government .... 161 

XVI. The Fall of the House of Lancaster. Henry VI (1422-1461) 168 

XVII. The Yorkist Kings and the End of the Wars of the Roses. 
Edward IV (1461-1483), Edward V (1483), Richard III 

(1483-1485) J 75 

XVIII. The Beginning of the Tudor Absolutism. Henry VII 

(1485-1509) 183 

XIX. The First Years of Henry VIII (1509-1529). The Eve 

of the Separation from Rome 194 

XX. Henry VIII and the Separation from Rome (15 29-1 547) 206 

XXI. The Henrician Regime (1 509-1 547) 222 

XXII. The Protestant Extremists in Power. Edward VI (1547- 

1553) 2 3° 

XXIII. The English Counter-Reformation. Mary (1553-1558) 236 

XXIV. The Elizabethan Religious Settlement and the Early 

Years of Elizabeth's Reign (1558-1572) . . .243 

XXV. Elizabeth's Ascendancy and Decline (15 7 2-1603) . . 253 

XXVI. Elizabethan England (1 558-1603) 264 

XXVII. James I and the Beginnings of the Puritan Revolution 

(1603-1625) ' • .285 

XXVIIL Charles I and the Precipitation of the Conflict between 

King and People (1625-1640) 3 01 

XXIX. From the Opening of the Long Parliament to the Out- 
break of the Civil War (1640-1642) . . . .319 

XXX. From the Outbreak of the Civil War to the Execution 

of Charles I (1642-1649) 327 



TABLE OF CONTENTS IX 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXI. The Kingless Decade: The Commonwealth and the 

Protectorate (i 649-1 660) 348 

XXXII. From the Restoration to the Fall of Clarendon (1660- 

1667) 359 

XXXIII. From the Fall of Clarendon to the Death of Charles II 

(1667-1685) , 372 

XXXIV. James II and the "Glorious Revolution" (1685-1688) . 385 

XXXV. Puritan and Cavalier England ...... 400 

XXXVI. The Early Years of the New Dynasty and the Opening 

of the Great War. William and Mary (1689-1694) 423 

XXXVII. The Completion of the Revolution of 1688. William 

Alone (1694-1702) 434 

XXXVIII. The End of the Stuart Dynasty. Anne (1702-17 14) . 445 

XXXIX. The FrasT Hanoverian, George I (17 14-17 2 7) . . . 463 

XL. The Ascendancy and Fall of Walpole and the Opening 
of a New Era of War. The First Part of the Reign 
of George II (1 727-1 748) 475 

XLI. The Duel for Empire. The Closing Years of George II's 

Reign (1 748-1 760) 491 

XLII. The Revival of the Royal Ascendancy. The First Years 

of George III (1 760-1 770) 506 

XLIII. The American Revolution and the End of the Personal 

Ascendancy of George III (1 770-1 783) . . . 525 

XLIV. Eighteenth- Century England to the Eve of the In- 
dustrial Revolution 543 

XLV. The Younger Pitt : The New Toryism and Administra- 
tive Reform (1 784-1 793) 570 

XL VI. The Great War with France to the Peace of Amiens 

(1 793-1802) 587 

XLVTL The Struggle against Napoleon: From Amiens to 

Waterloo (1802-1815) 600 

■ / 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XL VIII. From the Overthrow of Napoleon to the Eve of the 
Great Reform Bill. The Last Years of George III 
and the Reign of George IV (i 8 15-1830) . . .615 

XLIX. England at the Eve of the Reform Bill .... 633 

L. The Epoch of Reform. William IV (1830-183 7) . . 645 

LI. The Early Years of Victoria's Reign and the Triumph 

of Free Trade (183 7-1 846) 661 

LII. The Revolutionary Movements in Europe and the Be- 
ginning of a New Period of War (1 846-1 856). The 
Palmerstonian Regime and the End of an Epoch 
(1857-1865) 676 

LIII. A New Era in Democracy. The Political Rivalry of 

Gladstone and Disraeli (1 765-1 880) . . . .697 

LIV. The Two Last Decades of Victoria's Reign (1880-1901) 712 

LV. Victorian and Post- Victorian England . . . .727 

LVI. Sketch of the Reign of Edward VII (1901-1910) and of 

the Early Years of George V (1910-1914) . . 752 

LVII. A Century of the Development of Greater Britain . 761 

LVIII. British Foreign Relations with Particular Reference 
to Germany and the Causes of the World War (1870- 
i9 J 4) 799 

LIX. Britain and Greater Britain in the World War (1914- 

1918), Part I 832 

LX. Britain and Greater Britain in the World War (1914- 

1918), Part II 865 



MAPS 

Modern England and Wales Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Roman Britain . . . . , . .-. . . . • . 12 

England to Illustrate the Germanic Settlements 22 

Possessions of the House of Anjou 7 2 

Scotland in the Reign of Edward I 112 

England to Illustrate the Wars of the Roses 172 

Ireland after 1603 324 

England to Illustrate the Civil Wars 33° 

Scotland after 1603 334 

Spain to Illustrate the Peninsular War 604 

Africa in 1910 . 77^ 

India in 1857 786 

The British Empire in 1914 794 

The War Area of Western Europe, 1914-1918 836-837 

INSETS 

Gallipoli, 191 5 842 

The British Advance in Asiatic Turkey, 191 8 899 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 

RULERS OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 
INTRODUCTION 

TABLE PAGE 

I. Rulers of Anglo-Saxon England, 802-1066 xv 

II. The Anglo-Norman Kings, 1066-1 154 ...... xv 

III. The Earlier Angevin Kings, 1 154-1272 xvi 

IV. The Later Angevins or Plantagenets, 1272-1399 .... xvi 
V. The Houses of York and Lancaster xvii 

VI. The House of Tudor xvii 

VII. The Stuarts xviii 

VIII. The House of Hanover xviii 

RELATED FAMILIES AND CLAIMANTS 

IX. The Beauforts and the Tudors xix 

X. The Greys and the Seymours xix 

XI. The Howards xx 

XII. The Exiled Stuarts xx 

XIII. The Kings of Scotland, 1066-1603 xxi 

XIV. Kings of France xxii 

List of Prime Ministers from Walpole to Lloyd George . . xxv 



xm 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 

i 

RULERS OF ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, 802-1066 

Egbert, 802-839 
Ethelwulf, 839-858 



Ethelbald, 
858-860 



Athelstan, 925-940 



Ethelbert, 
860-866 



Ethelred I 

866-871. 



Ethelwald 



Alfred, 
871-901 

_l 



I 
Edmund I, 940-946 



Edward the Elder, 901-925 

I 

1 

Edred, 946-955 



Edwy, 955-959 



Edgar, 959-975 



Edward 

the Martyr, 

975-979 



Ethelred the Unready = (i) Elgiva; (2) Emma=CANUTE, 1016-1035 



979-1016 



of Normandy 



I I 

Harold I Hardicanutb 

1035-1040 (Emma's son), 

1040-1042 

Godwine, Earl of Wessex, 
d. 1053 

I 



(1) Edmund Ironside, (2) Edward the Confessor = Edith, Harold II, 
1016 1042-1066 d. 1075 d. 1066 

I 

1 



Edmund, d. 1050 



Edgar Atheling, d. 11 20 



Edward, d. 1057 
I 



Margaret, d. io93=Malcolm Canmore, d. 1096 



Matilda, d. 11 18 = Henry I, d. 1135 



II 

THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS, 1066-1154 

William the Conqueror = Matilda of Flanders 
1 066- 1 08 7 



Robert, Duke 

of Normandy, 

d. 1125 



William, 
d. 1 134 



William Rufus, 
1087-1100 



Henry = Matilda 
1100-1135 d. 1118 



William, 
d. 1120 



Adela = Stephen of 
Blois 



Matilda = (1) Emperor 



d. 1 167 



Henry V 
(2) Geoffrey 
of Anjou 



Stephen, 
H35-II54 



Robert of 
Gloucester 



Henry, 

Bishop of 

Winchester 



(2) Henry II, 
1 1 54-1 189 



Illegitimate. 

XV 



XVI 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



III 



THE EARLIER ANGEVIN KINGS, 1154-127* 



Henry 11= 
1154-1189 



= Eleanor of Guienne, d. 1204, 
divorced wife of Louis VII 



Henry, 
d. 1 183 



Richard I, 
1189-1199 



Geoffrey = Constance 
d. 1 186 I of Brit- 



tany 



John = Isabella Eleanor 
1 199- of An- 
12 16 goul&ne 



Arthur, 
d. 1203 



Henry III = Eleanor of 



1216-1272 



Provence 



Joan, 

m. Alexander II 

of Scotland 



Eleanor, 

m. Simon de 

Montfort 



Edward I, 
1272-1307 



Edmund Crouchback, 
d. 1295 



Margaret, 

m. Alexander IH 

of Scotland 



Richard, 

Kin ' of the 

Romans, 

d. X27I 



IV 



THE LATER ANGEVINS, OR THE PLANTAGENETS, 1272-1399 
Henry III, 1216-1272 



Edward I = (i) Eleanor of 



1272-1307 



Castile ; 
(2) Margaret 
of France 



Margaret, 

m. Alexander III 

of Scotland 



Edmund (Crouchback) 
Earl of Lancaster 



(1) Edward 11= Isabella of 
France 



Edward III 
1327-1377 



Philippa of 
Hainault 



(2) Edmund, 
Earl of Kent, 
executed 1330 



Joan, m. 

(1) Sir T.Holland; 

(2) The Black Prince 



Thomas, 

Earl of 

Lancaster, 

d. 1322 



Henry, 

Earl of 

Lancaster, 

d. 134S 



Henry, 

Duke of 

Lancaster, 

d. 1362 



Blanche = John of Gaunt 



Edward = Joan of 
Black 
Prince, 
d. 1376 



Kent 



Lionel, 
Duke of 
Clarence 



John of = Blanche, 
Gaunt, heiress of 
d. 1399 Lancaster 



RxCHARD II, 
1377-1399 



Edmund, 

Duke of 

York 



Thomas, 

Duke of 

Gloucester; 

<Li397 



Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, 
d. 1380 

Roger, Earl of March, declared 
heir of Richard II, in 1385 ; 
killed in Ireland, 1398 



Henry IV, 
1399-1413 



Second surviving son. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



XVll 



THE HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER 
• Edward III, 1327-1377 

I 



Lionel, 
Duke of Clarence 
(2d son), d. 1368 



Edmund, 

Duke of York 

(4th son), d. 1401 



Philippa = 
d. 1381 



Edmund Mortimer, 
Earl of March 
(great-grand- 
son of Roger 
Mortimer, who 
was executed 
1330) 



Elizabeth, 
m. Henry 
Hotspur 



Roger, 

Earl of March, 

killed 1398 

I 



Henry V, 
1413-1422 



Henry VI, 
1422-1461 



John of Gaunt = Blanche of Lancaster 

(3d son), 



d. 1399 



Henry IV, 
1399-1413 



Thomas, 

Duke of 

Clarence, 

killed 142 1 



I I ! 

Edmund, Anne= Richard, 

Earl of March, I Earl of Cambridge, 

d. 1424 executed 1415 

Richard, Duke of York, 
killed at Wakefield, 1460 



John, Humphrey, 

Duke of Duke of 

Bedford, Gloucester, 

d. 1435 d. 1446 



Edward, 

Duke of York 

(elder son), 

killed at Agincourt, 1415 



Edward IV, 
1461-1483 

I 



George, Duke of Clarence, 
executed 1478 



Edward V, 
1483 



I 
Richard, Duke of York 



Richard III, 
1483-^485 



Elizabeth = Henry VII 



VI 



THE HOUSE OF TUDOR 



Arthur, 
d. 1502 



Mary, 
^553-1558 



Henry VII, 1485-1509 ■ 
great-great-grandson 
of John of Gaunt, by 
his mother, Margaret 
Beaufort 



Henry VIII, 
1509-1547' 



Elizabeth, 
155S-1603 



Margaret, 
m. James IV 
of Scotland 



Edward VI, 
1547-1553 



Elizabeth of York, 
daughter of 
Edward IV 



Mary 



(1) Louis XII of France, 
d. 1515 ' 

(2) Charles Brandon, 

Duke of Suffolk 



1 Believed to have been murdered in the Tower, 1483. 



XV111 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



VII 

THE STUARTS 

James l' = Anne of Denmark, 
1603-1625 I d. 1619 

I 



Henry, 
d. 1612 



Charles I, 
1625-1649 

I 



Elizabeth 
d. 1662 



Charles II, 
1660-1685 



James 
(the old 
Pretender), 
b. 1688, 
d. 1765 



I 

Prince Rupert, 

d. 1682 



James II, 

1685-1688, 

d. 1701 

I 



Mary =• William 



d. 1660 



I 

Anne, 

1702-1714 



of 

Orange, 

d. 1650 



Mary = William III, 
1688-1694 1688-1702 



Frederick 

of the 
Palatinate 



Prince Maurice, 
d. 1652 



VIII 



Sophia = Elector of Hanover 
d. 1714 I 

George I, 
1714-1727 

George II 



George II, 
1727-1760 



THE HOUSE OF HANOVER 
George I, 17 14-1727 



Frederick 

Prince of Wales, 

d. 1751 



Augusta of 
Saxe-Gotha 



William, Duke 

of Cumberland, 

d. 1765 



George 111 = Sophia Charlotte of 
1760-1820 I Mecklenburg-Strelitz 



1 

Sophia = Frederick William I, 
King of Prussia, 
1 7 13-1740 

Frederick the Great, 
1 740-1 786 



George IV, 
1820-1830 



Princess Charlotte, 
d. 1817 



William IV, 
1830-1837 



Frederick, 

Duke of York, 

d. 1827 



Victoria = Albert of Saxe-Coburg, 
1837-1901 I d. 1861 



Edward, 

Duke of Kent, 

d. 1820 



Victoria = Frederick, 



German Emperor, 
March-June, 1888 



William II, 

German Emperor, 

1888 



Albert Edward, 

Edward VII, 

1901-1910 



1 

Alfred, 
Duke of 

Edinburgh, 
d. 1900 



George V= 
1910 



= Princess Mary of 
Teck 



Arthur, 

Duke of 

Con naught 



Leopold, 
Duke of 
Albany, 
d. 1884 



Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David 
1 See Table XIII. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES xix 



RELATED FAMILIES AND CLAIMANTS 



IX 

THE BEAUFORTS AND THE TUDORS 

John of Gaunt 1 = Katharine Swynford 

I 

John, Earl of Somerset, d. 1410 Henry, Cardinal Beaufort, d. 1447 



Katherine of France = Owen Tudor John, Duke of 

Somerset, d. 1444 

Edmund Tudor = Margaret 

Earl of Richmond 

Henry VII, 
1485-1509 



X 



THE GREYS AND THE SEYMOURS 

Henry VII, 1485-1509 

I 



Henry VIII, Margaret = James IV Mary = (2) Charles Brandon 



1 509-1 547 of Scotland 

(1) Louis XII 
of France 



Duke of 
Suffolk 



Frances^ Henry Grey, 

Marquis of Dorset 

and Duke of 

Suffolk 



Jane Grey = Guilford Dudley Catherine Grey = Edward Seymour, 

I Earl of 

Hertford 

I 

Edward Seymour, 

Lord Beauchamp, 

d. 1612 

I 

1 1 

Edward, William, 

d. 1618 afterward 

2d Duke of 
Somerset 
(1588-1660), 
m. Arabella 
Stuart 
1 For first wife, see Table V 



XX 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



XI 



THE HOWARDS 

John Howard, created Duke of Norfolk, 
killed at Bosworth, 1485 

I 

Thomas, Earl of Surrey, 

victor at Flodden, 1513, Duke of Norfolk, 1514, d. 1524 



Thomas, 


1 
Edmund 


1 
William, 


1 
Elizabeth = Thomas 


Duke of 


1 . 


created Lord 


1 Boleyn 


Norfolk, 


Katherine. 


Howard of 


1 


d. 1554 


m. Henry VIII, 


Effingham 


Anne Boleyn, 
m. Henry VIII, 




executed, 1542 


1 


1 




Charles, 


executed, 1536 


Henry, Earl 




commander 




of Surrey, 




against the 


Queen Elizabeth, 


beheaded, 1547 

1 




Armada, 1588, 
created Earl 


1558-1603 


Thomas, Duke 




of Nottingham, 




of Norfolk, 




1590, d. 1624 




beheaded, 1572 









XII 



Charles II 



THE EXILED STUARTS 

Charles I 

I 



James II 

James Francis 

Edward, 

James III 

the Old Pretender, 

d. 1765, 



Charles Edward, 

Charles III, 

The Young Pretender, 

d. 1788 



Henry, 

Cardinal of 

York, 

d. 1807 



Henrietta 



Anne 



Philip of Orleans, 
brother of 
Louis XIV 

Victor Amadeus, 

Duke of Savoy, 

1st King of 

Sardinia 



Charles Emmanuel III, 
King of Sardinia, 
d. 1773 

Victor Amadeus III, 
d. 1796 

Victor Emmanuel IH, 
d. 1824 



Mary = Francis IV, 
d. 1840 I Duke of Modena 

Ferdinand = Archduchess Elizabeth of Austria 

Mary Theresa 1 = Ludwig, King of Bavaria, i9f{$ 

Rupert 

Luitpold 
1 Mary IV, the present head of the House of Stuart. 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



XXI 



XIII 

THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND, 1066-1603 
Duncan I 



Duncan I, 
1093 



Malcolm. 
1153-1165 



Malcolm III = Margaret, 
1058-1093 I d. 1093 



I 
Donald Bane, 1094-1097 



Edgar, 
1097-1107 



Alexander I. 
1107-1124 



! 

Matilda, 

d. 1118, 

m. Henry I, 

d. ii3S 



David I, 
1124-1153 



Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, d. n 52 

I 



I 
William the Lion, 1165-1214 

I 
Alexander II, 12 14-1249 

I 
Alexander III, 1 249-1 286 

1 — ! : — 

Margaret = Eric, King of 
-I Norway 



Margaret, Maid of 
Norway, 1 286-1 290 



David, Earl of Huntingdon 

I 



Margaret 

I 
Devorguilla =■ John Balliol 



Margaret 



John Comyn, 
murdered 



John Balliol, 1 
1292-1296 

Edward Balliol 



Isabella 

I 

Robert Bruce, 

d. 1295 

I 
Robert, 
d. 1305 

Robert I, 
1306-1329 

J 



I 
David Bruce, m. Joan, 
sister of Edward II, 
1329-1370 



Margaret = Walter the Steward 
I or Stuart, ancestor 
of the Stuart line 

Robert II, 1370-1390 

I 



Robert III, 1390- 1406 

James I = Jane Beaufort 
1406-1437I 

James II, 1437-1460 

I 
James III, 1460-1488 

I , 

( 1 ) James IV = Margaret Tudor = Earl of Angus 
1488-1513 I 

James V, Margaret = Earl of Lenox 
1513-1542 I 

Mary, Queen of Scots = Lord Darnley, 
1 542-1 567 I murdered 1567 

James VI of Scotland 

and I of England, 

1567-1625 



Robert, Duke of Albany, 
d. 1420 



Charles, 
Earl of Lenox 

Arabella Stuart 



Claimants in 1292. 



XX11 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



XIV 

KINGS OF FRANCE 

Hugh Capet, 987-996 

Robert I, 996-1031 

I 
Henry I, 1031-1060 

Philip I, 1060-1108 

I 
Louis VI, 1108-1137 

Louis VII, 1137-1180 

Philip II (Augustus), 1180-1223 

Louis VIII, 1223-1226 (invader of England, 1216) 

(Saint) Louis IX, 1226-12 70 

Philip III, 1270-1285 



1 

Philip IV (the Fair). 1285-1314 
1 


Charles of Valois 

1 - 


3 VI, 
i3So 

f II, 


1 
Louis X. 
1314-1316 


Philip V, Charles IV, 
1316-1322 1322-1328 


Isabella, Phild 
m. Edward II 1328- 
1 
Edward III Joh> 


John I, d. 1316 




Joan, Queen of Navarre 

1 

Charles the Bad 


1350-1364 




Charles V, 1364-1380 

1 


1 

Philip. Duke of Burgundy, 

d. 1404 


Charles VI, 

1380-1422 

1 

Charles VII, 

1422-1461 

1 

Louis XI, 

1461-1483 

1 

Charles VIII, 

1483-1498 




Louis 
murdei 

Charles, Du 

captured 1 

grandf 

Loui 

1498 


Orleans, 

ed, 1407 

te of Orleans, 
it Agincourt, 
ather of 
s XII, 

-1515 


1 

John, Duke of Burgundy, 

murdered, 1419, 

at Montereau 

1 

Philip, Duke of Burgundy, 

d. 1467 

1 

Charles (the Bold), 

Duke of Burgundy, 

d. 1477, 

m. Margaret, 

sister of Edward IV 



Claude = Francis I, 1515-1547, a great-grandson of Louis of Orleans 



Henry 11 = Catharine de' Medicis 
I547-IS49 ! 



Francis II, 


1 
Charles IX, 


1 
Henry III, 


1 
Francis, 


1 
Margaret = 


Henry IV 


1 559-1 560, 


1560-1574 


1 5 74-i 589 


Duke of 




(Henry of Navarre), 


m. Mary 




suitor of 


Alencon, 




1589-1610, a de- 


Queen of 




Queen 


suitor of 




scendant of Robert, 


Scots 




Elizabeth 


Queen 
Elizabeth 




son of St. Louis, 
(1226-1270) 



Marie 

de 
Medicis 



GENEALOGICAL TABLES 



xxiil 



Louis XIV, 
1643-1715 

Louis (dauphin), 
d. 1711 



Louis, 

Duke of Burgundy, 

d. 1712 

I 

Louis XV, 

1715-1774 

Louis (dauphin), 
d. 1765 



I 

Louis XVI, 

1 7 74-1 793 

Louis XVII, 

never reigned, 

ti- 1 795 



Louis XIII, 
1610-1643 



Philip, King of Spain, 
d. 1746 

I 



Ferdinand 
of Spain 



Louis XVIII, 
1815-1824 



Charles, 
King of Naples 



Charles X, 
1 824-1 830, 
abdicated. 
Grandfather 
of the Count 
de Chambord, 

who died 

without issue, 

1884 



I 
Philip. 
Duke of Orleans, 
d. 1710 
I 
Philip (Regent), 
d. 1723. 
Great-great-grand- 
father of 



Louis Philippe, 
1 830- 1 848 



Duke of 
Orleans, 
d. 1842 

Count de 
Paris, 
d. 1894 

Philip, 
Duke of Orleans 



Duke 

d'Aumak 



LIST OF PRIME MINISTERS FROM WALPOLE 
TO LLOYD GEORGE 

1721-1742 Sir Robert Walpole. 

1 742-1 743 Lord Wilmington. 

1 743-1 754 Henry Pelham. 

1754-1756 I. Duke of Newcastle. 

1 756-1 757 Duke of Devonshire. 

Real head, William Pitt 
Secretary of State. 

i757 - i7 02 II. Duke of Newcastle. 

Pitt Secretary of State till 1761. 

1762-1763 Earl of Bute. 

1 763-1 765 George Grenville. 

1 765-1 766 I. Marquis of Rockingham. 

1 766-1 770 Duke of Grafton. 

1770-1782 Lord North. 

March- July, 1782 II. Marquis of Rockingham. 

1 782-1 783 Earl of Shelburne. 

April-December, 1783 Coalition Ministry. 

Duke of Portland nominal Prime Minister. 
Real heads Fox and North. 

1 783-1801 I. William Pitt, the younger. 

1 801-1804 Henry Addington (Viscount Sidmouth). 

1804-1806 II. William Pitt. 

1806-1807 "All the Talents." 

Lord Grenville and Fox, d. September, 1806. 

1807-1809 II. Duke of Portland. 

1809-1812 Spencer Perceval. 

1812-1827 Lord Liverpool. 

April-August, 1827 George Canning. 

1827-1828 Lord Goderich. 

1828-1830 Duke of Wellington. 

1830-1834 Lord Grey. 

July-November, 1834 I. Lord Melbourne. 

1834-1835 I. Sir Robert Peel. 

1835-1841 II. Lord Melbourne. 

1841-1846 II. Sir Robert Peel. 

1846-185 2 I. Lord John Russell. 

February-December, 1852 I. Lord Derby. 

1852-1855 Lord Aberdeen. 

1855-1858 I. Lord Palmerston. 

1858-1859 II. Lord Derby. 

1859-1865 II. Lord Palmerston. 

1 865-1866 II. Lord John Russell. 

1866-1868 III. Lord Derby. 

February-December, 1868 . . . I. Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield). 

1868-1874 I. William E. Gladstone.. 

1874-1880 II. Disraeli. 

xxv 



xxvi LIST OF PRIME MINISTERS, WALPOLE TO LLOYD GEORGE 

1880-1885 II. Gladstone. 

1885-1886 I. Marquis of Salisbury. 

February-July, 1886 III. Gladstone. 

1886-1892 '. II. Salisbury. 

1802-1891 IV. Gladstone. 

1894-1895 Lord Rosebery (Earl of Midlothian). 

1895-1902 III. Salisbury. 

1 902-1905 Mr. Arthur Balfour. 

1905-1908 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. 

1908-1916 Mr. Herbert Henry Asquith. 

1916- .' Mr. David Lloyd George. 



A SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
AND GREATER BRITAIN 



A SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
AND GREATER BRITAIN 



CHAPTER I 

THE BRITISH ISLES: THEIR PHYSICAL FEATURES AND 
RESOURCES 

England and the British Empire. — England is the cradle and present 
center of the British Empire, an empire which covers a quarter of 
the land surface of the earth and includes a population of more than 
four hundred million souls. 1 This little country of England, with an 
area of about 50,000 square miles, barely larger than the state of 
New York, forms, together with Scotland and Wales, the island 
known as Great Britain. Ireland, lying to the west, is the only other 
important division of the United Kingdom, although the British 
Isles which compose it number no less than five thousand, with a 
total area of 1 20,000 square miles and a population of about 45,000,000. 
It will be the purpose of this history to trace the course of events 
by which England and the adjacent countries became the United 
Kingdom, and by which the United Kingdom has become the greatest 
sea power ever known, and has fashioned an empire with an extent 
of territory nearly a hundred and a population fully ten times its own. 

Climate and Distribution of Rainfall. — In this remarkable de- 
velopment climate has been especially important. Extreme cold is 
a serious obstacle to the production of those things on which man 
is dependent for his existence; extreme heat, on the other hand, 
checks active exertion by which character is developed and by which 
man is able to make the most of his surroundings. With respect to 
climate Great Britain has been especially fortunate. The summers 
are long enough to ripen the crops, while the winters are not too 
long or too severe seriously to interfere with outdoor occupations, 
agricultural pursuits can be carried on in many parts of the country 

1 At the last census before the Great War. 

B I 



2 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

throughout the year, and there is rarely snow or ice enough to inter- 
rupt communications. 

The moisture-laden winds from the southwest, which temper the 
climate, bring an abundance of rain which makes Ireland, Wales, 
and Scotland, and western England little suited for agriculture, 
though, in the case of England, the mountains, grouped and ranged 
along the western coast, modify and distribute the rainfall so that 
the greater part of the soil is well adapted for farming. 1 

Northern and Western England. — England proper is separated 
from Scotland by the indentation of the sea known as the Solway 
Firth, by the Cheviot Hills, and the Tweed River. There are two 
distinct divisions within the country itself, which might be marked 
by a line from the mouth of the Humber to the mouth of the Severn 
and thence down to the shores of the English Channel. North and 
west the country consists of mountains and moorlands. For cen- 
turies, this western country, given over mostly to sheep pasture, 
lay remote and backward, compared to the more favored districts 
south and east. Yet, even in early times, the mountains were serv- 
ing their country well : the Pennines, running south from the Scotch 
border to the heart of the Midland country, formed a protecting 
wedge which served to split the waves of barbarian invasion and to 
prevent them from inundating the English plain. Furthermore, 
aside from regulating the distribution of moisture, the western moun- 
tains have determined the course and the nature of the important 
rivers — by giving them long, gentle slopes they have admirably 
adapted them for commerce and irrigation, in striking contrast to 
the short, precipitous torrents of Greece or of Wales and northern 
Scotland. Nor does the Pennine system isolate one part of the 
country from the other, for three canals run through it east and west. 
With the discovery of the use of steam in manufacturing, the Pen- 
nine range was found to contain vast stores of mineral wealth; in 
consequence the neighboring region has become the center of indus- 
trial England, and the once solitary mountain sides and vast stretches 
of moorland are now studded with smoking, busy cities and swarm 
with life. Little places, once mere villages, grew to be teeming 
centers of population. Manchester, for instance, which now has 
over a million inhabitants, and is the chief seat of the cotton manu- 
facture, numbered, as late as 1776, only 27,000. Leeds is the head- 
quarters for the production of wool, and Birmingham and Sheffield 

1 Even the extremely wet regions of the western midlands are not without their 
advantages, since a dryer climate which makes the threads brittle would be a great 
obstacle to cotton manufacture. 



THE BRITISH ISLES : PHYSICAL FEATURES AND RESOURCES 3 

for iron and steel, while along the banks of the Clyde, the Tyne, 
the Wear, and the Tees are shipyards which supply not only Great 
Britain, but many other parts of the world. The Cumbrian group 
of mountains, unlike the Pennine range, is of little industrial impor- 
tance. The native population is scanty, and sheep raising is the chief 
occupation, though, owing to the beauty of the scenery, the district 
is a center for tourists as well as for summer homes, and the lakes 
furnish a water supply for many of the cities farther south. The 
mountains of Cornwall, on the other hand, contain rich deposits 
of lead and tin, especially the latter, which have been worked for 
centuries. 

Southeastern England. — The structure of southeast England is 
markedly different from that of the north and the west. It is pre- 
vailingly a plain varied with hills or uplands of limestone and chalk. 
In earlier times this southeastern country was the most prosperous 
and progressive section of England — it was the district earliest 
settled, and its soil was the most fruitful in the land, enabling people 
to live closer together than in the more barren north. Thus they 
were better able to exchange ideas and had more means and leisure 
for education; more important still, they were in closest communi- 
cation with the Continent whither the medieval Englishman looked 
for trade, knowledge, fashions, and ideas. The Industrial Revolu- 
tion of the late eighteenth century changed all this and, with the 
exception of London, the center of progress and ideas has shifted 
to the Midland country. 

Internal Communication. — Before the Romans introduced their 
excellent road system, a system to which many of the European 
highways of the present day owe their origin, Britain was largely a 
land of tangled forests and impassable marshes, with the ridgeways 
and the rivers forming almost the sole means of communication. 
But, even with the advent of roads and railways, the rivers are still 
of great importance ; they furnish irrigation for the soil, they are 
utilized to provide power for mills and factories, and, together with 
the canals which they supply, they continue to serve as a cheap and 
convenient means of transportation. 

English River Systems. — There are three great systems : the 
Eastern, flowing mainly into the North Sea ; the Southern, emptying 
into the English Channel ; and the Western, which finds its chief out- 
let in the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea. Taken as a whole the 
eastern system is the most important. Proceeding from north to 
south the first is the Tweed, famous for the cloth manufacture along 
its banks ; the Tyne has for its chief port Newcastle, a great center 



4 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for the distribution of mining products ; while the Humber is fed by 
the Ouse and the Trent, which with their tributaries bring the prod- 
ucts of a large and wealthy district to Hull, the leading port of north- 
eastern England. The Thames is the largest river of England and the 
chief waterway across the south country ; the harbor at its mouth is 
the finest in the whole kingdom ; hence, in spite of the fact that the 
center of industry has shifted to the North, London is still the leader 
in imports and second only to Liverpool in exports. The rivers of 
the southern group are relatively short and unimportant. On the 
west two rivers call for special notice. The Severn, rising in the 
Welsh mountains, sweeps round to the east and south in the form of a 
bow widening at the end of its course into the Bristol Channel. Bris- 
tol, its chief port, rose to consequence as a result of the discovery of 
America. Yet, save for a small amount of wool manufacturing, the 
districts lying behind are mainly agricultural ; therefore, Bristol had 
long ago to yield its preeminence as a port to Liverpool on the Mersey, 
situated in the center of a district rich in manufacturing, mining 
products, and pasture lands. 

Importance of British Insularity. — There was a time when the 
British Isles formed a part of the neighboring continent of Europe. 
The watery barrier, which has existed since England began to have a 
history, has been a significant element in shaping her destiny. It 
has kept her out of reach of her greedy and powerful neighbors, thus 
enabling her to maintain her independence, to preserve her energies 
free for commercial and colonial expansion, and to develop her ways 
of thinking, manners, customs, and system of government in her 
own way. In early times when the population was scanty and means 
of resistance unorganized, peoples from the Continent forced their 
way in ; but never since the eleventh century has there been any serious 
danger from this source. At the same time, the country has not 
been too remote to feel the influence of the great Continental move- 
ments such as the Crusades, the Revival of Learning, the Reformation, 
and the French Revolution, though most of them had spent their 
force when they reached her shores, and hence took a very individual 
form. 

World Position and World Trade. — A glance at a map of the globe 
will show how centrally the British are situated with respect to the two 
great continents of Europe and America and will help to explain 
British leadership in commerce. Indeed, one fifth of their present 
exports consists of things produced by other countries and distributed 
by British ships ; wool from Australia is carried to Germany, France, 
and the United States and, in the same way, French silks are con- 



THE BRITISH ISLES: PHYSICAL FEATURES AND RESOURCES 5 

veyed to Australia. Likewise, the raw cotton from America, India, 
and Egypt passes through British ports on its way to the Continent 
of Europe, while most of the Oriental goods destined for the United 
States are handled in the same manner. With the further advantage 
of excellent harbors and a most accessible coast, her seaports naturally 
grew to be important commercial centers — Newcastle, Hub", and 
London on the east, — Bristol, Liverpool, and, more recently, Glasgow 
on the west. 

England as a Producing Power. — But England is not only a dis- 
tributing power, she is a producing, a manufacturing power as well. 
Here, too, physical conditions have been most favorable. Her soil 
is well adapted for sheep raising, and sheep furnished not only food, 
but the material for clothes ; then with the introduction of machinery 
her vast stores of iron and coal were extensively developed for manu- 
facturing. The great productiveness of the country led to an over- 
flow of population, this led to colonization, and the colonies in their 
turn created new markets. 

Wales. — The rocky coast, the rugged mountainous surface, and 
the excessive moisture of the climate make Wales of little value for 
agriculture, while the barriers to communication and the prevailing 
wildness produced a people fierce, independent, and disunited, who 
fought not only against England, but among themselves. At the 
same time, the beauty of the scenery tended to foster a romantic 
imagination and a school of bards who sang with rare beauty and 
exaltation of sentiment. The country was transformed by the In- 
dustrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and 
now derives its chief wealth from its mineral products, coal, iron, 
copper, lead, zinc, slate, limestone. Cardiff is a busy town noted 
for its export of coal and iron and for its docks. The coal of the 
Black Mountains is famous for its smelting and Swansea is, perhaps, 
the chief center in the world for this industry, while the Cambrian 
range 1 is rich in slate quarries. But the industrial area is limited and 
the stretches of mountain districts, though they charm the tourist, re- 
duce the average of population and wealth. Scarcely more than half 
the country is under cultivation and its total population is less than 
2,000,000, not greatly exceeding that of Manchester and its adjoining 
towns. 

Scotland. — Taken as a whole, Scotland is still less adapted for 
agriculture than Wales, only a fourth of its soil being devoted to that 
purpose. In the olden time, when men depended largely upon that 
form of livelihood, the country was indeed badly off. The northern 

1 Not to be confused with the Cumbrian. 



6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Highlands, bounded by a rugged coast and stormy seas, a country of 
rugged mountains and remote inaccessible glens, sheltered a race fiery 
and turbulent who eked out a scanty support from hunting, fishing, 
and sheep raising, by cattle forays in which they plundered their 
neighbors, Scot and Englishman alike. At the present time this 
district lives largely off the hordes of tourists and sportsmen attracted 
by the wild beauty of the scenery and its preserves of fish and game. 
The country to the south, known as the Lowlands, is inhabited by 
people of quite another type — thrifty, industrious, and austere, 
touched, nevertheless, by strains of wild enthusiasm and poetic im- 
pulse. The southern Lowlands, or " Border," consists mainly of hill 
and moorland adapted for little but sheep raising, though it is as 
rich in historical association and romantic legend as it is poor in re- 
sources. In course of time, manufactures developed along the Tweed ; 
but Scotland's greatest industrial gifts are centered farther north in 
the Lowland plain between the Border and the Highlands. The 
Firtk of Forth on the east, and the Firth of Clyde on the west, furnish 
excellent harbors ; a line of communication has been carried straight 
across the country by a canal joining the two bodies of water, and the 
neighboring districts are rich in mineral deposits. This combination 
of industrial resources and commercial facilities has led to a great 
development in manufacturing. The Clyde is the center of the world's 
shipbuilding and Glasgow, on its banks, is the second city in the 
United Kingdom. 

Ireland. — England's early treatment of Ireland has done much 
to make her people miserable and unquiet ; but much has been due 
to natural disadvantages. Her hills and mountains, though they 
encircle the coast, are too low to modify perceptibly the abundant 
rains brought by the ocean winds, and contribute rather to drain water 
into the central plain. With an average of over two hundred rainy 
days in the year much of the soil is too wet for agriculture and there 
are places which are mere bog and marsh. Ireland's mineral resources 
also are scanty ; the coal is of poor quality, and, mainly in the southern 
county of Kilkenny, is separated from the chief deposits of iron which 
are in Antrim in the extreme northeast. Commercially, too, the coun- 
try has been unfortunate ; England lies in a position to intercept its 
Continental trade, many of its best harbors are to the west and north, 
where, at least in early times, they did little good, and there is only one 
navigable river. Dublin, the capital, and Belfast, noted for its linen 
manufactures and its shipbuilding, are the only towns of any consid- 
erable size. Conditions, however, are favorable to pastoral pursuits, 
and, relative to its population, Ireland raises more live stock than any 



THE BRITISH ISLES: PHYSICAL FEATURES AND RESOURCES 7 

other country of Europe. Ireland's cattle trade, however, has been 
seriously affected by improved methods of transportation which has 
made American and Australian competition possible ; but, since the 
end of the last century, a growing industry has been developed in sup- 
plying England with poultry and dairy produce. What with the new 
activities, cooperative banks, and cooperative farming the country 
has been more prosperous in the last decade than ever before, though 
the political situation is still very troubled. 

General Summary. — While Ireland has been to some degree an 
unfortunate exception, Great Britain, in general, has been greatly 
favored by nature in attaining the preeminent position she now 
occupies. She enjoys the advantage of a mild and even climate, of a 
central geographical position, a coast line safe and accessible, of 
mountains stored with minerals and situate4 so as to regulate the 
rainfall and to form rivers adapted to internal communications. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 1 

J. R. Green, A Short Geography of the British Isles (1903) ; the best de- 
scription for historical purposes, but the tables of population are out of 
date. G. G. Chisholm, Handbook of Commercial Geography (8th ed. 191 5). 
A. C. Ramsay, Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain (1894). 
H. C. Mackinder, Britain and the British Seas (1892) ; the most recent work 
on the physical characteristics of the British Isles. A. Geikie, Landscape 
in History (1905). H. B. George, The Relations of Geography and History 
(1901). 

1 The editions are those accessible to the writer, preferably the most recent. 



CHAPTER II 
THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 

Means of Studying Primitive Peoples. — Far away in the dim past 
Britain was inhabited by men now extinct ; since no written records 
tell what they did and^ how they lived, their times are known as the 
pre-historic. It is beyond our power to reconstruct any account of 
this period; but certain sciences throw some light on the physical 
characteristics of these ancient men, their conditions and customs, 
and the successive stages of their development. Archaeology teaches 
much from a study and classification of the relics of tools, weapons, 
and places of habitation ; from human remains, anthropology attempts 
to determine what manner of men they were and their race relation- 
ships; the strata in which such remains have been found enables 
geology to suggest information as to the relative age in which they 
lived ; while, from such vestiges of their language as have survived, 
philology helps to determine their degree of culture and the other 
groups of people with whom they may have associated. 

Paleolithic Men of the River Drift. — Ages ago, when Britain was 
still a part of the Continent, the earliest men appeared. Few, if any, 
remains of them in this period have been discovered, and none in 
Britain ; but rude, unground weapons of chipped flint, unprovided 
with handles, found in the deposits of ancient rivers prove that they 
ranged over a wide territory from India on the east, northern Africa 
on the south, to Britain on the west. From the form and size of their 
implements and the places where they have been discovered, scholars 
conclude that they were a small race of nomad hunters, too rude to 
polish their weapons or to build themselves habitations, dwelling 
chiefly along the banks of rivers. They belonged to the most primi- 
tive type, the earliest stage of civilization, the old stone or paleolithic 
age. 

Paleolithic Men of the Caves. — In course of time they gave way 
to a new race, still in the old stone age ; for their weapons, though they 
had handles, were still of unpolished stone. While they had no do- 



THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 9 

mestic animals and knew nothing of agriculture, they represented a 
distinctly higher type than their predecessors. Their arrowheads 
were of flint ; but they formed harpoon heads of antlers, they made 
needles of bone and fashioned themselves clothes of skins sewed with 
reindeer sinews. They constructed bird snares, and speared fish with 
their barbed harpoons; they knew how to strike fire from flint and 
boiled water by means of hot stones ; moreover, they possessed a rare 
artistic faculty, carving pictures of animals and hunting scenes with 
great accuracy and spirit. 

The Neolithic Men. — After another long interval the men of the 
old stone age gave place to the men of the new. Their weapons, still 
of stone, were more skillfully fashioned and were ground and polished 
to give them a smoother surface and a keener cutting edge. The new 
race, understanding the rudiments of navigation, crossed the watery 
barrier in canoes, some at least forty feet in length, bringing with 
them domestic animals, horses, short-horned cattle, sheep, dogs, 
goats, and pigs. They did not dwell in caves, but constructed dwellings 
by hollowing out circular pits under ground with an opening at the 
surface to admit light and air. They buried their dead in long ellip- 
tical barrows or mounds, numbers of which still exist, that they con- 
structed by planting stones upright in the ground, by laying others 
across their tops, and covering the chamber thus formed with earth. 
The builders indicated their belief in a future life by burying tools 
and weapons with the departed, that they might have them for use 
in the other world. Their remains show these neolithic people to 
have been of small stature with so-called dolichocephalic skulls — 
long in proportion to their breadth. 1 

The " Celtic " Invaders. — The men of the new stone age were, 
in course of time, overcome by a fair-haired people who were much 
larger and stronger of body and were round headed or brachycephalic. 
The race of these invaders and the place of their origin has never been 
determined with any certainty. 2 Starting, it would seem, from the 
eastern part of the plain of Central Europe the new peoples, whom it 
has been customary to group together as Celts, poured westward in 
successive waves, the first of which must have reached Britain fully 

1 Folk of this physical type more diluted, fragments of their speech, and some of 
their superstitions still survive in western England, and in Wales, parts of Scotland, 
and Ireland. 

1 It was formerly the practice to call them the Celts and to assert that they 
formed a branch of a great family composed of the Greeks, Romans, Teutons, and 
Slavs in Europe and the Medes, Persians, and Hindus in Asia — a family to which 
the name Aryan or Indo-European was applied, but the view that there was such 
a family of peoples united by blood is no longer held. 



IO SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

a thousand years before the Christian era. Under the common name 
Celts are included no less than three groups of peoples who followed 
one another from the Continent. The first comers were the Goidels or 
Gaels, who were later pushed north and west, where their descendants 
still survive in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the west highlands of Scot- 
land. The Brythons, for whom they made way, are the ancestors of 
the modern Welshmen and of a portion of the inhabitants of the west 
coast of England. The rear guard of the Celtic bands was formed by 
a group of tribes known as the Belgae, who occupied the eastern and 
southern parts of the country till the Germans finally absorbed or 
destroyed some of them and drove the remainder to join their kins- 
men in the west. 

Sources of Information. — The Celts understood how to mix copper 
and tin to produce bronze — so superior to stone that its users have been ' 
placed a stage higher in the social scale than the stone men, and be- 
fore they were conquered by later comers they had reached a third 
stage in civilization by learning to employ iron in their industries. 
We are able to form some opinion about them and their manner of 
life from the abundant remains they have left, skeletons, burial 
places, habitations, tools, weapons, and ornaments ; moreover, 
since they survived into the time of written records, we learn 
further about them from inscriptions and accounts of old Greek 
and Roman writers. 1 

Religion. Druidism. — They worshiped the forces of nature as gods ; 
they created lesser divinities for particular localities, identifying each 
grove, stream, or spring with its appropriate guardian spirit, and 
peopled the land with fairies, dwarfs, and elves. Living in wild and 
unfriendly surroundings, in the midst of dense gloomy forests and 
treacherous, inaccessible fens, exposed to storm, thunder and lightning, 
their attitude was naturally one of wonder mingled with fear. Much 
of their worship, which included human sacrifices, was designed to 
placate the ferocious or malicious powers to which they were exposed. 
They believed in wishing wells and cursing stones, and the mistletoe, 
which still figures in our Christmas celebrations, they venerated for 
its miraculous properties. Very probably they borrowed from the 
stone men their priestly system and ceremonialism known as Druid- 
ism. The Druids were a highly privileged body who ranked with the 

1 The first certain historical notice of the island of Britain comes from Pytheas, 
a Greek mathematician and explorer sent out by the merchants of Marseilles about 
330 B.C. in the interests of trade development, and the fullest account is furnished 
by Caesar in his Gallic Wars, though these early writings are fragmentary at best 
and have to be pieced out by what we know of the Gauls. 



THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN II 

nobles and were exempt from all public burdens, who conducted the 
sacrifices, practiced magic, foretold the future, acted as judges, and 
were the custodians of learning, human and divine. 

Dwellings and Stone Circles. — The Celts lived in huts of wood, 
roughly or altogether unhewn, or of reeds woven together and plas- 
tered with mud or clay. These were often placed in marshes or lakes 
on piles or artificial platforms for purposes of defense. They burned 
their dead and deposited their remains in round instead of long 
barrows. But the most striking monuments that they have left are 
the great stone circles which they may have used as sepulchers, or 
possibly, as was formerly believed, for temples. Stonehenge at Old 
Sarum — near the present Salisbury — the most celebrated, now con- 
sists of a confused mass of huge bowlders, but in its original form it 
must have been a wonderful evidence of the skill and devotion of the 
builders. 

Characteristics. Social and Political Organization. — These old 
Celts were a rude, hardy folk, but hospitable and kind in their crude, 
boisterous way. Their serious occupation was war and their diversion 
rough games and immoderate eating and drinking. In the earliest 
times we find them tattooing or painting their bodies, a practice which 
long survived among the northern peoples, the Scots and the Cale- 
donians or Picts. 1 At first their only form of social and political or- 
ganization was the family, who chose their ablest male to lead them in 
war and to represent them in peace. As time went on, these families 
were united into tribes from which the most capable male member was 
selected as king. Their legal system was very primitive. They had 
no courts, as we understand the term, and their judges were merely 
umpires or arbitrators, who had no power to compel the acceptance of 
their decrees. 

Trade and Industry. — In their earliest intercourse the Celts used 
cattle and bars of iron and tin for standards of value ; but as early as 
200 B.C. they seem, in the southeast, to have had gold coins fashioned 
on Greek models. In the absence of roads they made use of rivers 
and the tops of ridges as trade routes. The Thames and the Severn 
were especially important. Their greatest trade was in tin which they 
carried from Cornwall overland to the southeast coast, thence in ships 
to the shores of Gaul. Besides tin they came to export cattle, hides, 
grain, and also slaves and huge dogs, the latter used by the Gauls in 
war and by the Romans for hunting. Their imports were chiefly 
manufactured articles of iron and bronze, cloth, and salt. But this 
does not mean that they did not manufacture, to some extent them- 
1 Probably from the Latin pictus, painted. 



12 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

selves. They were fond of bright colors, and we are told that they 
wore clothes of various hues, getting the dyestuff from the bark of 
trees. They excelled in enamel work and made many of the gold orna- 
ments which they wore, as well as the weapons and chariots which 
they used in war. 

Caesar in Britain 55 and 54 B.C. — During the course of his famous 
conquest of the Gauls, Julius Caesar determined to invade Britain. 
Late in August, 55 B.C., he set sail ; but, owing to the lateness of the 
season and the fear of the autumn gales, returned to Gaul, after a brief 
survey of the neighboring country and some skirmishes with the 
tribes round about, who made a vain effort to resist his landing. The 
ensuing winter was devoted to building ships and collecting men and 
supplies for another campaign. By July he was ready . This time he 
marched inland and forced a passage of the Thames by a ford above 
London which the British had sought to obstruct by driving sharpened 
stakes under the water and along the opposite bank. After im- 
pressing the native chieftains with his military prowess he again with- 
drew without attempting a permanent occupation. 

The Romans Secure a Foothold in Britain, 43 A.D. — Nearly a 
century elapsed before the Romans again took up the conquest of 
Britain. Caesar was henceforth fully occupied in other parts of the 
Empire, and so were his successors, or else they had no inclination to 
extend the Roman boundaries in the direction of Britain. A change 
came with the Emperor Claudius to whom a pretender fled for assist- 
ance, though he was ready to seize any pretext for an intervention in 
British affairs. He was a Gaul by birth, and so, interested in the con- 
cerns of that part of the country, while furthermore he was anxious 
to celebrate the triumph which always followed a Roman conquest, so 
he sent his general, Aulus Plautius, to Britain in the year 43 a.d., and 
even came over in person at the final stage of the campaign. Britain 
was made a province and Claudius got his triumph. Thus began an 
occupation which lasted nearly four hundred years. 

The Suppression of the Druids and the Insurrection of Boudicca. — 
The Druids were particularly active in opposing the extension of 
Roman influence. Solely from reasons of political necessity, for the 
Romans were usually fairly tolerant of other religions, the governor, 
Suetonius Paullinus, undertook the suppression of their order in the 
year 61 a.d. On his approach they took refuge in the little island of 
Mona (now Anglesey) off the Welsh coast. But there was no escape 
for them. The Roman soldiers " bore down upon them, smote all 
that opposed them to the earth," and destroyed their sacred grove. 
Meantime, events were happening in the east which forced Suetonius 




4 Longitude 3 from 2 Greenwich 1 B*3t 



& CO.,tNGR'SjN.Y. 



THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 13 

to hurry back toward London. The Roman government had become 
unbearable. Excessive levies and financial extortion on the part of 
capitalists and tax-gatherers stirred the righteous wrath of the Britons. 
The climax came when Boadicea or Boudicca, widow of a native chief, 
stung by injustice and injury, raised a revolt of her people and those 
round about, who were already charing under grievances. Camulo- 
dunum (Colchester), a colony of Roman veterans, was overcome and 
reduced to ashes, and Lundinium (London) and Verulamium (St. 
Albans) met a similar fate. Fully 70,000 Romans and their supporters 
are said to have been massacred. As the victorious Britons were re- 
turning from the destruction of Verulamium, Suetonius at length felt 
strong enough to strike. In a battle somewhere in the neighborhood 
of London he crushed the enemy and slaughtered numbers of a host 
of 80,000, including women and children who followed the army. 
Boudicca escaped her captors by taking poison. The vengeance of 
Suetonius was ruthless. " He made a desert, and called it a peace." 
Yet, in the long run, the uprising had the effect of softening the rigors 
of the Roman administration. 

Agricola. — Under the governors who followed, inaction alternated 
with military suppression till the advent of Agricola (78-84), whose rule 
marks the highest point of the Roman supremacy. He replaced 
uncertain and heavy burdens by just and equal assessments; did 
away with monopolies ; removed incompetent officials ; fostered ed- 
ucation and the use of the Latin language ; and encouraged building. 
Furthermore he extended the imperial sway far to the north, and se- 
cured the lines of the Tyne and Solway and Forth and Clyde by a 
series of forts. He even penetrated beyond the Tay and defeated the 
wild Caledonians on the threshold of the Highlands. His last achieve- 
ment, before his recall, was to send a fleet to circumnavigate the Island, 
thus for the first time determining its true geographical character. 

The Last Two Centuries of the Roman Occupation. — Under his 
successors little attempt was made to hold the line north of the Tyne 
and the Solway, 1 while during the last two centuries of the Roman 
occupation, Britain itself was in a very unsettled state and often proved 
a thorn in the flesh of the Empire. Under weak rulers there was 
disorder and confusion ; strong, ambitious governors, on the other 
hand, sought independence, or aimed to use the country as a basis 
of operations for seizing the imperial crown. Saxon and Frankish 

1 By the orders of the Emperor Hadrian this southern line of forts was reen- 
forced by a wall of turf. The remarkable stone wall usually known as "Hadrian's 
Wall" — parts of which still remain — was probably not built until the time of 
Septimius Severus, who came over in 208 a.d. 



14 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

pirates began to infest the eastern shore as early as the beginning of 
the third century, and, in the fourth, the northern Highlanders, now 
called Picts, reenforced by Scots coming originally from Ireland, 
became a constant menace to the border. To meet the pirates a new 
officer, the Count of the Saxon Shore, was created ; but the first two 
Counts used their position to set up an independent rule instead of 
protecting the coast. The Roman power was finally restored in 296 
by Constantius, father of the famous Emperor Constantine, founder 
of Constantinople. Meantime the Empire had been entirely reor- 
ganized under Diocletian (284-305). It was divided into four pre- 
fectures ; these again were subdivided into dioceses, Britain forming 
one diocese of the prefecture of Gaul. 

End of the Roman Occupation. — Even thus effectually reorganized 
the Empire was unable long to withstand the double strain of revolt 
from within and pressure from without. In 407 a pretender, who set 
himself up as Emperor, led the British legions into Gaul and, though 
he was overthrown, his troops were never marched back. The 
German barbarians had overrun the Empire. In 410 Alaric captured 
and sacked Rome. The Emperor Honorius bade the Britains hence- 
forth defend themselves ; they proved unequal to the task, and before 
the close of the century had to yield the greater part of their territory 
to the German tribes who swarmed across the Channel in constantly 
increasing numbers. 

General Nature and Advantages of the Roman Rule. — The Roman 
occupation left few enduring traces on the history and life of Britain. 
While the thoroughness of the later Teutonic conquest was largely 
responsible for this, it was, to some degree, due to the fact that few of 
the Latin stock came to found homes. The remoteness, the severe 
climate, the gloomy skies, and the turbulence of the people repelled 
colonists. Settlement was confined to soldiers, government officials, 
merchants and traders. The few who took up large estates worked 
them mainly by natives. However, the period of Roman rule was not 
without its advantages. For some time it furnished a fairly effective 
protection against external foes and held in check the warring tribes 
within. The concerns of the subject peoples were regulated by the 
Roman law, a fusion of principle and practice superior to anything the 
world had yet seen. The application of a uniform legal system made 
for unity. A decree of Caracala, in 212, conferring the privilege of 
Roman citizenship on all free-born provincials contributed powerfully 
to break down provincial differences in Britain as well as elsewhere. 
While the general administration was kept in Roman hands, the Brit- 
ons were given some training in local self-government by allowing them 



THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 15 

membership in the district councils which were intrusted with the 
building of temples, erecting fortifications, and laying out streets. 
Theaters were constructed, which in spite of their corrupting influence 
made for education and culture. Remains of museums, baths, public 
buildings, and private dwellings show how far they had progressed in 
the art of living and in the comforts of civilized life. Aqueducts 
provided many communities with an abundant water supply, and the 
Romans had a superior system of heating by means of hypocausts, or 
hollow pipes, heated from an arched fire chamber below. Commerce 
and industry throve, protected by peace and wise laws and fostered by 
the building of roads and the growth of cities. A network of roads, so 
skillfully constructed that they have survived to excite our wonder 
even in the present day, provided alike for communication, the trans- 
portation of troops, and for transaction of all kinds of government 
business, as well as for the distribution of wares. Most of these roads 
ran through London, whose importance as a commercial center was 
foreshadowed thus early. 

British Christianity. — One most significant result of the Roman 
occupation was the introduction of Christianity. Legends tell that 
the apostles Peter and Paul visited the land. A most beautiful story 
is that concerning Joseph of Arimathea who provided the sepulcher 
for Christ's burial ; it was believed that he fled to far-off Britain 
bringing the holy grail or the cup used at the Last Supper, that he 
founded the famous abbey of Glastonbury, marking the site by plant- 
ing his staff of thorn which grew into a tree and blossomed every 
Christmas morning in honor of the sacred day. But, much as these 
lovely and inspiring tales enrich our literature, it must be admitted 
that they rest on no historical foundation. Christianity was no doubt 
slowly introduced by Roman soldiers, merchants, and officials, and 
from the mission station in Gaul. The first evidence of any organized 
church is marked by the presence of three British bishops at a synod 
held at Aries in Gaul in 314 a.d. Within a century and a half the 
Teutons came and thrust a " wedge of heathendom " between the 
Christians of Britain and the Continent. During the long years when 
they were cut off from the mother Church at Rome they developed 
forms of worship and government distinctly peculiar to themselves 
in many respects. When they are next heard of, there was a British 
and a Scotch-Irish Church, both independent of the Bishop of 
Rome, and both different from the Roman usage in their method of 
computing the date on which Easter fell. 

Evils and Disadvantages of Roman Rule. — While the Roman rule 
brought many advantages to Britain — peace, prosperity, increased 



1 6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

unity, improved communications, civilized arts, and Christianity — it 
brought burdens and evils as well. For one thing, it introduced taxes 
and exactions always burdensome and often destructive and crushing. 
Worst of all, these revenues were not collected by responsible officials 
but were let out to tax farmers who paid a fixed sum and squeezed 
what they could from the unfortunate payers. Money was lent at 
exorbitant rates. Perhaps worse than the financial burdens was the 
system of conscription which took men from their homes, usually for 
life, to form a part of the great military machine. " We pay a yearly 
tribute of our bodies," wrote one Briton in a pathetic narrative. Then 
the strange vices which came in with the conquerors had a disastrous 
effect on those who came in closest contact with them, while those 
more remote were excluded from any participation in affairs. Both 
causes operated to kill independence and patriotism. With the with- 
drawal of the legions, Roman political institutions, laws, language, and 
manners soon passed away, and it was too late for the natives to com- 
plete their own national edifice from the point where they had so long 
ago been stopped in their work. In Britain, as elsewhere, the tend- 
encies preparing the way for a successful barbarian invasion had been 
long at work ; heavy taxation, conscription, and exhausted revenues 
had bred discontent ; private ambition and local feeling were stronger 
than Imperial loyalty ; and the barbarians, enlisted in increasing 
numbers, were favorable to those outside who were knocking at the 
gates. At last the barriers gave way, and the enemy passed in. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

B. C. A. Windle, Life in Early Britain (1897) ; a good popular account. 
W. B. Dawkins, Early Man in Britain (1880) ; some of the author's views 
have been superseded. John Beddoe, Races in Britain (1885). C. I. Elton, 
Origins of English History (1890) ; a valuable work. J. Rhys, Celtic Britain 
(1904) ; contains valuable information mingled with details chiefly useful 
for the special student. E. Conybeare, Roman Britain (1903) ; brief and 
readable. W. Z. Ripley, Races of Europe (1899) ; excellent. H. D. Traill, 
Social England (new illus. ed. 6 vols., 1901) ; a cooperative work contain- 
ing a mass of information on the non-political aspects of the subject, with 
bibliographies at the ends of chapters. Sir James Ramsay, The Founda- 
tions of England (vol. I, 1898) ; a detailed narrative with copious references 
to the sources. Charles Oman, England before the Norman Conquest (19 10) ; 
this is the first of a series of seven volumes by different hands covering the 
history of England from the earliest times to the present. The volume is 
especially valuable as presenting the results of recent work on the Roman 
occupation. Thomas Hodgkin, A Political History of England (1906) ; 



THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS OF BRITAIN 17 

the first of another series, devoting twelve volumes to the political history 
of England with useful annotated lists of authorities. C. Gross, Sources 
and Literature of English History (2d ed., 1915) is a work of unique value, 
containing the only complete bibliography covering the whole period from 
the earliest times to 1485. 



CHAPTER III 

THE COMING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. THE "HEPTARCHY " 
AND STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY 

The Britons after the Withdrawal of the Romans. — After the 
withdrawal of the Romans, the Britons seem to have resumed their 
old tribal organization, although for purposes of defense they chose a 
common leader or Gwledig. For years they fought a losing fight ; 
but for good or ill, the Roman connection with Britain had been for- 
ever broken. Before a century had gone by, the Island had so far 
passed beyond the Imperial ken that the strangest stories were cir- 
culated about it. According to one current legend, Britain was a 
home for the spirits of the dead, and certain boatmen were exempt 
from tribute to the King of the Franks for rowing them across the 
Channel. 

The Coming of the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. — In 449, if the 
usual date can be accepted, a body of Jutes under their mythical 
leaders, Hengist and Horsa, effected a landing on the little island of 
Thanet off the coast of Kent. At any rate, some time about the 
middle of the fifth century the Jutes established themselves in Kent 
and their arrival marks the beginning of a continuous series of inva- 
sions culminating in the conquest of the Island by a body of German 
peoples whose racial traits, laws, and customs form the basis of those 
which prevail to-day, not only in Great Britain, but in every land 
where the English language is spoken. 1 Two other tribes joined the 
Jutes in the westward movement — the Angles and the Saxons. 
Their original home was in the coast country stretching from the 
eastern shore of the present Denmark to the mouth of the Rhine. 

Earliest Accounts of the Germans at Home. — From Roman his- 
torians, notably from Julius Caesar, and from Tacitus, who wrote 
about 100 a.d., we learn something in general about the Germans or 
Teutons, to which stock the three invading tribes belonged, while 

1 Though, in their native land, their basic ideas of individual freedom and local self- 
government were, in modern times, largely repudiated by Prussianized Germany. 

18 



THE COMING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 19 

among the Scandinavians, the most northern of the German peoples, 
a rich mythology has been preserved in their eddas or legends. They 
were pagans, worshiping the forces of nature, personified in great 
gods whose names have been preserved in the days of the week. Su- 
preme over all was Woden (Wednesday) from whom ancient kings 
derived their descent ; Thor (Thursday) was the god of storm and 
agriculture, whose chariot rumbling over the clouds caused the thunder 
and who produced the thunder-bolts by the blows of his mighty ham- 
mer; Tiu (Tuesday) was the god of war. Besides these great gods, 
their imaginations created all sorts of strange beings : giants ; fire- 
breathing dragons ; kobalds, mischievous demons of mines ; nixies or 
water-sprites; tiny prankish elves and other spirits good and bad. 
Many of the modern fairy stories are drawn from the actual beliefs 
of our forefathers. They rarely had temples made with hands, but 
worshiped in sacred groves, or sometimes they reverenced a particu- 
lar tree or set up a wooden column. After death, the valiant warrior 
was supposed to go to Valhalla and live forever amidst the highest 
joys they could picture, of constant feasting and fighting ; the cowardly 
and selfish went to the cold and joyless underworld presided over by 
the goddess Hel. While we hear of priests, they had nothing like the 
organization or influence of the Druids. Worship was very rudi- 
mentary, and human sacrifices, usually of prisoners, not unheard of. 
The Germans who came to Britain soon left their paganism for Chris- 
tianity, but many of their practices have survived. The feast of the 
Resurrection takes its name from Eastre, the goddess of dawn and 
the returning year, and children still follow the pleasant custom of 
hunting colored eggs on that day. Christmas falls within their Yule- 
tide when they celebrated the winter solstice, or the time when our 
northern lands are turned farthest from the sun ; the burning of the 
Yule-log is supposed to have originated in their old bonfire in honor 
of Thor, once a sun god ; and from them we learned to decorate our 
Christmas trees. 

Political Organization. — In the time of Tacitus the Germans had 
advanced to a settled form of agriculture, and, although the bulk of 
the land was owned by the tribes and families, there are traces at 
least of individual ownership. Tacitus tells us of a well-defined 
political organization. First there was the tribe or state. Some 
were governed by kings, but those in the far-off north were governed, 
in times of peace, by a council of chiefs, who prepared measures for the 
assembly consisting of all the free men of the tribe. They usually 
came armed to their meetings, which were mainly to decide questions 
of war and peace. The, tribes were divided into districts presided 



20 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

over by chiefs elected in the tribal assembly. These districts were 
settlements made by groups of families which had originally sent a 
hundred warriors to the army and an equal number to the judicial 
assembly. All except the more important cases were decided in these 
district assemblies by the people themselves, for the chief was in no 
sense a judge, but merely a chairman to voice the opinion of the 
majority. 

Every district included several groups of kindred, each forming a 
free village community. Each household had its own dwelling, 
surrounded by a plot of ground, which was the property of the father 
of the family, while the arable land, owned by the kindred group, was* 
reallotted every year at the meeting of the community. Some of 
these villages may have been under the control of a chief, but it is 
generally supposed that most of them managed their own affairs — 
a primitive example of the modern town meeting. They cultivated 
in common and used only a portion of the soil each season, allowing 
the remainder to rest or lie fallow. Meadows and woods were common 
to all. 

Ranks among the Early Germans. — Society was graded into ranks 
or classes. In many states there was an hereditary nobility who 
claimed descent from the gods, and enjoyed personal distinction, but 
no political privilege by virtue of their descent. The bulk of the 
inhabitants were freemen distinguished from the lower orders by their 
long flowing hair, their right to bear arms, their right to attend the 
assemblies of the tribe and the district, and their right to share in the 
annual allotment of their village lands. Below them were a class of 
half-freed slaves or freedmen. Lowest of all were the bondmen, 
whose lives were absolutely at the disposal of their masters, to whom 
any one else who injured them was answerable. Each chief had a 
body of select companions, or comites, whom he supplied with horses 
and weapons and who fed and drank at his rude but plentiful table. 
In return, they fought by his side in time of war and helped him to 
while away the idle hours of peace. Such were the characteristics 
which the Angles, Jutes and Saxons transmitted to their new island 
home. 

The Jutes and the Saxons. — The impelling cause for their migra- 
tion seems to have been desire for more land due to their hunting and 
pastoral pursuits, to their wasteful system of agriculture and their 
general roving instincts; moreover, they were hard pressed by the 
tribes constantly sweeping upon them from the east. The Jutes, who 
occupied Kent, never expanded very far. The bulk of the lands south 
of the Thames fell to the lot of the Saxons. In 477 a band of South 



THE COMING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 21 

Saxons landed on the coast at Selsey and appropriated to themselves 
the modern county of Sussex. In 495 Cerdic and his son Cynric — 
again the names of the leaders are only traditional — landed on the 
shores of Southampton Water, and their followers, known as the West 
Saxons, reenforced by some Jutes soon overran what is now the county 
of Hampshire. After a time they worked their way up to the Thames, 
but were stopped in their advance down the valley by the tribes who 
had pushed in from the eastern coast. The strip of coast between 
the Thames and the river Stour fell to a band who came to be known 
as the East Saxons, a name which survives in the modern Essex The 
Middle Saxons, stretching farther inland along the northern bank of 
the Thames, stood between them and their West Saxon kin. The 
latter, turning west after their failure to secure possession of the lower 
Thames valley, gained a decisive victory, in 577, at Deorham over 
three British kings, a victory which gave them control of the Severn 
River and enabled them to cut off the Welsh massed in Devon and 
Cornwall from those lying north of the Bristol Channel. Ceawlin, 
their leader at this time, pressed north, but a decided defeat some 
miles south of Chester, coupled with a revolt of the mixed population 
of Saxons and British settled in the Severn valley, stopped the 
growth of the West Saxon power for over two hundred years. 

The Angles. — By far the greater part of present England was 
occupied in the sixth century by the Angles, who gave their name 
to the country — Angle-land or England. Lying between the River 
Stour and the Wash were the East Angles, made up of the North Folk 
and the South Folk. North of the Humber and stretching beyond 
the borders of present Scotland were the Northumbrians, consisting 
of two peoples, the Deirans and the Bernicians. Along the Trent, 
running into the heart of the midlands, were the Middle English, and 
still farther west, on the British border, were the men of the Mark or 
Mercians. 

Tribal Grouping at the Close of the Teutonic Invasions. — Leaving 
the minor tribes out of account, we have now noted the settlements of 
the various peoples who came to compose what was formerly called 
the " Heptarchy," or Seven Kingdoms, though the number varies 
and the name has little significance : three kingdoms of Angles — 
Northumbrians, East Angles, and Mercians; three kingdoms of 
Saxons — East, South, and West — and Kent, the kingdom of the 
Jutes. To the north and west were the Celts, mingled with remnants 
of earlier peoples. 

Slightness of Roman or Celtic Influences on Anglo-Saxon Britain. — 
The Romans left very slight permanent influences on the country, 



22 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

while the Teuton invaders had gone from their homes comparatively 
untouched by the brilliant if decaying civilization of the great Latin 
race. So the manners and customs and forms of government of the 
English are, to a large degree, Teutonic, not Roman or even Celtic. 
The invaders found a British people enjoying some degree of culture, 
advanced in trade, living in cities and cultivating large estates. But 
they either exterminated them or drove them into the inaccessible 
west, sparing chiefly women and slaves. The English medieval 
towns are to be traced from the rural settlements of the Anglo-Saxons, 
not from the vills and cities of the partly Romanized Celts. Many of 
these latter communities were utterly destroyed and have only been 
excavated in recent times, while the original sites of others were only 
centuries later repeopled. 

Union into Larger Kingdoms and Introduction of Christianity. — 
Two main features mark the period following the invasions. One is 
the union of the various incoming tribes into larger kingdoms, 1 and 
the attempts of the larger and stronger of these kingdoms — North- 
umbria in the seventh, Mercia in the eighth, and Wessex in the ninth 
centuries — to obtain control over the whole Island. The progress 
toward unity was helped and hindered in many ways ; but the early 
combinations were due mainly to two causes — the subjugation of 
the weaker by the stronger, and the union of neighboring tribes for 
defense and conquest. The other notable feature of the period is 
the conversion of the invaders to Christianity, which proved to be a 
great unifying force. The form which was to prevail, that of Rome, 
was introduced in the southeast, while Scotch and Irish missionaries 
worked their way in from the north and west. 

Augustine Converts -^thelbert of Kent. — The first of the new 
rulers to adopt the Christian faith was iEthelbert, King of Kent 
(560-616), who married Bertha, a Frankish princess and a Christian, 
though the conversion of the King and his people was actually brought 
about by a mission from Rome. The Pope at this time was Gregory 
the Great (590-604). Already, as a young man, he had seen young 
English captives in the slave market at Rome, and much attracted 
by their fair faces, blue eyes, and silky golden hair, he asked whence 
they came. He was informed that they came from the country of 
the Angles. " Right," said he, " for they have angelic faces." On 
asking further the name of the province to which they belonged he 
was told that it was Deira. " Truly," he exclaimed, " they shall be 

1 The West Saxons, for instance, were originally composed of many smaller 
groups, the Dorsaetas, Somersaetas, and Wiltsaetas, to mention only a few, and 
the same may be said of the other kingdoms. 




SORMAr 4 CO.,eKSK'g,M,Y. 



THE COMING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 23 

withdrawn from the wrath of God x and called to the mercy of Christ." 
From that time, according to this legend, so beautiful that one hopes 
it may be true, he seems to have been determined to convert the land 
of the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith. So, in the year 596, he 
selected a monk, Augustine, and a band of followers to perform this 
work. It is easy to see why he chose the country of ^Ethelbert, the 
leading man in southern Britain, the best known on the Continent 
and the husband of a Christian. In 597 Gregory's emissaries landed 
in Thanet, whence Augustine sent word to the King that they brought 
him a joyful message. ^Ethelbert arranged to receive them sitting in 
the open air, fearing if he entered a house they might overcome him 
by magic spells. The monks approached him in a procession, bear- 
ing a silver cross and a picture of Christ painted on wood and singing 
the litany, and told him of the Gospel. After some hesitation he 
allowed the holy strangers to come and dwell in his royal city of 
Canterbury, and on Whitsunday, 597, he consented to be baptized. 
It is said that 10,000 of his people followed his example, possibly from 
conviction, possibly from loyalty or by royal command. From that 
time to the present day, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been at the 
head of the Church of England. 

End of the Kentish Supremacy and the Decline of Christianity. — 
Pope Gregory had also instructed Augustine to enter into relations 
with the British Christians ; but their Bishops, although they met him 
in two conferences, sullenly refused to join hands with one associated 
with their hated conquerors. Augustine died in 604, having done 
little more than spread his faith into the neighboring East Saxon land. 
After the death of yEthelbert, in 616, his sons and the East Saxon 
chiefs relapsed into heathendom. ^Ethelbert was the leading ruler in 
the country and the Kentish supremacy perished with him. His 
reign is notable not only for the introduction of Christianity, but for 
the first bock of laws issued by an English King. They are merely 
a record of existing customs, somewhat amended by Christianity, and 
relate chiefly to offenses and penalties to be imposed. 

The Rise of Northumbria. — Meantime, the Northumbrians had 
come to the front and developed a power that was destined to be su- 
preme for over a century. In 593 ^Ethelfrith of the house of Bernicia, 
whose father had gained control of the rival kingdom of Deira, became 
King. Known as " the devastator " from the extent and ruthlessness 
of his conquests, he first secured his northern border by a victory over 
a combined force of the Picts and Scots and then advanced west 
against the Welsh whom he overcame at a battle near Chester at a 

1 Latin, dc ira. 



24 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

date variously given as 607 and 613. Legend tells that two thousand 
monks from Bangor appeared to pray for their countrymen, where- 
upon the Northumbrian King ordered an attack upon them, declar- 
ing : " if they cry to their God against us, they, too, are our adver- 
saries, though they bear no weapons, since they oppose us by their 
imprecations." Be this as it may, the battle of Chester ranks with 
that of Deorham (Dyrham) in importance, for it had the result of 
cutting off the Strathclyde Welsh from the inhabitants of the country 
we now know as Wales. Thus the solid Celtic western wall had been 
broken into three parts. yEthelfrith did not long survive his triumph 
for he was defeated and slain in 617. 

Supremacy of Edwin (617-633). His Conversion. — Edwin, an 
exiled Deiran prince, thereby became supreme over the united North- 
umbrian Kingdoms. He extended his rule to the north, and estab- 
lished a fortification from which Edinburgh (Edwin's burh) takes its 
name. He also made himself the leading power in mid-Britain and 
allied himself in marriage with a Kentish princess, whose chaplain 
strove to convert him to the Christian faith. Edwin, after a narrow 
escape from death, promised to adopt it, if he should succeed in gain- 
ing a victory over the West Saxons with whom he was at war. When 
his arms prevailed he held a meeting of his Witan, or Council, to 
discuss the question. History has preserved for us the lofty, simple 
words of one of his councilors. " So seems the life of man, Oh King," 
he said, "asa sparrow's flight through the hall when a man is sitting 
at meat in winter tide with the warm fire lighted at the hearth ; but 
the chill rain-storm without. The sparrow flies in at one door and 
tarries for a moment in the light and heat of the hearth fire, and then 
flying forth from the other, vanishes into the wintry darkness whence 
it came. So tarries for a moment the life of man in our sight; but 
what is before it we know not. What after it we know not. If this 
new teaching tell us aught certainly of these, let us follow it." This 
was in 627. Edwin not only extended his sway over a considerable 
portion of the Island, but he maintained such peace and order that a 
woman might walk from sea to sea and no one would do her harm. 
But his enemies in the end proved too strong for him and Christianity 
contributed to his undoing. A King of North Wales formed a com- 
bination with Penda of Mercia, a stout old pagan, and the two over- 
threw him in 633. 

Oswald, King of Northumbria. The Scotch-Irish Mission. — 
After an interval Edwin was succeeded by Oswald, a son of the Berni- 
cian, /Ethelfrith. During the time of Edwin he had been in exile 
chiefly at Iona, a little island off the west coast of Scotland where 



THE COMING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 25 

there was a famous monastery founded in the sixth century by the 
Irish Saint Columba. Oswald — noted for his humbleness, piety, and 
charity — labored to convert his kingdom to the Scotch-Irish faith, 
which he had adopted at Iona, and was ably assisted by Aidan, a 
gentle and holy man, who established a monastery at Lindisfarne, 
or Holy Isle, on the Northumbrian coast not far from the royal resi- 
dence. Although Oswald was a strong and valiant warrior as well 
as a man of piety, he was not long able to maintain headway against 
Penda, who led an army against him and defeated him in 642. Oswald 
was slain, and miracles were performed by earth soaked with his blood. 
Oswy, a younger brother, was able at last to overcome old Penda, in 
655, a triumph which accelerated the work that the Scotch-Irish 
Church was doing. Meantime, the Roman Church had secured a 
foothold in East Anglia and in Wessex, and a clash between the rivals 
was bound soon to come. 

Triumph of the Church of Rome. Organization and Extension 
under Theodore. — Finally, in 664, a synod was arranged in the 
presence of King Oswy at Whitby, where Wilfrid, a young Northum- 
brian noble, who had just returned from a pilgrimage to the Eternal 
City, presented the Roman claims. The main controversy was over 
the date of Easter. In the course of the debate Wilfrid asserted that 
the Roman custom was that of Peter to whom Christ had intrusted 
the keys of heaven. This decided Oswy, who declared that he would 
take the side of Peter, lest " when I come before the gates of heaven, 
he who holds the keys should not open unto me." The results of the 
Roman victory at Whitby were momentous and far-reaching. It 
brought England into contact with the civilization of continental 
Europe and led to the formation of what had been a mere group of 
mission stations into an organized Church. The man to whom this 
work is chiefly due was Theodore of Tarsus, whom the Pope sent out as 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and who worked unceasingly from 669 till 
his death in 690. He found seven bishoprics and only three bishops 
to fill them ; he left fifteen in effective working order. To bring the 
Church into closer touch with the people he greatly extended the 
parochial system, 1 and established a school at Canterbury where 
boys were taught arithmetic, astronomy, Latin, Greek, and the Scrip- 
tures. 

1 The center of church life in primitive times was the bishop. To each was 
allotted a single church, and he had in his household a body of young men whom 
he taught and sent out to preach and teach in their turn. But, corresponding to a 
need for more regular ministrations, as time went on, the lords of large estates 
began to settle priests on their lands, and the little townships or hamlets did like- 
wise ; thus parishes originated. 



26 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Monks and Their Work. — The religious and educational 
work of the Church in early England was largely done by the monks. 
In the Anglo-Saxon period these monastic orders were mostly Bene- 
dictine, following the rule of St. Benedict (480-543), a holy man who 
founded a monastery at Monte Casino in southern Italy. His fol- 
lowers were pledged never to marry, to obey their superiors without 
question, and to accumulate no wealth for themselves ; in other words, 
they were bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 
While the individuals remained poor, the monastic communities 
became immensely rich. Enjoined to labor as well as to pray, they 
entered into waste places, cut down the forests, drained the swamps, 
built dwellings, and cultivated the soil. Aside from their manual 
labor they studied and copied manuscripts and taught the youth. 
Unhappily these monks, as their wealth increased and their pioneer 
work was accomplished,' became weak, idle, and corrupt ; nevertheless, 
after all is said, they were a great power for good. Life was hard, 
brutal, and vicious, and the gentle, pious men and women who de- 
voted themselves to study, work, and prayer were shining examples 
in an age when greed, ignorance, and bloodthirstiness were all too 
common. The literature of the times is full of the doings of monks and 
nuns. 

The Venerable Bede (673-735). — By far the most renowned and 
attractive figure among these early monks is the venerable Bede 
(673-735), the " father of English history." His Ecclesiastical His- 
tory of the English Nation, extending from 55 B.C. to 731 a.d., is 
notable not only for being the first truly historical work produced by 
an Englishman, but also for a grace of style and temper that is all but 
unique. Although primarily a church history, it deals incidentally 
with temporal affairs, and indeed is almost our only authentic source' 
for the period of the seventh and early eighth centuries. As a boy 
Bede was sent to the monastery of Jarrow on Tyne and passed his life 
there. He says " he gave his whole energy to meditating on the 
Scriptures, and, amid the observance of the monastic rule and the 
daily ministry of singing in the Church, ever held it sweet either to 
learn or to teach or to write." Humble and devout, he became the 
most learned man of his day. 

Influence of the Church. — The influence of the Church in those 
days was manifold. Its organization furnished a model of unity in 
the midst of separation and disorder. Its synods brought men 
together and broke down provincialism and prejudice. It contributed 
at least somewhat to raise the standard of morality, and to preserve 
and spread learning. It fostered industry, agriculture, and the arts ; 



THE COMING OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS 27 

while the monks builded and studied and dug, the nuns spun, wove, 
and embroidered. Moreover, many Englishmen became famous and 
heroic apostles to their kinsmen on the Continent. 

End of the Northumbrian Supremacy. — Oswy of Northumbria 
died in 670, and Northumbria soon ceased to be a leading power. 
Internal strife, hostilities on the northern border, and the enmity of 
Mercia proved too much for it to withstand. The kingdom lingered 
on till it was destroyed in the ninth century by a new enemy, the 
Northmen ; but it would be useless to try to make headway through 
its confused and tumultuous annals. Suffice to say that during the 
eighth century there were fourteen kings, of whom many were de- 
posed and none died peacefully. 

Supremacy of Mercia. Oflfa (757-796). — During the eighth cen- 
tury the leading position in England was taken, by Mercia. Mercian 
power reached its height under Offa (757-796), who after more than 
twenty years of hard fighting succeeded in securing his supremacy 
south of the Humber and in subduing and absorbing the Welsh on 
the western border. He was on terms of intimacy with Charlemagne 
and more than one sign indicates his influence with the Papacy: 
Pope Hadrian described him as the King of the English nation ; and 
he made the Pope a grant, in 787, which is regarded as the origin of 
Peter's pence. Offa also made laws for his people, which, while they 
are no longer extant, were drawn on by Alfred the Great for his later 
and more famous compilation. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Caesar in his Gallic Wars and Tacitus in his Germania describe the con- 
ditions of the early Germans on the Continent in about 50 B.C. and 100 a.d. 
respectively. 

Among the descriptions in later works are : Pasquali Villari, The Bar- 
barian Invasions (1902) ; F. B. Gummere, Germanic Origins (1892) ; Hannis 
Taylor, The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution (vol. I, 1892) ; 
Wm. Stubbs, English Constitutional History (5th ed., 1891) I, chs. II, III. 
Taylor's work is a compilation which is very clearly written, but exaggerates 
the Germanic origin of English institutions. Stubbs, although super- 
seded in places, is still the authoritative comprehensive work on English 
constitutional history in the Middle Ages. Among the best of the briefer 
manuals are: A. B. White, The Making of the English Constitution (1908) ; 
F. W. Maitland, The Constitutional History of England (1908) ; and T. P. 
Taswell-Langmead, English Constitutional History (7th ed., 1911). A 
very suggestive sketch is G. B. Adams, An Outline Sketch of English Con- 
stitutional History (1918). D. J. Medley, Manual of English Constitutional 
History (4th ed., 1907) is a most useful work of reference. 



28 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

For invasions and the early history of the Anglo-Saxons, the most valuable 
general sources are Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, to 731, 
and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which in one version goes to 11 54. Each 
work has been translated many times. Inexpensive editions are those of 
J. A. Giles in Bohn's Standard Library, (1843) and (1847) respectively. 
The best modern narratives are J. R. Green, The Making of England (1881) ; 
Ramsay, Foundations oj England, I ; Oman, England before the Norman 
Conquest, and Hodgkin, Political History of England. 

For the introduction of Christianity, see H. O. Wakeman, History of the 
Church of England (8th ed., 19 14), and William Hunt, History of the English 
Church (1901). Wakeman's is the best one- volume work. Hunt's is the 
first of a series of nine volumes by different authors. Each chapter is pro- 
vided with a fairly full bibliography. F. Makower, Constitutional History 
of the Church of England (Eng. tr., 1895) is very good on the organization 
of the Church. 

An invaluable work of reference for the whole period is the Dictionary of 
National Biography, 63 vols., 1885-1900, with 6 supplementary volumes 
bringing the work up to 1912. The ample biographies are accompanied by 
good bibliographies. In 1908-1909 a cheaper edition in 22 volumes was 
issued. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS. THE GROWTH AND 
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ANGLO-SAXON MONARCHY 

Rise of the West Saxons. Ine (688-725) . — Not long after the death 
of Offa, the Mercians were forced to yield their supreme position to 
the West Saxons, who had started on a career of conquest with the 
brightest of prospects generations before, but had been held back 
largely by internal dissensions. The greatest of their early Kings after 
the warrior Ceawlin (593) was Ine (688-725), celebrated for his com- 
manding position in the south and for his code of laws — largely 
amendments of existing custom and an enumeration of crimes and their 
penalties. After reigning nearly forty years Ine abdicated and went on 
a pilgrimage to Rome, where he died. Nearly a century was to pass 
before the West Saxon power again took the lead. Then its supremacy 
among the Anglo-Saxons was destined to be lasting. Many reasons 
explain this : there began in the ninth century a series of Kings who 
were, almost without exception, effective rulers and indomitable 
warriors ; they were supported by the Church, which saw the best 
prospect of carrying on its work under a strong united monarchy ; 
and finally, the invasions of the Northmen destroyed the rival king- 
doms which had impeded the West Saxon advance and drew the 
divided peoples together against a common enemy. 

Egbert (802-839) Establishes the West Saxon Supremacy. — The 
beginning of the West Saxon supremacy dates from the accession of 
Egbert, who, during some years of exile, dwelt in the domain of Charle- 
magne, from whose vast Empire he gained his first ideas of a great 
united rule. On the death of the King who had driven him out he 
returned, in 802, and was accepted as ruler by the West Saxons. He 
reduced the Mercians to submission ; the people of East Anglia sought 
his " peace and protection " ; he recovered the Kentish kingdom of 
his father ; and he forced the Northumbrians and Welsh to take him 
for their lord. During his last years he had to fight off attacks of the 
Northmen who had first appeared in the reign of his predecessor, 

29 



30 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and who were to occupy practically the whole energies of Egbert's 
son and of his four grandsons. 

The Northmen. — The Northmen, or Danes, as the Anglo-Saxons 
called them, — often known as the " vikings " or rovers — inhabited 
the peninsulas of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They were heath- 
ens, sea rovers, and pirates who passed their time mainly in plundering 
and fighting. Organized in small bands, they had their headquarters 
in the innumerable fiords, inlets, and creeks which indented the Scan- 
dinavian coast. Their boats were small open affairs, high at the prow 
and stern, propelled by oars, though often they bore a single mast 
and sail which could be set up to help the oarsmen when the wind 
was right. While they founded powerful states in northwest France 
(Normandy) and in southern Italy, we are concerned primarily with 
the Northmen in England. At first they conducted merely discon- 
nected plundering expeditions, then they made settlements, and 
finally established kingdoms. 

The Danes in England. — In 793 they landed at Lindisfarne, where 
they " lamentably destroyed God's church . . . through rapine and 
slaughter." During' the course of the next century the invaders 
secured territorial settlements in northern and eastern England, 
overrunning Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia. In 795 they 
landed in Ireland, where they later established a kingdom. As has 
been seen, they proved, from the time of Egbert, a serious menace to 
the West Saxons. They not only infested the southern and south- 
eastern coasts, but, during the reign of his son, they penetrated in- 
land 1 and even took London and Canterbury. While yEthelred, a 
grandson of Egbert, was ruling the West Saxons and straining every 
nerve to drive the Danes out of his territory, he was mortally wounded 
in 871. 

Alfred the Great (871-901). — yEthelred left two sons ; but they were 
under age, and Alfred, who had so ably assisted his brother, was chosen 
to succeed him as King of Wessex and Kent. That the kingdoms of 
Wessex and Kent were defended against the Danes and organized to 
form a center for the ultimate recovery of the whole Island was due 
to Alfred, the supreme hero of the English race. He was born in 848, 
and from his infancy he was marked as a child of special attainments 

1 A raid into East Anglia in 870 is notable for the gruesome martyrdom of the 
King of that land. St. Edmund, as he came to be, refused to divide his treasure 
with the Danish chief, to renounce his religion, or to become a vassal. Forthwith he 
was tied to a tree, scourged, then shot through with arrows and beheaded. Long 
after, a shrine was built to commemorate his martyrdom at Bury, now known as 
Bury St. Edmunds. 



THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS 3 1 

and charm ; his later youth was spent in hard and stern duties, and he 
was only twenty-two when the whole burden of defending the kingdom 
fell on him. The darkest time in the annals of England came in 876, 
when, after a brief truce, Guthrum, who had made himself King of 
East Anglia, landed on the south coast, overran Dorsetshire and seized 
Exeter. Alfred retreated to the fen country of Somerset, 1 and estab- 
lished a fortress on an inaccessible island in the marshes. After he 
had brought together the men of Hampshire, Wiltshire, and Somerset 
he sallied forth and defeated the Danes in 878 at Ethandun (now 
Hedington). By the so-called Peace of Wedmore (879) Alfred made 
them consent to receive baptism and to evacuate the West Saxon 
land. It was not till 886, after he had defeated the Danes in a sea 
fight north of the Thames, that Alfred got a treaty dividing his land 
from what came to be known as the Danelagh. By the terms of that 
treaty the Danes were to keep all east of a line " up the Thames to 
the mouth of the Lea, up the Lea to its source, thence across to Bed- 
ford, thence up the Ouse to Watling Street." Thereby Alfred got 
London, which he fortified and rebuilt. 

Alfred's Military Reorganization. — Having driven out the enemy, 
he set himself to organize a permanent defense, to give his people 
wise laws, to improve their political institutions, to educate them and 
furnish them with a literature. The chief military weakness of the 
English had been the fact that, as soon as a battle was won, the army 
would disperse and leave the land unprotected. To prevent this, 
Alfred divided the men into three parts ; one was kept at work in the 
fields, another was held constantly under arms, and still a third was 
assigned to garrison strongholds or fortresses. 

His Laws and Political Reorganization. — Having prepared for 
defense he proceeded to compile a body of laws. Besides a few new 
provisions and some taken directly from the Scriptures he selected 
what to him " seemed good " from those his " forefathers held " 
from the dooms of ^Ethelbert of Kent, from Ine of Wessex, and Offa 
of Mercia, besides taking some provisions directly from the Scriptures. 
It was a decided step in unification to give his subjects a common law 
where each people had had its own particular system, moreover his 
influence on the political institutions of his time is not without signifi- 
cance. The invention of shires 2 has been attributed to Alfred, but 

1 The story is that he was a fugitive in hiding and that once he took refuge in a 
cowherd's hut where the housewife gave him some cakes to tend. He allowed them 
to burn and was sharply berated for his carelessness. This story is a myth, nor 
indeed, did Alfred come as a fugitive, but to gather new strength against his enemies. 

2 For shires, see below p. 45. 



32 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the arrangement for Wessex is at least as old as Ine. What Alfred 
did was to perfect it and extend it to the old tribal kingdoms of Kent, 
Surrey, Sussex, and Essex which had, up to the period of his victories, 
been ruled by one or more under-kings of the royal family. From the 
time of Alfred all lands south of the Thames formed part of the West 
Saxon kingdom, divided into judicial and administrative districts 
each under regular officials. The arrangement offered an admirable 
combination of local self-government and central organization ; for, 
while the forms of procedure were popular, the presiding officers 
were responsible to the King. Alfred spent much time in deciding 
complaints. He always favored the poor, " because," he said, " the 
poor had no friend but the King." 

His Work in Promoting Literature and Education. — Another phase 
of Alfred's varied activity is his work as a promoter of education and 
literature. Often lamenting that his own attainments in reading 
were so poor and that learning had reached such a low ebb in these 
turbulent times, it was his wish that " all the youth of England of 
free men ... be set to learn . . . until that they are well able to 
read English writing," and " that those whom it is proposed to edu- 
cate further and promote to a higher office should be taught Latin." 
For the latter purpose he caused a Court school to be founded at 
Winchester. Also he did much to foster the writing of his native 
tongue: under his auspices the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the first his- 
tory of any modern country in the vernacular, was greatly expanded ; 
he started a collection of ancient epics of which only one, Beowulf, 
has survived, and caused various books to be translated, chief among 
them Bede's History. Probably the actual translations were made 
by the learned men he gathered about him, yet the renderings were 
Alfred's, and he interspersed them with little comments, bits of his- 
torical and geographical information and lofty sentiments which he 
thought would inform and uplift his people. 

Final Estimate of Alfred. — Such was the work of Alfred, defender, 
lawgiver, and educator of his people. He was a man of many in- 
terests but one aim — to serve those over whom he ruled. Always 
active and methodical in his activity, he was so careful of his time 
that, it is said, since there were no clocks, he devised a candle covered 
by a lantern to measure the hours that were all too brief for what he 
had to do. He did not invent shires, found Oxford, or establish trial 
by jury as our forefathers believed. The burden of achievements at- 
tributed to him is greater than he can bear. But he did much for Eng- 
land, and, if we can see him aright through the distorting medium of 
myth and fable, he was just as great for what he was and what he did. 



THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS 33 

Edward the Elder (900-924), and the Beginning of Reconquest. — 
Alfred died 28 October, 900, and was succeeded by his son Edward, 
the Elder, who undertook to conquer all England from the Danes and 
to extend his overlordship over the Scots and the Welsh. While 
Edward himself was a persistent and able general he owed much to 
his sister Ethelrleda, " the Lady of the Mercians," whose military 
achievements surpassed those of the Amazons of old. Edward and 
Ethelfleda developed the method of warfare originated by Alfred ; 
avoiding battles whenever possible, they seized commanding points, 
which they fortified and garrisoned as centers of defense and further 
conquest. Before the close of his reign, Edward, and his valiant sis- 
ter (t9i8) had recovered Essex and East Anglia and a large portion 
of the Mercian district of the five boroughs. He had also extended 
his overlordship over the Northumbrians and the Welsh, and it is 
asserted that the King of the Scots also took Edward " to father and 
lord " ; x but this is disputed, although later English Kings based a 
claim on Scotland on this alleged submission. We hear of subsequent 
revolts even in the districts which Edward had actually conquered, 
but he had good ground for being called King of the Anglo-Saxons. 
His work was finally completed by his sons, three of whom in turn 
succeeded him. 

Further Extension of the West Saxon Power. — The first of these 
was Athelstan (925-940), known as " Glorious Athelstan," from his 
grace and beauty. His growing power and reconquests — he wrote 
himself Monarch of all Britain — caused alarm to the princes on his 
borders, and, in 937, the Scots, Welsh, and Danes combined against 
him. He met the coalition at Brunnanburh, an undetermined site 
somewhere in the north country, where a desperate hand to hand 
battle was fought from sunrise to sunset, resulting in a victory for 
Athelstan which determined that the West Saxons were to be supreme 
in Britain. The second son had to face a series of revolts, and only 
managed by hard fighting to retain what his father and brother had 
won. The third, Edred, though he waged persistent war against 
the restless Danes in Northumberland, adopted, in 954, the year 
before his death, a new policy ; he put them under an Ealdorman, and 
allowed them their own customs and their own laws — a policy of 
wise moderation that resulted ultimately in incorporating the Danes 
as peaceful subjects. 

St. Dunstan, His Reforms, Political Influence and Banishment. — 
It was in the reign of Edred that Dunstan came to take a leading share 

1 The Picts had already in the middle of the ninth century been united with the 
Scots under one King. 

D 



34 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

in the government. Born about 924 of a noble West Saxon family, 
Dunstan was educated at the monastery of Glastonbury and early 
introduced to the court of Athelstan where he spent much of his time. 
He was a dreamy, imaginative youth who cared little for the pastimes 
of his fellows. After he had been banished from court on a false charge 
of sorcery and after a serious illness he decided to become a monk. 
At Glastonbury he built himself a tiny cell, where he spent his time 
studying the Scriptures, copying and illuminating manuscripts, 
skillfully working metals and playing the harp, though, in spite of 
his manifold occupations, he was frequently assailed by horrid visions 
and temptations from the Evil One. Eventually he was made Abbot. 
In his new position, Dunstan led a movement in England to meet the 
decay in religion and learning that had set in as early as the time of 
Bede, and which had been accentuated by the disorders resulting from 
the Danish invasions. Monks and nuns had departed from the rules 
of their orders, had married, had assumed the dress and manners and 
customs of the laity, had lost interest in study and entered into the 
pursuits and pastimes of those in the world about them. Dunstan 
set himself against all this. He introduced monks at Glastonbury, 
pledged to live the single life and to devote themselves to study and 
the services of the Church, and worked untiringly as a teacher him- 
self. But, in addition to his work as Abbot, he accomplished a great 
political work as well ; for Edred made him chief adviser, and it was 
probably due to Dunstan's sage counsel that the device was adopted 
of conciliating the Danes by granting them a measure of local 
independence. Under Edred's nephew he lost influence for a time. 
The West Saxons hated him for his opposition to their plan of estab- 
lishing their ascendancy by force, and he crossed the purposes of an 
ambitious woman who was bent on marrying her daughter to the young 
and weak-minded King. Consequently, Dunstan was banished. He 
remained two years in exile, where he learned much at first hand of the 
revived and developed Benedictine rule, known as the " Cluniac " re- 
form from the fact that it began at Cluny in France. Dunstan, 
however, was more interested in education and religion than in monas- 
tic discipline, and it is due more to others that the stricter aspects 
of the reform were introduced into England. 

Recall of Dunstan. Edgar, the Peaceful (959-975). — Dunstan was 
recalled and made Archbishop of Canterbury by Edgar, whose reign 
marks the highest point in the power of kingship in the Anglo-Saxon 
period. The royal policy was consolidation on the basis of concilia- 
tion ; the Danes were to have their laws and so were the English : 
while the King was supreme over all, the local government was in the 



THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS 35 

hands of the great Ealdormen of Northumbria, East Anglia, and 
Mercia. This was an extension of the policy which had been initiated 
largely by Dimstan in the reign of Edred, and it worked well under 
Edgar's vigorous control, but there was danger, realized all too soon 
under weak rulers, that local divisions would break up the unity of 
the kingdom. Edgar was crowned in 973, and " there was much bliss 
on that blessed day." The coronation is notable as the first which 
the records describe in detail. The King entered the Church wearing 
his crown, which he took off as he knelt before the altar. A Te Deum 
was sung, after which the bishops raised the King, and the coronation 
oath was administered by Dunstan, who presided. Edgar swore 
" that the Church of God and all Christian people should enjoy true 
peace forever, that he would forbid all wrong and robbery to all 
degrees, and that he would command justice and mercy in all judg- 
ments." Then prayers were said, the Archbishop anointed him, 
and the people in the church shouted " Let the King live forever." 
Next Dunstan girded him with a sword, placed a ring on his finger, 
the crown on his head, a scepter in his hand, and, assisted by the Arch- 
bishop of York, seated him on the throne. Later, the time when 
Edgar's law prevailed was looked back to as a golden age. 

^thelred the Redeless (978-1016). Beginning of Decline of Royal 
Power. — With his death, Dunstan 's influence ceased and troubles 
began. His eldest son, a mere boy, Edward, known in time to come 
as " The Martyr, " was murdered by the followers of his wicked step- 
mother to make way for her own son ^Ethelred. ^Ethelred, as he grew 
to manhood, showed himself incompetent to rule his country in the 
troublous times that came upon it. While by no means wanting in 
ability or energy, he would not listen to wisdom or good counsel, 
hence his name of the " Redeless " or " Unready." Soon the great 
Ealdormen in the different districts set about making themselves 
independent of royal control, and ^Ethelred made matters worse in 
seeking to counteract them by raising new favorites to power and en- 
dowing them with land. They naturally sought to advance their 
own interests, and thus iEthelred only made new whips to scourge 
himself. 

The Second Coming of the Danes. — In the midst of this turmoil 
the Danes reappeared, and this time they continued their attacks till 
they established themselves as rulers of the whole kingdom. They 
began, in 980, with some predatory raids in which Swein, son of the 
Danish King, figured, while, in 991, after an overwhelming force had 
won a bloody battle at Maldon in Essex, " it was decreed that tributes 
should be given to the Danish men, on account of the great terror which 



36 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

they caused by the seacoast." The money was raised by a tax on land 
called Danegeld, which, continued long after the danger was past, was, 
for some time, the only land tax raised in the country. ^Ethelred 
failed to take advantage of the respites which he frequently purchased, 
to compose the differences between his warring lords and to develop 
a strong army and navy. However, the condition of the country 
as well as the indecision of the King must be taken into account. 
A great part of the resources in men and money were in the hands of 
the great territorial nobles who were at odds with ^Ethelred, yet even 
when the King's officials could be depended upon, they had, as a fight- 
ing force, only the ill-organized shire levies. At first the Danish cus- 
tom was to land at unexpected places, mount on horses, ride " as far 
as they would," burning, plundering, and " man-slaying " and doing 
" unspeakable evil," and, by the time the English were prepared to 
meet them, seek their ships and slip away. Then, later, they came in 
irresistible forces, won battles and had to be bought off. 

At the mercy of the invaders as he was, yEthelred brought dire 
vengeance on the English by a very stupid as well as brutal step. 
Alarmed at the rumor of a Danish plot to seize his kingdom, he ordered 
a general massacre of all those of that race to be found dwelling in 
the land, on St. Brice's day, 13 November, 1002. This fell deed 
brought Swein — now king of Denmark and Norway — into the coun- 
try again. Year after year the poor English were subject to his 
attacks, and to those of other bands as well. 

The Danes Gain a Foothold. — A crisis came in 1013, the beginning 
of the end, when Swein, accompanied by his son Cnut, landed with 
a great force at the mouth of the Humber. The Northumbrians, 
the Mercians, and the West Saxons submitted in quick succession ; 
even London, which at first held out, saw the futility of further resist- 
ance. The acceptance of Swein amounted to a practical deposition 
of ^Ethelred, who retired in 1014 to the court of Duke Richard of 
Normandy, whose sister Emma he had married in 1002, on the eve of 
his disastrous massacre of the Danes. Within a month after ^Ethel- 
red's flight, old Swein suddenly dropped dead ; while the Danes chose 
Cnut to succeed him, the English recalled ^Ethelred who, in spite of 
his promises, accomplished little. He did, in a fitful burst of energy, 
try to drive Cnut out of England ; but the latter soon returned and was 
in possession of western and northern England when /Ethelred died 
in 1016. 

Cnut Overcomes Edmund Ironside. — Thereupon, the people of 
London proclaimed as King, Edmund — known because of his valor 
as Edmund Ironside — ^Ethelred's son by a nameless mother. But 



THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS 37 

the bulk of the English, led by a traitorous Ealdorman of Mercia, 
declared for Cnut. After an uphill fight, finally defeated at Assan- 
dun (Ashington) in Essex, Edmund was forced to consent to a parti- 
tion of the kingdom ; but died a few days after the treaty, so oppor- 
tunely that it has been believed he was murdered, and Cnut became 
the undisputed King of all England. Edmund's sons were sent out 
of the country, some say to be slain ; but they found a refuge in Hun- 
gary, while yEthelred's sons by Emma were in safe keeping in the court 
of the Norman dukes. 

Reign of Cnut (1016-1035). — Cnut had shown himself crafty, 
bloody, and ruthless in his rise to power, and during the first years of 
his rule he was merciless and unscrupulous in disposing of those who 
stood in his way, yet, once seated firmly on the throne, he ruled as a 
wise and just King and sought to govern in the interests of his English 
subjects. If naturally cruel and greedy of power, he sought to re- 
strain his instincts. Recognizing the necessity of the situation, he 
followed the recent practice and organized the country into four great 
earldoms, Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, and Wessex, though, 
later at least, there were many smaller ones besides. In 1018 he 
held a Witan, or assembly of his wise men, at Oxford where " Danes 
and Englishmen " agreed to live " under the laws of King Edgar." 
This meant simply that the old laws of the English as they were in 
Edgar's time were to be observed, and this was the spirit of all Cnut's 
enactments. He pledged himself to " rule rightly," while the people, 
in their turn, were to " love God and be true to King Cnut." When 
Cnut died in 1035 in the full vigor of his manhood, his dominion in- 
cluded not only England, but Denmark, Norway, and Southern Sweden 
as well. On the other hand, by a victory at Carham, in 1018, which the 
Scots gained over his northern subjects, he was obliged to cede Lothian, 
formerly a part of Northumbria, and to recognize the Tweed as the 
boundary between the English and the Scots. Many stories are told 
of him which if not true, at least indicate the estimate in which he 
was held. 1 The favorable judgment of the time seems to be justified 
by his acts : he was wise enough to identify himself with his people, 

1 On one occasion his courtiers urged him to sit in a chair by the seaside and bid 
the waves stop. When they came on, regardless of the royal presence, he refused 
to wear his crown again " because the honor belonged to God alone, the true ruler 
of the world." Perhaps the prettiest of all is that which tells how he listened to 
the singing of the monks of Ely. 

"Cheerful sang the monks in Ely 
As Cnut the King rode by. 
' Row to the shore, lads,' said the King, 
' And let us hear the Churchmen sing.' " 



38 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and if he sought his own interests, they were England's interests as 
well. 

Return to the Old English Line. Edward the Confessor (1042- 
1066). — The reigns of Cnut's two sons, from 1035 to 1042, were years of 
disorder, bloodshed, and heavy taxation. Neither left an heir, so on 
the death of the second of this evil pair the English joyfully pro- 
claimed as King, Edward, sole surviving son of ^thelred and Emma. 

Edward was royal in his bearing, affable and gentle as well; but 
he was utterly lacking in decision and not above spite, petty meanness, 
or even worse. Yet his reputation for personal holiness was so high — 
he is said to have abolished the Danegeld because he saw the devil 
sitting on the money bags — that he was popularly called the " Con- 
fessor " and was actually made a saint within a century after his 
death. Having passed the greater part of his life in Normandy his 
interests were more distinctively Norman than English. He brought 
over a number of Norman followers, who succeeded in not only secur- 
ing themselves wealth and -offices but also a voice in his counsels — 
chief among them was Robert of Jumieges who became Archbishop 
of Canterbury in 105 1. But Godwine, the stanchest champion of 
English interests, whom Cnut had made Earl of Wessex, was allowed to 
retain his office, and Edward married his daughter, a lady of more 
learning than charm. Although greedy and politic, Godwine was, 
so long as his power lasted, a strong check on the foreigners. How- 
ever, he and his whole family were forced to flee the country and 
outlawed, in 1051, because he resisted the King's orders to punish 
the men of Dover who had been drawn into a conflict with the unruly 
followers of Edward's brother-in-law, the Count of Boulogne, who had 
been the guest of the King. 

Visit of William of Normandy. — During their enforced exile Edward 
is said to have received a visit from a very notable man, no less a per- 
son than William, Duke of Normandy and future conqueror of Eng- 
land. He was a descendant of Rollo the Northman, who had con- 
quered the district about the mouth of the Seine early in the tenth 
century. The line founded by this old Norse viking had, in the course 
of time, become ducal vassals of the newly established kingdom of 
the French, and the Norsemen, while retaining the fierceness and war- 
like prowess of their race, had adopted French manners and customs 
and French methods of government. In 1035, when William was 
barely eight years old, his father, Robert the Magnificent, had died 
on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. William was an illegitimate son by a 
mother of very humble birth, the daughter of a tanner of Falaise. 
Nevertheless he had, by hard fighting, secured the Dukedom, and, 



THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS 39 

still a young man of twenty-four, was the most powerful lord among 
the French. William's visit to England was so well timed that there 
seems to be no doubt that he undertook it on a chance of being made 
the heir of the childless Edward. Godwine and his family, the cham- 
pions of the English party, were in exile and Norman influence was 
supreme at the court. William afterwards asserted that Edward 
promised him the succession. Very likely this was true. But Edward 
had no right to make any such promise which had no binding value ; 
for it was the custom of the English Witan to choose their own King 
from the members of the royal family. 

Reaction Against the Normans. — Soon after William's alleged visit, 
a revulsion of popular feeling against Edward's favor to the Normans 
encouraged Godwine to return. The unpopular Normans fled and 
outlawry was declared against those who " reared up bad law . . . 
and brought evil councils into the land." Robert of Jumieges was 
replaced as Archbishop of Canterbury by Stigand, an Englishman. 
The Pope, however, was not consulted, and his decision that the pro- 
ceeding was unlawful gave William a second pretext for his later in- 
vasion of England. Godwine died in 1053, whereupon the Earldom 
of Wessex fell to Godwine's son Harold, a brave and earnest man, 
conscientious and gracious, but evidently inferior in ability to his 
father. In 1055, on the death of the Earl of Northumbria, Waltheof, 
the heir was passed over and Harold's brother Tostig was appointed 
to succeed him. When another brother got East Anglia, which Harold 
had once held, and other territories as well, all of England, except Mer- 
cia, was in the control of Godwine's sons. In such a situation it was 
quite natural that Harold should aspire to the throne, even though 
he was in no way related to the royal family except as brother to the 
Queen. To be sure, Edward the^Etheling, son of Edmund Ironside, 
had returned home in 1057, but he died almost immediately, and his 
son Eadgar and his daughter Margaret were mere children. By 1064 
Harold was generally regarded as heir to the throne. 

Death of Edward the Confessor. — About this time a curious inci- 
dent happened which gave William his third pretext for claiming the 
crown. Sometime between the autumn of 1064 and the spring of 
1065, Harold, while on a ship, was blown by contrary winds to the 
coast of Ponthieu, and seized by the reigning Count. When the news 
reached William he demanded that Harold be handed over to him, 
and forced him to swear to support his succession to the throne. Not 
very long after Harold's return to England the Northumbrians rose 
against Tostig, threw off his rule, and chose in his place, Morkere, the 
brother of Edwin, Earl of Mercia. Much to Tostig's disgust Harold 



40 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

yielded to the popular will. In the midst of this confusion, Edward 
passed away, 5 January, 1066, uttering gloomy prophecies in his de- 
clining days. Recognizing the inevitable, however, he commended 
the kingdom to Harold on the eve of his death. 

Harold, King (1066). — There were three candidates for the throne, 
little Eadgar the yEtheling, Duke William, and Harold. Even the 
sticklers for the old line saw that they stood the best chance of pre- 
serving English independence by supporting Harold. So he was 
hastily elected by such of the Witan as were in London on the very 
day of Edward's funeral, 6 January. Popular as he was with the 
people, the new King " had little stillness the while that he ruled." 
His enemies were many. There were Edwin and Morkere hostile 
to the house of Godwine ; there was his own brother Tostig, lurking 
abroad, burning to recover his northern earldom and to revenge him- 
self on all who had shared in putting him out, and there was the Pope, 
ready to aid whoever would expel the usurper Stigand. Finally, 
there was William, alert, resolute, and determined to secure the coveted 
crown. His claims and pretexts, as we know, were many, the promise 
of Edward, the oath of Harold, and the championship of the Church ; 
indeed, he advanced a further claim in behalf of his wife, Matilda, 
descended from the old Anglo-Saxon line of kings. When Harold 
refused to listen to him he at once prepared for war, sought to attach 
the courts of Europe to his cause, and secured the papal blessing for 
his expedition. In the late summer of 1066 Tostig, accompanied by 
Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, and a great force invaded York- 
shire. Directly the news reached him, Harold hurried to the scene, 
met and annihilated the invading army, 25 September, 1066, at Stam- 
ford Bridge, eight miles northeast of York. Tostig and Harold Hard- 
rada both fell on the field. 

The Coming of William. His Victory at Hastings (1066). — Within 
ten days Harold was back in London ; but already, six days before, 
William had landed at Pevensey on the south coast of England, with 
a following composed of members of young Norman nobility and 
by adventurers and soldiers of fortune from all over Europe. 1 From 
Pevensey he marched to Hastings, which commanded the northern 
road to London, where he awaited the coming of Harold, who hastened 
to meet him after taking less than a week to prepare his forces. At 
the news of Harold's approach William advanced to attack him. On 
the morning of 14 October the Anglo-Saxon King took a strong posi- 

1 According to tradition William stumbled and fell on the shingly beach as he 
landed. His followers regarded this as a bad omen; but he reassured them by 
crying out : "By the splendor of God, I have taken seizin of England." 



THE ASCENDANCY OF THE WEST SAXONS 41 

tion on a little plateau — now covered by the site of Battle Abbey — lying 
north of Hastings and somewhat south and west of Senlac. He massed 
his men closely with their front line protected by locked shields, 1 and 
their formation extending along the front and two sides of the plateau, 
with the fourth side of the square open, protected by the steepness 
of the northern slope. In the center, at the highest point now marked 
by the high altar of the abbey church, stood Harold and his brothers. 
Here was planted the Dragon of Wessex and the King's own standard, 
an embroidered picture of a fighting man. William drew up his forces 
in three divisions, one of which attacked the English in front, while 
the two wings attacked their flanks. 2 Only after a series of fierce 
assaults were the Normans able to gain a foothold on the plateau, to 
break the shield wall, and to capture the standard beside which Harold 
fell, fighting to the last. His men made one final stand on a narrow 
isthmus protecting the rear of the plateau from which they had been 
driven. Here too they had to yield, and by sunset of the short October 
day William had won the victory which was to make him King of 
England. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Ramsay, Oman, Hodgkin, and Taylor cited above. Also J. R. Green, 
The Conquest of England (1883) ; and E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest 
(1875-1877), vols. I-III. Alfred Bowker, ed., Alfred the Great (1899) con- 
tains chapters on his life and times by various hands. The best biography 
of Alfred is a brief volume by Charles Plummer, Life and Times of Alfred 
the Great (1902). L. M. Larson, Canute the Great (1912), is particularly good 
for the Scandinavian background. J. H. Round, Feudal England (1895), 
pp. 332-398, sharply attacks Freeman's account of the Battle of Hastings. 

For the history of the Church in this period, see Wakeman and Hunt. 

1 Another account not so generally accepted says that they stood behind a sort 
of wooden palisade which they had hastily erected. 

2 Of the Norman light-armed forces some were provided with cross-bows, a 
recently invented weapon, others were archers. The heavy-armed forces carried 
spears and long kite-shaped shields and were protected by helmets and by shirts 
and short breeches of ringed mail. The cavalry who fought, with heavy swords, 
were likewise protected by helmet and mail. The Anglo-Saxon light-armed forces 
bore javelins and stone hammers or axes for throwing. The heavy-armed had 
two-handed battle-axes. Among their other weapons were swords and daggers. 
The famous Bayeux Tapestry — a pictorial story of events from the time Harold 
was captured on the Norman coast till his death — is of great value on such points. 
It is embroidered on a strip of canvas nineteen inches wide and two hundred and 
thirty-one feet long. It was probably designed for the Bayeux Cathedral, but is 
now preserved in the Museum in the library. 



CHAPTER V 

THE STATE OF SOCIETY AT THE CLOSE OF THE ANGLO- 
SAXON PERIOD 

Political Organization. — The Anglo-Saxon kingdom in its com- 
pleted form consisted of several shires; each shire contained sub- 
ordinate districts which came to be known as hundreds, and each 
hundred was made up of a number of small communities, either in- 
dependent and self-governing, or subject to the control of a lord. 
If free, these latter were called townships ; if under a lord they came, 
towards the close of this period, to be called manors. 

The Township. — The kinsmen of each invading tribe settled down 
in a village surrounded by a rude form of boundary. These bound- 
aries were called " tuns " (compare the German word zaun, meaning 
hedge) and the inclosed area was known as a tunscipe or township. 
Less frequently the village was known as a ham (from heim, the German 
word for home). Originally, most of these villages seem to have been 
free or independent. The settlement consisted of a line of houses 
along a street, the parent of the modern High Street, and each house 
was surrounded by a plot of ground which supplied garden produce. 
Stretching out beyond the village street were the lands used for tillage, 
of which every freeman was entitled to a certain amount, usually a 
" hide," supposed to contain about one hundred and twenty acres. 
The original allotments were scattered in strips in order that each 
might share in the good land and the bad land alike. Owing to lack 
of stock and farming implements each man helped his neighbors and 
was helped by them in turn. To avoid exhausting the soil, one part 
of the land was planted with wheat or rye, another with oats or 
barley, and a third would be allowed to lie fallow, and the crops were 
annually rotated. This was known as the three-field system. During 
the time from planting to harvest, rude temporary fences were con- 
structed to keep out the cattle ; after the crops were gathered, the fences 
were taken down and the cattle turned in to graze on the stubble. 
Besides the arable land there were common meadows and pasture 

42 



STATE OF SOCIETY AT CLOSE OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 43 

lands for the whole community, and woodlands as well. In the woods 
fuel was cut and swine roamed about, feeding on acorns and whatever 
else they could find. At stated seasons the qualified freemen assembled 
in their tun-moot, or town meeting; here officers were elected, chief 
among them the reeve, who presided over the affairs of the community 
and went with four chosen men to the meetings of the hundred and 
shire ; at the tun-moot, also, by-laws were framed, rules of cultivation 
were settled, arrangements were made for looking after the roads and 
keeping the peace; but no judicial decisions were undertaken. 

The Manor as an Agrarian and Judicial Unit. — As time went on 
most of these villages lost their independence and passed under the 
control of lords. The lord's steward or bailiff took the place of the 
elected reeve as president of the moot, and the freemen became depen- 
dent cultivators. Although landed estates with village communities 
in subjection upon them existed from the beginning of the period — 
old Roman villas under new lords — the numbers had greatly increased 
by the eleventh century when they came to be known as manors. 
They usually consisted of two parts. One was the demesne, or " in- 
land," the land cultivated directly for the lord by slaves or by serfs, 
although it might be scattered among the other strips. The " out- 
land " comprised the holdings of the serfs, usually limited to a yard 
or virgate (thirty acres or a quarter of a hide) although certain per- 
sons called " cotters " had no more than five acres. The serf received 
not only land from his lord, but also stock, cattle, and farming imple- 
ments, and some household furniture. In return, he paid part of his 
produce in rent, and was called upon to labor during some days in the 
week and at intervals during harvest and to plow in the lord's lands. 
On the eve of the Conquest the lords had come to administer justice 
on their estates, and the old township courts became judicial as well 
as administrative bodies under the lord's steward or bailiff. 

Boroughs and Cities. — Another growth of this period is the borough 
and city. Usually in England the word " town " is synonymous with 
borough and is to be distinguished from a township or village. The 
former had a larger population and enjoyed peculiar organization and 
privileges. The most characteristic feature was the wall, 1 then they 
usually had a court of their own and a market. The origin of most of 
these boroughs is shrouded in obscurity. Some have tried to trace 
them from the Roman municipalities, but without success. The 
Roman towns were centers of a highly developed urban life, while the 
medieval towns were frequently little more than agricultural and 
fishing centers; indeed, the burghers often had farms outside the 

1 Hence the name burh, a fortification. 



44 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

walls. While the sites were sometimes determined by the older Roman 
settlements, these boroughs seem usually to have originated from for- 
tified places in the wars against the Danes during the ninth and tenth 
centuries. Sometimes, however, a town grew from the union of many 
neighboring townships, or developed from a settlement around a 
monastery or a castle, or where a crossing of roads or the ford of a river 
provided a favorable site for a market. Gradually these towns ac- 
quired charters confirming old privileges or granting new ones. A city 
is merely a borough where a cathedral is situated. 1 

The Hundred. — Until the courts of the boroughs and manors came 
into being, the hundred was the center for all judicial purposes. The 
hundreds seem to have been originally districts of the tribal kingdoms, 
allotted to a hundred warriors or a hundred heads of families. Each 
had an assembly which met once a month. It was the duty of the 
presiding man, the reeve or elder, to collect the dues from the hundred 
and to keep order ; his judicial position was not the same as that of our 
modern judge, for he merely acted as the mouthpiece of men qualified 
to attend the court — the priest, reeve, and four men from each town- 
ship or manor as well as all free landowners and the nobles or thegns 
of the hundred. The jurisdiction exercised was criminal as well as 
civil. In the beginning, we find the groups of kinsmen responsible 
for the conduct of their members ; in cases of murder or serious injury 
they had the privilege of waging, or the obligation of submitting to 
the feud or private warfare. But, before the end of the period, the 
community had established its position as arbiter, and an elaborate 
compensation had been arranged — " wergeld " for murder or injury, 
and " bot " for other damages. It was only when such satisfaction 
was refused that the kindred had a right to wage war or seize the 
possessions of the one who was at fault. For its share in secur- 
ing justice the State came to claim a fine, known asa" wite, " from 
the offender. 

Procedure in the Hundred Moot. — Procedure was as follows. 
The offended party made a formal demand before the public meeting 
or the presiding officer. The accused was obliged, under penalty, to 
answer the charge and had to deposit a pledge to abide by the decision 
of the court. If he admitted his guilt, it was the duty of the meeting 
to determine the penalty. If he wished to contest the accusation, 
he denied it with a formal oath, usually supported by a number of oath 
helpers, varying according to his rank or to the gravity of offense. 
Sometimes, in cases where land or cattle were involved, documents 

1 Recently, however, some large boroughs where there are no cathedrals, have 
been given the honorary title of cities. 



STATE OF SOCIETY AT CLOSE OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 45 

might be produced or witnesses to answer set questions. When the 
crime was too serious, or the accused was too notorious to find oath 
helpers, or when he was a foreigner, he had to proceed to the ordeal ; 
that is, submit his case to the judgment of God. In the fire ordeal 
the accused had to carry a piece of red-hot iron weighing one pound a 
distance of nine feet ; his hand was then bandaged, and if it healed in 
three days he was declared innocent. For especially grave cases there 
was the threefold ordeal, when the iron weighed three pounds. Another 
form of test was the hot water ordeal, where the accused had to plunge 
his arm up to the wrist in boiling water and remove a stone ; here, too, 
there was a threefold ordeal, where he had to plunge his arm in up to 
the elbow. The cold water ordeal is little heard of in Anglo-Saxon 
times, though it was much used later for trying witches. For this 
test the accused was bound and lowered into the water by a rope 
round his waist ; if he sank a certain depth, he was innocent, if he 
floated, he was guilty. The corsned or sacred morsel was the form 
usually applied in the case of a priest ; the person to be tried was given 
an ounce of consecrated cheese or bread to swallow — his guilt or inno- 
cence depending upon his ability to perform the feat. Since the people 
regarded the decision in each case as given by God, it partook of a 
religious ceremony ; for which the accused prepared himself by a three 
days' fast and by taking the sacrament. If the test failed, the as- 
sembled multitude declared the penalty — fine, slavery, outlawry, 
or death. Imprisonment was not used as a form of punishment. 

The Folkmoot and the Shire. — Before the union of the tribes the 
highest form of political and judicial organization was the folkmoot. 
At this assembly the great- landowners, the freemen, and the priest, 
reeve, and four men met twice a year under their Ealdorman or chief. 
After the tribal states had been united into kingdoms, districts began to 
appear midway between the hundred or smaller jurisdiction and the 
kingdom. These came to be called shires, and originated at different 
times in different parts of the country. In the south, the kingdom of 
Wessex was divided probably on the lines of the ancient tribal states, 
and after the smaller kingdoms, Kent, Essex, and Sussex, were incor- 
porated, they too were reduced to shires. North of the Thames the 
two kingdoms of East Anglia, Norfolk and Suffolk, were treated in 
the same way. The remainder of the midlands were artificially di- 
vided after the country had been won back from the Danes. Usually 
an important town or fortification was selected and the shire grouped 
around it ; for example, Leicester formed the nucleus of Leicestershire. 
The shires in the extreme north — Lancashire, Cumberland, West- 
moreland, Northumberland — were organized after the close of the 



46 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Anglo-Saxon period. Besides transacting judicial business the shire 
moot collected revenues and raised military levies. At first, each 
shire was under the control of an Ealdorman, or Earl, chosen by the 
King with the consent of his Wisemen. As time went on, the shire 
moot came to be presided over by a shire reeve or sheriff, who levied 
the military forces as well. Originally, the sheriff was the king's bailiff 
or steward employed to collect the rents of his estates in the shire, 
and he continued to be appointed and dismissed by the King at pleas- 
ure. The Bishops represented the Church; and since they were 
the only learned men of the time, they were of great assistance, partici- 
pating in all business except trials where a death penalty was in- 
volved. 

The Witenagemot. — The highest body in the land was the Witena- 
gemot or moot of the Witan or Wisemen — the great officials whom 
the King assembled about him, — the Ealdormen, the Bishops, and 
the thegns or nobles. Their business was to assist and advise the King 
in devising such rude legal measures as were framed, to give their 
consent to land grants, and to the naming of Ealdormen and Bishops ; 
moreover it was the Witan who named the Kings — though they 
were limited in their choice to the ablest male next in descent in 
the royal family — and on rare occasions they even deposed an 
unworthy ruler. 

The King. — The King presided over the Witan and over the as- 
semblies or synods of the Church. He led the levy, or fyrd, in war ; 
he enforced the public peace, and he carried out the decrees which he 
made with the consent of his Witan. Bound to a considerable ex- 
tent by the recorded laws and the traditional customs of the people, 
and, to some degree, limited by the Witan, the Anglo-Saxon Kings, 
in general, enjoyed large powers without being absolute monarchs. 

Revenues in Anglo-Saxon Times. — In those simple days the ex- 
penses and income of the State were small and irregular, the latter 
chiefly paid in produce and personal services. The King and his 
officials had a right to maintenance for themselves and their retainers 
on their progress through the country, and goods could be seized for 
the royal needs. This right, known as feorum fultum, corresponded to 
the later purveyance. The most common form of public service 
was the trinoda necessitas, or threefold obligation of serving in the 
army, of repairing roads and bridges, and guarding fortresses. The 
King had rents and other dues from towns on the royal demesne, 
he received certain court fees and fines, and forfeitures of landed es- 
tates in case of lords who died without heirs or were guilty of grave 
offenses against his authority ; he was also entitled to harbor dues and 



STATE OF SOCIETY AT CLOSE OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 47 

tolls on trade, to wreckage and treasure trove. The Danegeld has 
already been described. 

Ranks in Anglo-Saxon Society. — The question of ranks in Anglo- 
Saxon society is obscure and complicated. One thing is certain, 
that there were only a few of the very highest class — at the time of 
Edward the Confessor's death the Witan apparently consisted of less 
than sixty men. Next to the King, the Earl was the highest in rank ; 
while he was the lineal descendant of the ancient Ealdorman, he had 
come to rule over not one, but many shires. Next to the Earl was the 
thegn, who, originally a minister or servant in the household of a King 
or great lord, had received endowments of land and had risen to the 
dignity of a territorial noble himself. Thegnhood was open not only 
to this ministerial class, but even to a merchant, if he " throve so 
that he fared thrice over the wide sea by his own means." The ceorls, 
or simple freemen, who stood on the next lower rung in the social 
ladder, were a comparatively small class. They paid fixed rents and 
services for the lands which otherwise were theirs even to hand down 
to their heirs ; they served in the fyrd, and had a right to attend the 
various courts where justice was administered and business transacted. 
Below the ceorls were various classes of servile dependents, personally 
free, but debarred from political rights, generally bound to the estate 
of some lord by services — usually onerous and uncertain — for the 
lands that they held. 

The Rise and Decline of the Royal Power. — Many evidences of 
the growth of the royal power to the end of the tenth century can be 
traced ; for example, from the time of Alfred, plotting against the 
King's life became a capital offense. Then the " King's Peace, " 
at one time limited to special places and seasons — to certain Roman 
roads, to navigable rivers, and to Christmas and Easter — was 
extended over the whole country throughout the year. But as the 
Kingdom grew in size, the royal power, for reasons already stated, de- 
clined in strength, while the manors, the borough courts, and the 
jurisdictions of the territorial magnates came to be the real centers 
of power. Thus at the eve of the Conquest there were in conflict 
two opposing tendencies. On the military side, there were two 
armies, the shire levies under the King's representative, the sheriff, 
and the armies of the Earls and thegns, nominally the King's, but which 
could be used for private purposes ; on the judicial side, there were the 
popular courts of the hundred and shire, constantly encroached on by 
those of the borough and manor. While the Anglo-Saxons had con- 
tributed to those who came after, principles and methods of local self- 
government, they had failed to furnish the necessary complement, a 
strong central government without which local freedom could easily 



48 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

degenerate into anarchy. It was reserved for their conquerors to 
supply what was lacking. 

Anglo-Saxon Literature. — The earliest literature among the Anglo- 
Saxons reflects the characteristics of the race and is profoundly in- 
fluenced by their surroundings. It is marked by love of the sea, a 
sense of gloom and mystery, by the fierceness and boastfulness of the 
primitive man, tempered and ennobled by courage and generosity. 
Their greatest achievements were in the form of the epic, where an 
action is narrated in poetic form, and sung by glee men in halls of 
thegns. Of these, Beowulf is the earliest and the only one which has 
survived in anything like completeness. The material — brought by 
the later Angles from their Continental homes but only worked up 
into enduring shape in the eighth century — recounts the glorious 
deeds of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf, his slaying of Grendel, the 
marsh fiend, and his mother, the " she-wolf of the abyss," and of the 
fire-vomiting dragon. Beside the epics there are some lyrics, or poems, 
that deal with sentiments and feelings, softened by a melancholy 
which some have supposed due to Celtic or Christian influence. 

Contrasted with this poetry is that which owes its inspiration to 
the Church and the Scriptures. One of the most beautiful stories 
in Bede is that of Caedmon, a rude, unlearned cowherd attached to 
the monastery of Whitby. He had no gift of song, and often at the 
merry-makings of his companions, when the harp was passed to him, 
he would leave the table and return to his stable. On one such occa- 
sion a figure appeared to him in his sleep and bade him sing ; at first 
he said he could not, but, finally, at the bidding of the stranger he 
began to sing verses in the praise of God. The next morning he rose 
and told his dream to the steward of the abbey, who took him before 
the abbess and divers learned men. After repeating his story they 
explained to him a passage of the Bible which he rendered into wonder- 
ful verse. He was made a brother of the monastery, and, as Bede 
tells us, " he sang the creation of the world, the origin of man, and all 
the history of Genesis: and made many verses on the departure of 
the children of Israel and their entering into the land of promise, with 
many other histories from Holy Writ." Another early Anglo-Saxon 
poet was Cynewulf . According to writings attributed to him, he was 
a wandering Northumbrian minstrel of the eighth century, who in 
his youth rejoiced in hunting, the bow, and the horse, who received 
many golden gifts for singing in the halls of the great. Turning in 
his old age to graver things, he wrote four poems on the lives of Christ 
and the Saints, and very possibly was the author of Riddles, and of the 
Phoenix, an allegory. Next to Bede the greatest prose work of the 



STATE OF SOCIETY AT CLOSE OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 49 

period is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. From King Alfred's time it was 
continued independently by at least half a dozen religious houses, one 
version reaching to 11 54, and its simple but. quaint and graphic en- 
tries furnish the chief source of information for much of the period. 

Art and Building. — The Anglo-Saxons were notable for their skill 
in illuminating manuscripts and in embroidery and weaving — we 
hear how the shuttle " filled not only with purple but with all other 
colors, flies now this way, now that, among the close spread threads," 
and how they " glorified the wool work with groups of pictures." 
Apparently they were unversed in the mason's art, for they seem to 
have built with wood. Except perhaps in the north no stone churches 
were constructed until Edward the Confessor, when, under Norman 
influence, those grand and stately edifices begin to appear which fill 
us with awe and reverence even to this present day. Westminster 
Abbey, though built on an earlier site, was Edward's peculiar creation. 
The simpler sort of houses consisted of a single room and were sur- 
rounded by a hedge. Sometimes they had an upper chamber, called 
a " solarium," though this was not common. The homes of the great- 
er folk consisted of a hall surrounded by separate buildings which 
were used for bed-chambers, or " bowers," as they were called, for 
household officers, and for the housing of cattle. The more preten- 
tious were roofed with tiles, and, inclosing the whole, was a wall usually 
of earth. The walls of the hall were usually covered with tapestry, 
and harps, armor, and weapons were hung about on pegs. The fire 
was in the middle of the floor and the smoke escaped through an open- 
ing in the roof. Benches, sometimes covered with carpets and cush- 
ions, constituted the chief furniture. At ©ne end of the hall was a 
raised platform where those of higher rank sat. Chairs were few and 
were generally the seats of Kings and great persons ; beds were usually 
mere sacks of straw laid on branches, and were often built in recesses 
and covered with a curtain. Since there was no sitting room but the 
hall, the chamber where the women sat, after they had served the cup 
to the lord's guests, was the bedroom. Here they spun and wove, 
here they sewed and embroidered. 

Manner of Living. — At a time when there was little to read and 
when means of communication were few and inadequate, the pleasures 
of feast and song bulked large. Bread was a great staple, and among 
their other articles of food were milk, butter, cheese, fish, poultry, and 
meat. Vegetables, on the other hand, were few, and in the winter 
there were none. For months in the year salt meat was the only kind 
to be had, since cattle could not be kept over the winter. Table 
manners were as yet very primitive, for there were no forks and few 

E 



50 SIJORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

table knives ; after dinner the hands were washed, the tables, mere 
temporary affairs, were taken away, and drinking began. Ale, mead, 
or wine were passed about while the company listened to story-telling 
or music or danced. The common musical instruments were the harp 
(poetically known as the glee-wood), the cithern, the pipe, and the 
horn. Feasts often ended in quarrels. Games of chance were 
another source of diversion. Though singing and playing were re- 
garded as desirable accomplishments, wandering glee men did not en- 
joy a very high status, and besides singing and playing performed 
tricks and cracked jokes from hall to village. The villagers were 
sometimes regaled with exhibitions of dancing bears and on holidays 
made merry with games such as running, leaping, and wrestling. Hunt- 
ing and hawking were favorite pastimes even with the clergy and with 
Kings like Alfred and Edward the Confessor. Owing to the badness 
of the roads people went about mostly on horseback, though carts or 
chariots, usually two-wheeled, were sometimes used for traveling. 
Inns were so infrequent that halls and monasteries entertained freely 
and hospitality was enjoined even by ecclesiastical laws. Merchants, 
however, usually traveled in companies, and carried tents under which 
they stopped at night. Ale houses, on the other hand, which received 
no lodgers, were overcommon and were much sought by the humbler 
folk, who had little else to do during the long dark days. 

Public Health. — Plague, pestilence, and famine were dread 
visitants of early and medieval England, though not as frequent or 
destructive as on the Continent. Epidemics entered the land from 
time to time from the east, like the yellow plague which appeared in 
south England, in 664, and spread north. It later reappeared and 
so thinned the monks of Jarrow that the little boy Bede was the only 
one left to join the Abbot in the responses. Local epidemics — usually 
fevers due to famines from failure of crops and cattle — were more fre- 
quent and less destructive. 

Trade. — The early villages and manors were almost altogether self- 
sufficing, raising their own food and making their own clothes. At first 
there was little buying or selling ; each man worked for the other mem- 
bers of the community and was supplied by them in turn. The trade 
which gradually developed was at first largely domestic. Most 
little towns had a market, and, before the close of the period, fairs were 
coming to assume a position of importance. For some time after the 
coming of the Teutons, seafaring life ceased and there was in conse- 
quence little oversea trade. Although English merchants visited the 
Frankish Empire, in the time of Offa, it was the Danish invasions 
which first revived the art of ship-building. Alfred, says the Chroni- 



STATE OF SOCIETY AT CLOSE OF ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD 51 

cle for 897, " commanded long ships to be built to oppose the in- 
vaders." These ships were primarily for defense ; but their construc- 
tion stimulated the growth of trading vessels. 1 In Alfred's time the 
chief intercourse was with France and the Mediterranean, though the 
coming of the Danes opened communications with the trading settle- 
ments of the Northmen. Scattered indications occur from time to 
time of the growth of an import and export trade. By the close of 
the tenth and early part of the eleventh century, wine, fish, clothes, 
pepper, gloves, and glass were brought from France, Flanders, and the 
Empire. From the north and northeast came furs, skins, ropes, masts, 
weapons, and iron work. Many other commodities, such as brocades, 
silk, precious gems, gold, ointments, and ivory came from the Orient, 
whence they were conveyed overland to the Bosphorus, and shipped 
from there to Venice or some other Italian port. Thence they were 
taken overland to Flanders to be finally shipped across the Channel. 
In return the English exported mainly metals — such as tin and lead 
— wool, and slaves. The slave trade was carried on extensively in 
spite of the efforts of the Church to stop it, and it was near the close 
of the twelfth century before the iniquitous traffic was stamped out. 
Such was England on the eve of the Conquest. William who now 
entered as master was to inflict much misery ; but he was to contrib- 
ute much to its power and prosperity. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Political and legal institutions are treated in Taylor, Taswell-Langmead, 
and A. B. White. Pollock and Maitland's English Law (2 vols., 1898) is the 
authoritative work on the period up to Edward I. Traill's Social England, 
I, deals with all aspects of Anglo-Saxon history and life ; Ramsay treats 
briefly the same subject. W. J. Ashley, English Economic History (1892) 
I ; Wm. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce (5th ed. 
191 2) ; and E. Lipson, An Introduction to the Economic History of England 
(191 5) I, are devoted mainly to economic conditions, while more com- 
pendious accounts are F. W. Tickner, A Social and Industrial History of 
England (1916) and A. P. Usher, An Introduction to the Industrial History 
of England (1920), the latter of which is the more serious and scholarly. 
The daily life of the Anglo-Saxons is described in Thomas Wright's Homes 
of Other Days (187 1). 

For a brief account of Anglo-Saxon literature see Moody and Lovett, ' 
A History of English Literature (1908), perhaps the best one- volume work 
covering the whole period of English literature. H. A. Taine, History oj 
English Literature (tr. van Laun, 4 vols., 1873) is very stimulating ; but not 

1 Indeed, England never had a permanent navy till the sixteenth century. 



52 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

always to be relied upon. J. A. Jusserand, A Literary History of the English 
People (3 vols., 1006-1909) is a charming and scholarly treatment. The 
Cambridge History of Literature (vols. I-X, 1907-1913) is a cooperative work 
which contains a mine of information. Further references may be found in 
Moody and Lovett's reading guide, 385 ff. 

For selections from the Anglo-Saxon laws, chiefly in English translation, 
see Stubbs, Select Charters Illustrative of English Constitutional History 
(7th ed., 1890), pp. 60-76. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS (1066-1154). THE STRENGTHENING 
OF THE CENTRAL POWER OF WILLIAM AND HIS SONS. THE 
INTERVAL OF ANARCHY IN THE REIGN OF STEPHEN 

William Secures London and is Crowned King of England. — 

After his victory at Hastings many weeks passed before William 
reached London. Those who held the City had elected Eadgar the 
^Etheling to succeed Harold; but on William's approach they gave 
up all hope of resistance, went forth to meet him, and offered to take 
him for their King. The Conqueror was crowned on Christmas Day, 
1066, in Edward's Abbey. 

William Redistributes the Lands of the Conquered. — Before pro- 
ceeding to extend his conquests, William took steps to organize what 
he already held. Courts were set up, a charter confirming ancient 
liberties was granted to the men of London, friends and supporters 
were rewarded, and foes punished. The lands of those who had fought 
against the Conqueror were seized and divided among himself and his 
followers, while those who submitted were allowed to keep their 
lands, but only on payment of heavy fines. Henceforth, there were 
to be no lands held in absolute ownership ; every landlord must hold 
directly or indirectly of the King. 

William Establishes His Power, Puts Down Risings (1067- 1075).— 
For the next four or five years after his accession, the Norman Con- 
queror was occupied in putting down risings and overcoming resist- 
ance to the extension of his authority. The North gave the most 
serious trouble, which began in 1068 and came to a head in a great 
rising in the following year. Eadgar the JEtheling, who had taken 
refuge in Scotland, was set up as King, and a body of Danes assisted 
the native English and Scots. When William was at length able to 
prevail over his enemies, he took care to stamp out all possibility of 
further resistance. Marching from the Ouse to the Tyne and back, 
he ruthlessly destroyed everything that lived or could sustain life, 
and every building, so that the vale of York was a waste and ruin 

53 



54 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for years to come. From York he led his army across to Chester in 
the dead of winter. His pitiless devastation remains an indelible 
blot on his character ; but neither he nor his sons had to face another 
general rising of the English. A few of the more desperate, led by 
one Here ward the Wake, 1 made a final stand in the island of Ely in 
1 07 1, where the dying resistance of the native English breathed its 
last gasp. William's future difficulties came from his own following. 
Most formidable, though he succeeded in suppressing it, was a rising 
attempted in 1075 by two of his Earls. Their pretext was that he 
was an usurper, their real grievance that he held them under too 
strict control. 

William's Method of Maintaining His Hold over the English. — 
Once his arms had triumphed, William had to solve the twofold prob- 
lem of holding the English in subjection and of keeping a check on 
his Norman followers. In the case of the English, he continued the 
practice of seizing the lands of those who resisted his authority and 
handing them over to Norman lords, each of whom had to furnish a 
contingent of soldiers in proportion to the size of his grant. Secondly, 
he secured every district which he conquered by a castle garrisoned 
with his own men. Moreover, instead of relying on force alone, he 
attached the English to himself by protecting them with good laws, 
and gradually they came to see that even stern rule and oppressive 
taxes accompanied by peace and prosperity were better than anarchy. 

Checks on the Baronage. — The baronage were held in check 
partly by force of circumstances, partly by William's courage, energy, 
and wise foresight. Though he granted enormous estates to some, 
the lands composing them were scattered throughout the land ; yet 
this was due to accident rather than to design — to the piecemeal 
character of the conquest and to the fact that they had been so held 
under their former owners. Intentionally, however, he broke up the 
four great earldoms which had been such a source of weakness to the 
Kings of the later Anglo-Saxon period. If he granted broad lands 
and quasi-regal or palatine rights to certain trusted officials such as 
the Earl of Chester, and the Bishop of Durham, this was for the 
defense of his borders. In general, it was his aim to keep the adminis- 
tration in the hands of the sheriff and to reduce the Earls to a merely 
titular position. By retaining control over the local machinery and 
also by keeping up the national militia, he held a strong counter- 
poise to baronial power. 

William and the Church. — Likewise, William attached to himself 
the Churchmen, and, so far as possible, he sought to detach them 
1 Hero of a famous novel by Charles Kingsley. 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 55 

from secular interests. He took control of the appointment of great 
prelates, and he issued an ordinance providing that henceforth eccle- 
siastical persons and causes should not be tried in the secular courts, 
but in those of the Bishop. Thus, he hoped to free the clergy from 
the control of those whose lives they were seeking to reform and save, 
and, by drawing them away from the laity, to bind them more closely 
to him as King ; but the result, in the long run, was unfortunate, for 
it tended to foster an exclusive privileged class, and opened a quarrel 
between two conflicting jurisdictions which lasted for centuries. 

Clerical Appointments and Relations with the Papacy. — For his 
episcopal appointments William almost invariably chose Normans. 
As Archbishop of Canterbury he selected Lanfranc, a sagacious and 
learned Italian who had migrated to Normandy. While William 
favored his Norman supporters, his motives were by no means wholly 
political. The Anglo-Saxon Church had not kept pace with those 
of the Continent in learning, and was low in morals as well ; so, aided 
by the advice of his councilors, William worked sincerely, if not always 
successfully, to secure Bishops and Abbots who would strive for better 
things. Monasteries once more became the centers of learning and 
culture, and many new churches and abbeys were built in the Norman 
style of architecture. While William desired to be the Pope's cham- 
pion and friend, he was prepared to resist to the utmost any papal 
encroachment on his authority or independence. Accordingly, he 
laid down three principles which defined the position of English 
sovereigns for some time to come : that no Pope should be recognized 
or no papal letters should be received without his permission ; no 
decrees of ecclesiastical assemblies should be passed without his con- 
sent ; and no tenant-in-chief of the Crown should be excommunicated 
without his orders. 

Retention of the Old Anglo-Saxon Laws. — In fact a conqueror, 
William constantly asserted that he was the legitimate successor of 
Edward the Confessor, so, as far as possible, he allowed the English to 
retain their manners, customs, and institutions, and introduced but 
few innovations. He did away with death penalties, though the muti- 
lations he allowed in their stead must have been far more cruel. A 
new form of ordeal, the judicial combat, he introduced mainly for the 
benefit of his Normans. A curious device for their protection, later 
used as a means of royal extortion, was the responsibility of the hun- 
dred or presentment of Englishry, which provided that if a man were 
murdered, the hundred where it happened had to pay a heavy fine, 
unless they could find the assassin or prove that the victim was an 
Englishman. William's forest regulations were also an innovation. 



56 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

While he and his sons, passionately fond of hunting, reserved large 
tracts of land for their pastime, 1 there were many considerations be- 
side mere love of sport that made him and his successors cling so 
tenaciously to their forest rights. They yielded the Crown a revenue 
— for rights of cutting wood and pasturing, chiefly of swine, were 
sold — they furnished an excuse for keeping a large force of armed men 
which could be used for a royal army in time of need ; finally, they 
offered a pretext for setting up arbitrary courts. William's penalty 
for hunting the royal deer was loss of eyes. 

The Domesday Survey (1085). — In order to estimate the resources 
of the country for purposes of taxation, we find William having " much 
thought and deep speech " with his Witan at Gloucester, in 1085, 
over the state of the country and its population. In consequence, 
he determined on a great survey or official inquiry known as the 
Domesday Survey. 2 The work was done by royal commissioners 
who went through the shires and hundreds and took testimony on 
oath from those best qualified to give it — the land-owners, the 
priests, the bailiffs, and six villeins from each township or manor — 
as to what property the inhabitants possessed in land and cattle and 
how much it was worth. The results were recorded in the Domesday 
Book, which gave " a great rate book or tax roll, a land register, . . . 
a census of population, and topographical dictionary " not only to 
the King, but to posterity as well. 

The Oath on Salisbury Plain (1086). — In the following year William 
held a great Gemot on Salisbury plain. We are told that " there 
came to him his Witan and all the landsittende (land owning) men 
of substance that were all over England, whosoever men they were, 
and all bowed down to him, and became his men, and swore oaths of 
fealty to him that they would be faithful to him against all men." 
Much has been made of this Salisbury Oath binding all the land- 
owners of England directly to the King as against all other lords ; 
but it represents no new departure ; for doubtless such oaths had been 
exacted, probably in the local courts, since the beginning of the reign. 
Moreover, it is most unlikely that all of the landowners of England 
could have been assembled at one time in one place. 

Last Years and Death (1087). — Of William's last years little re- 
mains to be said. He had to face revolts from Robert, his eldest son, 
who, discontented because his father denied him power corresponding 
to his station and expectations, was egged on by many unruly nobles 

1 These lands were usually, though not necessarily, wooded, .but any tract of 
Crown land reserved for royal hunting was called a forest. 

2 Probably so called, because, like the Day of Judgment, it would spare none. 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 57 

hoping to profit by discord, and by the King of France, always looking 
for a chance to extend his territories. After two or three years of 
desultory fighting, father and son were reconciled, but Robert was 
always ready when occasion offered to cause his father trouble. 
William, before his death, divided his kingdom, assigning Normandy 
to his eldest son Robert, and England to William Rufus, while to 
Henry he gave 5000 pounds of silver with the prophecy, it is said, 
that in due time he would get all his father had. 

Character and Rule. — William the Conqueror was a man to 
inspire awe. Harsh, despotic, and avaricious, he burdened his sub- 
jects with heavy exactions; yet, withal, he was "a very wise and a 
great man," and more honored and more powerful than any of his 
predecessors, " mild to those good men who loved God, but severe 
beyond measure to those who withstood his will." Altogether, his 
rule was good for England, for he put an end to those disruptive ten- 
dencies which stood in the way of national organization, and laid the 
foundation of strong, orderly government which is the necessary 
basis of freedom, prosperity, and progress. 

Results of the Norman Conquest. — The Norman Conquest was 
deep and far-reaching in its results. In the first place, it brought in a 
new line of foreign kings who were, for three successive reigns, men of 
vigor and energy and who were supported by an armed force bound 
to them by close and special ties. Thus fortified they not only crushed 
out the local differences which had marked the earlier period, but, by 
preserving whatever was best in the old system, they paved the way 
for the combination of central unity and local independence which 
survives to-day as the most chracteristic feature of the English govern- 
ment. Although their aim was primarily to strengthen their own 
position, the peace and order which they preserved made for progress. 
Moreover, the infusion of a new racial element, combining the vigor 
of the primitive Northmen and the alertness of the Latinized French- 
men, tended to vivify and broaden the sluggish and narrow national 
character. Finally, by bringing remote England into closer con- 
nection with the Continent, the Conquest opened the way for the 
intellectual and cultivating influences of the centers of older and 
higher civilization. 

Anglo-Norman Feudalism. — Doubtless the most significant change 
of all was the introduction of a well-organized form of feudal tenure, 
where feudal tendencies only had hitherto existed. Feudalism is a 
greatly overworked word used to describe conditions, by no means 
identical, which prevailed in England, France, and Germany from 
the eighth to the fifteenth centuries. In general " Feudalism com- 



58 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

prises both a system of land tenure and a system of government," 
an arrangement by which the various relations between man and man 
were determined by the amount of land held by one of another. At 
the top of the scale stood the lord or suzereign in whom the title or 
ownership of the land was vested. Those to whom he gave the use 
of it were called vassals ; lord and vassal were each bound by specified 
obligations, the lord to protect and defend his vassal, the vassal to 
render service to his lord. The commonest form of service rendered 
was military, and usually there were several intermediate lords 
and vassals between the suzerain and the small cultivator. In a 
thoroughly feudalized State the King was at the top of the scale ; as 
a matter of fact, however, the greater lords held themselves inde- 
pendent of their nominal ruler and led their own army and judged and 
taxed their own dependents. The feudal elements had existed in 
Anglo-Saxon England, thegns or manorial lords were granted lands in 
return for service and exercised jurisdiction over their dependents, 
but their relation to the Crown was not feudal, for their ownership 
was absolute; although they furnished armies for their King, they 
did not do so by virtue of any contract or agreement based on their 
land grant. What William did was to fuse these elements into a 
single whole. He made himself the supreme landowner of every foot 
of English soil; every new grant was made conditional on service 
rendered, and every Englishman whom he allowed to remain in pos- 
session had to yield his title to the King and promise service likewise. 
Generally grants were made in return for an agreement on the part 
of the landlord to furnish the King with a specified number of fully 
armed knights to serve him in his foreign campaigns for a stated 
period each year — usually forty days. 1 

Feudal Incidents and Other Obligations. — Certain obligations 
came to attach to all military tenures. The overlord had the right, 
known as wardship, of acting as guardian, and of collecting the rev- 
enues of the estate during the time when the heir was under age. 
When the young lord entered into possession he had to pay a fine 
known as relief. By the right of marriage, so called, the lord could 
determine when an heiress might marry and demand payment to allow 
her to take a husband of her own choice. By escheat and forfeiture 
the lord could recover the estate in case of failure of heirs, or for 
offenses against feudal law by the vassal. These obligations at- 

1 The unit of service was called a knight's fee. It was usually five hides in ex- 
tent but might be larger or smaller, depending on the value of the land. In later 
times the knight's fee was estimated on the basis of its annual income, first £20 and 
then £40. 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 59 

tached to a military tenure were called incidents. Besides the inci- 
dents there were certain payments, known as aids, which the lord 
could claim at crises. Three of these became customary, one on 
knighting the King's son, another on his eldest daughter's marriage, 
and a third to ransom him in case he fell into captivity. 1 William, 
in carefully avoiding the evils of Continental feudalism, where the 
landlords were virtually independent rulers, was aided by the small 
size of the Island and the fact that every part was comparatively 
accessible from the center. By establishing feudalism as a form of 
land tenure and preventing it from 'becoming a system of government, 
he made it a source of strength rather than weakness ; for he was su- 
preme landowner as well as King, and got thereby much revenue 2 
and an additional army. 

Magnum Concilium. — The old National Assembly continued to 
meet, usually three times a year, on Easter at Winchester, Whitsun- 
tide at Westminster, and Christmas at Gloucester. Now, however, 
it was called the Great Council (Magnum Concilium) or King's Court 
(Curia Regia) ; also where it formerly consisted of Englishmen, it 
now consisted largely of Normans; finally, the bishops and great 
landed nobles came, henceforth, not by virtue of their office, but as 
tenants-in-chief of the Crown. The Great Council dealt with judicial 
cases beyond the competence of the local and Church courts and with 
others where they failed to render justice. While the King professed 
to legislate and tax with the sanction of the Great Council, he was, 
like the stronger Anglo-Saxon monarchs, practically supreme. 

The Manor as a Judicial and Agrarian Unit. — After the Conquest 
there was a steady increase in the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor, 
who was represented in his judicial and administrative business by his 
steward or bailiff, and often did not live continuously on any one of 
his estates. The tenants rendered their services of labor and paid 
rents chiefly in produce, 3 for little or no money was yet in local cir- 

1 Another result of feudalism was to develop a form of inheritance, known as 
primogeniture, by which the lands came'to descend to the eldest son. The prevail- 
ing Anglo-Saxon custom of equal division among heirs, known as gavelkind, prac- 
tically disappeared, except in Kent. 

2 Besides the feudal revenues, and the Danegeld, revived in 1084, William had 
rents from the royal manors, fees from the courts of the hundreds and shires, as 
well as from cases settled in the Great Council, and various miscellaneous receipts, 
such as murder fines from the hundreds. 

3 They were mostly of servile or villein states, for slavery did not long survive 
the Conquest. The influence of the Church must not be forgotten, particularly 
in improving the slave's lot and in doing away with traffic beyond the seas ; but 
the gradual disappearance of slavery itself was largely due to the feudal theory, 
which had no place for any being absolutely without rights. 



60 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

culation. Methods of agriculture remained primitive; the system 
of scattered holdings and common cultivation still prevailed, marling 
was the only way of fertilizing the soil, and there was much unclaimed 
or waste land. The chief crop was wheat, though the product of 
oats and barley was considerable ; there were some vegetables, but 
no root crops. Orchards existed and at least a few vineyards, bees 
were raised to a considerable extent because the honey was used for 
sugar, and dairy produce and poultry formed staple articles of diet. 
The state of public health was probably better than on the Continent ; 
there was some leprosy, though not as much as is sometimes supposed, 
while skin diseases were common from the absence of fresh vegetables 
and the excessive use of fish and meat. 

Towns after the Conquest. — The great majority of the towns were 
agricultural, and the flourishing centers of trade as a rule were the 
seaports. From one point of view, the towns suffered, though tem- 
porarily, from the Conquest, because castles were established in their 
midst or rebuilt, the townsmen were burdened with garrisons, and 
often their houses were cleared away to make room for fortifications. 
Nevertheless, the ultimate result of the Conquest was favorable to 
town growth ; foreign commerce was extended by closer relations with 
the Continent and internal trade was fostered by the better peace 
that the strong Kings of the Norman lines were able to impose. 

The Population. — The population at the period of the Conquest 
was probably 300,000 families or 2,000,000 souls, of whom the great 
majority were serfs in varying degrees of dependence, and there were 
comparatively few freeholders or bondmen. Most of the tenants-in- 
chief and even the more considerable under-tenants were Frenchmen ; 
but the two races soon fused by intermarriage, and the distinction 
between Englishmen and Frenchmen came to be the one between the 
King's subjects on either side of the Channel rather than one between 
Saxons and Normans settled in England. 

Language and Literature. — French was chiefly spoken at the Royal 
Court, in the castle, and the manor house, while English was the tongue 
of the humbler folk. Laws, charters, records, and the writings of the 
learned were in Latin. The exclusion of the Anglo-Saxons from the 
higher offices checked the growth of a literature in the native tongue. 
Since the Normans were practical and serious rather than romantic, 
most of their writing in this period is either religious or historical, 
and a prevailing interest of the time is shown in the number of lives 
of saints which appeared. The historical writers were, in the main, 
mere annalists, copying their earlier matter from their predecessors, 
and chiefly valuable for their rather bald records of their own day. 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 6 1 

One happy exception is William of Malmesbury, who was the first 
writer since Bede to organize his material and to discuss cause and 
effect. Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Welshman, collected old Celtic 
legends, and is the source of much medieval romance ; from him the 
stories of Arthur and Merlin were handed down and to him we owe 
the plot of Shakespeare's King Lear. 

Anglo-Norman Architecture. — The new architectural movement 
begun by Edward the Confessor received a marked impulse from the 
Conquest, and very generally the Normans started rebuilding the 
cathedrals and abbeys of the conquered Saxons. Both peoples em- 
ployed the so-called Romanesque style, but while the older edifices 
were of wood, the new church buildings in most instances were of 
stone. Decidedly simple, austere, and impressive they were, with 
their low square towers and round arches supported by heavy piers 
and columns, though early in the twelfth century a new style was 
introduced, known as the Gothic or Early English, characterized 
chiefly by the pointed arch. Even more notable was the develop- 
ment of castle building. In place of the Anglo-Saxon strongholds, 
which were simple mounds of earth surrounded by a moat and a pali- 
sade, the Normans introduced the square rectangular keep, or tower, 
of stone. Gradually, as the art of the defense progressed, outer walls 
were added and were strengthened by gate towers, projecting galleries 
were built with openings in the floor to command the ditch which 
was dug as a further defense, while, within the inclosure, other towers 
were constructed to sweep the invaders by a cross fire. Siege engines 
were at first very primitive and ineffective, so the chief way to reduce 
a castle was by starvation. The earliest castles, during the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, were fortresses rather than places of resi- 
dence, and castle guard was an obligation due from lesser men to the 
barons and the King. 

William Rufus (i 087-1100). Character and Policy. — The new 
King, William II — known as Rufus, from his ruddy face — showed 
considerable abilities as a soldier, and in holding the people on his side ; 
he could be generous, on occasion, and was not very cruel for the age 
in which he lived. On the other hand, he was capricious, and inordi- 
nately wasteful ; and so great was his greediness in extorting money 
and supplies from his subjects that many fled to the woods when he 
drew near, to save what they could. Worst of all was the viciousness 
of his personal life and his blasphemy. Even the fashions indicate 
the departure from the simpler and soberer ideals of the past reign. 
The courtiers began to let their hair grow long, curled, and bound with 
ribbons ; they wore garments like women ; they affected a feminine 



62 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

mincing gait, and adopted shoes with long curved points like rams' 
horns, or scorpions' tails ; they passed their nights in " drinking and 
revelry " ; and it was said of William that " he every morning got up 
a worse man than he lay down and every evening lay down a worse 
man than he got up," and that he " openly mocked at God and the 
saints." 

Resistance of the Norman Barons. — The English seemed to have 
welcomed him at his accession ; but the Norman lords who had estates 
on both sides of the water, preferring the rule of his weaker brother 
Robert, broke out in revolt early in 1088. William, partly by his 
energy, partly by the support of some of the barons in England, but 
chiefly with the aid of the lesser folk, to whom he promised " the best 
law that had ever been in this land," managed to overcome his ene- 
mies. Once triumphant he imitated the discretion of his father, wel- 
comed the submission of his enemies and was particularly mild to 
those who might be dangerous. Already at his coronation he had 
sought popularity in another quarter by gifts to the Church and poor. 

Ranulf Flambard. — When Lanfranc, who had a great influence 
over him, died in 1089, William's rule changed for the worse. He 
took as his chief adviser Ranulf, or Ralph, known as " Flambard," 
the " Fiery Torch that licked up everything." As Chief Minister 
he managed all the financial and judicial business of the realm, and 
his name is associated with systematically fleecing the estates of 
royal tenants. While he did not originate, he carried to greater 
lengths than ever before the exactions known as feudal incidents, re- 
quiring particularly exorbitant reliefs from incoming heirs. More- 
over, he extended his extortions to the possessions of the Church, 
shamelessly selling offices and keeping bishoprics and abbacies vacant 
in order to collect the revenue for the King. 

Anselm made Archbishop of Canterbury (1093). — In 1093, William, 
overtaken by a serious illness and momentarily repenting of his evil 
ways, agreed to choose a successor to Lanfranc as Archbishop of Can- 
terbury. The man selected was Anselm — a good and an upright man, 
of great learning, so unwilling to accept that the pastoral staff was 
literally forced into his hands, and he was carried bodily into the 
chapel for consecration. Events proved that he had correctly fore- 
seen inevitable conflicts from which his gentle nature shrank. He 
cherished the high ideal that Churchmen, who stood for moral 
and spiritual betterment, should be absolutely independent of 
unscrupulous laymen. On the other hand, while William opposed 
him on unworthy grounds, there was a sound principle under- 
lying his opposition ; namely, that, since the Church officials pos- 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 63 

sessed vast property and extensive temporal powers and were 
subject to a foreign master, they must, in the interest of law, order, 
and national unity, be subject to State control. Finally, Anselm did 
agree to observe the laws and customs of the realm in so far as he 
could without prejudicing his allegiance to the Holy See, and got 
the grudging permission of his Sovereign to go to Rome. With a 
pilgrim's scrip and staff he left the country never to return until a 
new King was on the throne. 

The First Crusade, 1096. — Meantime, a movement was on foot 
which relieved William of danger from his brother Robert during the 
remainder of his reign. Peter of Amiens and Urban II were preaching 
a crusade, the first of many, to recover the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem 
from the Turks who had taken the city in 1077. Among the nobles of 
western Europe who joined in this holy enterprise was Robert of Nor- 
mandy. Mortgaging his duchy to his brother Rufus for 10,000 marks, 
he took with him many younger sons and allies, who from lack of 
estates were likely to foment discord, and left William free to pursue 
his plans fairly undisturbed. His last years were spent mainly in try- 
ing to extend his power in the Norman duchy which he was holding 
in pawn ; but England, shocked by his wickedness and burdened by 
taxation, was growing weary of him. In August, 1100, he was shot 
by a favorite courtier, probably accidentally," while hunting in the 
New Forest. When it was found that he was really dead, the nobles 
of the hunting party fled to Winchester, each to look after his own in- 
terests, leaving the body to be brought to the city by the foresters. 

Henry I (1100-1135). His Charter of Liberties. — Henry, the 
Conqueror's youngest son, was one of those who hastened to Win- 
chester, where he managed to seize the keys of the royal hoard. In 
spite of the claims of his brother Robert, he was accepted by the lead- 
ing men on the spot and was crowned soon after at Westminster. As 
a means of attaching his people to him, the new King issued a Charter 
of Liberties in which he promised to do away with the evil customs 
of his brother's reign. No profit was to be taken from vacant bish- 
oprics and abbeys. Reliefs from lay barons were to be just and lawful 
and the King was to charge nothing for licenses to marry. Just fines 
were to be taken from offending tenants in place of the excessive 
exactions of the two Williams, and military tenants were to be freed 
from all payments and labor except armed service. The laws of 
Edward the Confessor, with the Conqueror's improvements, were to 
be retained, but the forests were to be kept as the old King had pos- 
sessed them. Such was " the parent of all later charters," which, 
although its promises were often broken, marks the first check on 



64 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the absolutism founded by the Conqueror and carried to such a height 
by the Red King. As a further guarantee of his intention to undo 
the wrongs of his brother's reign, Henry recalled Anselm, filled vacant 
bishoprics and abbeys, and sent Flambard to the Tower. The year 
after his coronation Henry had to meet an invasion led by Robert 
who had, shortly before, returned from the Holy Land. Having 
made terms with him he proceeded to punish the Norman barons 
resident in England who had worked against him, and for " three 
and thirty years he ruled England in peace." But Normandy, ruled 
by the unstable Robert, formed a refuge for the disaffected who might 
at any time organize another invasion into England. Moreover, 
English subjects who had estates in Normandy were constantly ex-^ 
posed to attacks from Henry's enemies, and Robert was either unwill- 
ing or unable to protect them. So Henry finally led an expedition 
across the Channel in 1106, defeated his brother's Norman army at 
Tinchebrai, took Robert prisoner l and appropriated the Duchy, which 
remained an English possession for nearly a hundred years. 

Compromise with Anselm (1107). — The next year, 1107, was 
marked by a final agreement on the matter of filling episcopal offices. 
There were several stages in the process, election, homage to the King 
for temporal possessions, investiture — the conferring of the ring and 
the staff, which were spiritual symbols of the bishop's marriage to the 
Church and his assumption of the pastoral office — consecration, and 
enthronization. Anselm, on his return, had refused to repeat the 
homage for the lands of Canterbury which he had rendered to Rufus, 
and he also refused to consecrate bishops who had received investiture 
in his absence. Henry firmly insisted on lay investiture; but at 
length the Pope suggested a compromise by which the King agreed 
to allow the ring and staff to be conferred by the Church, on condition 
that each candidate render homage for his land. The victory was 
really the King's ; for, by refusing to receive homage, he might block 
any episcopal appointment that he chose. From this time, too, it 
came to be the custom for the clergy of each cathedral to elect its 
bishop, but, owing to the fact that elections had to take place in the 
royal chapel, the King really dictated the choice. 

Henry's Last Years. His Character and Policy. — During the 
remainder of the reign, Henry's chief interest was centered in notable 
improvements and innovations in the machinery of government and 
in an attempt to settle the succession. In 1 1 20 his son and heir was 
drowned, and the only heir left to him was his daughter Matilda. 

1 He was taken to England and held a prisoner till he died in Cardiff Castle in 
1 134. 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 65 

Although a woman had never ruled the land, Henry made the barons 
swear to accept her as his successor, a proceeding which resulted in 
years of strife. 

Henry I himself died in 1135. He was a man of scholarly tastes — 
from which he got his name Beauclerk — affable but cold and calcu- 
lating, who realized fully that he must hold down the turbulent barons, 
keep on good terms with the Church, and attach the people to himself 
if he was to rule as a strong King. In the orderly system of judicial 
and financial administration which he developed he was actuated by 
thrift and a desire to increase his resources, but he laid the foundation 
on which the wisest of his successors built and which has contributed 
so much to the stability of the English nation. He imposed heavy 
taxes and caused the laws to be administered with ferocious rigor, 
yet he gradually won for himself the name of the " Lion of Justice." 

Administrative Machinery. The Curia Regis and the Exchequer. — 
It was after Henry had got the baronage and Church in hand that he 
began to develop a system of transacting the business of government 
which did so much, not only to increase the wealth and power of the 
Crown but to improve the condition of the country and people as well. 
In this work he was greatly assisted by Roger,, created Bishop of Salis- 
bury, who, first as Chancellor and then as Justiciar, organized the 
Curia Regis, or King's Court, which served at once as an advisory 
body, a tribunal for important judicial decisions, and a treasury 
board. Smaller than the Great Council, sometimes called by the same 
name, the Curia Regis included the great officers of the royal house- 
hold : the Chamberlain, the Constable, the Butler, and the Steward, 
officers who had originally acted as servants to the King, had made 
his bed, had groomed his horses, poured his drink, and provided his 
meals, but whose duties became, in course of time, purely honorary, 
hereditary in certain great families. Another class of members were 
the chief Ministers of the Crown : the Justiciar, the Chancellor, and 
the Treasurer. The Justiciar acted as Regent during the King's 
absence, as his right-hand man when he was in the country, and pre- 
sided over the Curia Regis. The Chancellor, or royal secretary, was 
keeper of the records ; l gradually he became a very important official, 
was custodian of the Great Seal — which had to be affixed to all the 
most important documents — .and was consulted in the transaction 
of important business of State. The Treasurer kept the royal hoard. 
To these three offices men, usually of the clergy, were appointed and 
were looked at askance by the older nobility. In addition to these 

1 He got his name from the fact that he originally sat behind the cancelli or bars 
of a screen. 



66 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

two groups, certain important men were selected from time to time 
from the Great Council. 

The Curia Regis held two financial sessions a year, one at Easter 
and one at Michaelmas (29 September), when they met the sheriffs 
from the various counties, received their rents, and went over their 
accounts. For the sums paid in at Easter the sheriff received a tally, 
which was a stick 1 notched in the side and marked, each notch indi- 
cating a certain number of pounds, shillings, and pence : after notches 
had been cut, the stick was split lengthwise, the Government keeping 
one half as a check on the sheriff. The Court, in its financial sessions, 
was called the " Exchequer," from the Latin word for chequers, 
because the officials sat about a table making up their accounts by 
means of counters, and, in moving these counters to and fro, looked 
as if they were playing chequers. 2 As a further means of extending 
the royal power over the local districts, officials — called Itinerant 
Justices — were sent into the different counties, where they sat with 
the sheriffs in the cases in which the King was concerned, i.e. Crown 
pleas; 3 listened to complaints; conveyed the King's wishes to his 
people ; and, what was perhaps originally their most important duty, 
saw to it that the royal taxes were properly levied and collected. 

English Life in Henry's Time. — On the whole the life of the period 
seems to have been easy and joyous. Chivalry was coming in with 
its artificial distinctions ; but class feeling was much less marked than 
elsewhere, and the common people were contented with their lot. 
Hospitality, charity, and love of sport prevailed, so the country could 
with truth be called " Merry England." If London was small and 
unpretentious, it was the center of jolly pastimes, cockfights, foot- 
ball games, archery matches, foot races, water sports, and occasional 
skating. Hunting, feasting, and love of dress were a favorite theme of 
attack by austere ecclesiastics. For the small villagers pilgrimages 
to local shrines, the visits of wandering minstrels, and the numerous 
saints' days furnished constant occasion for merrymaking. In the 
monasteries there was much good cheer ; sometimes we hear of dinners 
with as many as sixteen courses washed down with copious draughts 
of wines, cider, and beer. 

The Monastic Revival. — In monastic life, however, this period 
witnessed the beginnings of an earnest revival. From the early part 
of the previous century new orders had come into being as vital pro- 

1 Hence our term stock. 

2 The name does not come, as some have said, from the fact that the table was 
covered with a checkered cloth. 

3 Later used to designate serious offenses in which the State was prosecutor. 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 67 

tests against the declining ideals of the Benedictine and the Cluniac. 
Chief among these reformed orders was that of the Cistercians. 
Simplicity and austerity were its ideals, garments were of the plainest 
and coarsest sort, church ornaments were made of simple brass, iron, 
and painted wood, and its houses were to be in lonely and desolate 
places. The professed brethren were to devote themselves to study, 
while lay brothers were to do all the manual labor. In 1 128 the Cister- 
cians came to England, and, in the succeeding years, established many 
houses, chiefly in the north. Every one has heard of Melrose Abbey 
in Scotland and Fountains in Yorkshire. By the middle of the 
twelfth century there were fifty Cistercian houses in England. Their 
chief industrial pursuit was cattle and sheep raising, and the wool of 
the Cistercians became a famous article of export. Among others, 
military-religious orders — founded as a result of the crusading move- 
ment — also made their way into England, the Knights Hospitallers, 
who furnished succor to sick and needy pilgrims on their way to the 
Holy City, and the Knights Templars, who guarded the roads to the 
Holy Land. Altogether, well over two hundred new houses were 
established in the reigns of Henry and his two successors. With in- 
creasing wealth abuses crept in among these reformers in their turn. 
The Cistercians, for instance, are accused of avarice, idleness, luxury, 
but we must not forget the services they rendered in reclaiming waste 
lands, furthering useful arts and trades, preserving and spreading 
learning, in administering charity, and in setting up standards of living 
which, even if not always observed, were a protest against the brutality 
and coarseness which they saw about them. 

Stephen Received as King of England (1135). — On the death of 
Henry I the two chief candidates for the throne were Matilda, his 
daughter, and Stephen of Boulogne, his nephew. Matilda had un- 
questionably the better title, but her sex told against her, as did her 
marriage with the representative of the House of Anjou, long the de- 
clared enemy of Englishman and Norman. Stephen, who hastened to 
England, was promptly accepted by the citizens of London in return 
for his promises to maintain and to respect the liberties and privileges 
of the city. At Winchester, of which his brother was Bishop, he came 
to terms with the Church, granting concessions in the matter of elec- 
tions and jurisdiction greater than it had ever enjoyed on English 
soil. Then, by promises equally lavish, he sought the alliance of 
the King of Scotland, and of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, Matilda's 
half brother. 

His Character and Problems. — Personally Stephen was a man of 
the most engaging qualities, but totally incompetent to deal with 



68 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the problems which confronted him. He was unable to fulfill the prom- 
ises which he had so rashly made, he was not keen and foreseeing 
enough to anticipate the opposition which the nobility, turbulent and 
self-seeking as ever, were bound to manifest. He excited animosity 
by bringing mercenaries into the land, and he weakened his position 
by creating new Earls and allowing them to build castles. " The 
more he gave them, the worse they always carried themselves toward 
him." Moreover, in the very first revolts directed against him he 
showed himself too easy to punish disaffections even after he had put 
them down. 

His Attacks on Roger of Salisbury and His Family (1139). — Like 
many mild men he was capable of sudden acts of violence and rash- 
ness. Such a blunder he committed by a foolhardy attack on Roger of 
Salisbury and his family, who between them controlled the financial 
and judicial business of the Government. Suddenly Stephen ordered 
them to surrender their castles into his hands, and when they refused, 
eventually arrested them all. He may have feared that they were 
combining against him in favor of Matilda, he may have been merely 
jealous of their increasing power and pretensions, which were truly 
regal, but his action was disastrous in its consequences. It threw the 
financial and judicial system into a confusion from which it did not 
recover till the next reign and it alienated most of the King's supporters 
in the Church. Even his own brother Bishop Henry declared against 
him. The situation was particularly critical. In 1138 an invasion 
of the Scots was only turned back by the dauntless efforts of the 
Archbishop of York, and, meanwhile, the southwestern counties had 
risen, at the instigation of Robert of Gloucester, who had thrown off 
his allegiance and fled abroad, alleging that Stephen was a usurper 
and had not kept his promises to him. 

The Coming of Matilda and the Civil War (1139-1148). — Such was 
the situation when, in the autumn of 1139, Robert and Matilda ap- 
peared in person. Their arrival converted the unrest, already mani- 
fest, into a civil war, which lasted for fourteen years. The disputed 
succession was only a pretext which the barons seized to foster disorder 
and thereby to gain power and profit for themselves. They built 
castles ; they " greatly oppressed the wretched people," and, to ex- 
tort their property from them, tortured them " with pains unspeak- 
able." Many fled and many starved, " The earth bare no corn, you 
might as well have tilled the sea, for the land was all ruined by such 
deeds, and it was said openly that Christ and his saints slept." The 
years following the arrival of Robert of Gloucester and Matilda were 
marked by a bewildering series of raids, sieges, and ravaging of towns, 



THE ANGLO-NORMAN KINGS 69 

with the balance swaying first on one side and then on the other. 
At length, however, Matilda began to lose ground ; the death of Robert, 
in 1147, deprived her of her chief support, and in the following year 
she retired to Anjou and gave up the struggle. Yet her retirement 
gave neither peace to England nor a clear title to Stephen ; for her 
son Henry, now fifteen years old, was soon to take up the fight for his 
heritage. Moreover, the barons, in their own interests, were de- 
termined to continue the carnival of misrule : " every lord of a castle 
was a petty king, ruling his own tenants, coining his own money, 
administering his own justice." One great source of encouragement 
to the party opposed to Stephen was the conquest of Normandy in 
1 144 by Geoffrey of Anjou who, steadily refusing to take any part in 
the English complications, had been persistent in his attacks in the 
Duchy since the death of Henry I. Louis VII, King of France, 
recognized his victory by investing him with the Dukedom, and be- 
fore the close of another year, he had stamped out the last embers of 
resistance. 

Treaty of Wallingford (1153). — Geoffrey died in 1151. Already, 
some months before, he had handed over the Duchy of Normandy to his 
young son Henry, and his death added to Henry's possessions the lands 
of Anjou and Maine. By marrying, n 52, Eleanor, heiress of Aqui- 
taine, he acquired a vast addition of territory. Soon after his marriage 
Henry set out for England. Stephen fought doggedly for a time, but, 
in 1 1 53, the Treaty of Wallingford was arranged, by which Stephen 
was to continue as King during his lifetime, while Henry was recognized 
as his heir in order to put an end to the disorders which had so long 
prevailed. Crown lands were to be resumed, foreign mercenaries 
were to be banished, all castles built since the death of Henry I were 
to be destroyed and Stephen was to consult his prospective heir in 
all important acts. Stephen died in 11 54, and it was left to a young 
man of twenty-one to mend the evils which had come upon the land 
during the nineteen years' rule of a man who was as generous and 
kindly as he was weak. 

Results of Stephen's Reign. — At first sight the reign of Stephen 
appears to be nothing more than a period of anarchy and suffering, 
but it brought the people a useful lesson, or reenforced an old one, 
that the rule of a strong King, harsh and despotic though he might 
be, was to be preferred to the unrestricted sway of local magnates. 
Viewed in this light, the reign contributed as much to strengthen 
the central government against feudal independence as the work of a 
William the Conqueror or a Henry Beauclerk. On the other hand, the 
barons were not the only force that threatened the unity and security 



70 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of the land. The prevailing uncertainty, and the aim of the con- 
tending parties to secure the support of a powerful and influential 
institution brought the Church into a position of prominence that 
later Kings had to reckon with. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Freeman's Norman Conquest, IV, V, is still valuable for an exhaustive 
account of the events from 1060 to 11 54, though Freeman was inclined to 
minimize the effects of the Conquest and many of his findings have been 
reversed by recent investigators. Briefer and more modern narratives are 
to be found in Ramsay, Foundations of England, II ; H. W. C. Davis, 
England under the Normans and Angevins (1905), and G. B. Adams, Po- 
litical History of England (1905). Both of the latter works embody the 
results of recent scholarship ; and Davis pays much attention to the non- 
political aspects of the period, presenting an interesting picture of con- 
ditions under the Anglo-Norman kings. 

For brief accounts of the constitutional aspects of the subject, see works 
already cited. A more detailed treatment will be found in Stubbs' Con- 
stitutional History, I. Good brief accounts of feudalism are given in E. 
Emerton, Introduction to the Middle Ages (1891) ; G. B. Adams, Civiliza- 
tion during the Middle Ages (1898) ch. IX, especially valuable; Seignobos 
(tr. E. W. Dow), Feudal Regime; and J. H. Robinson, History of Western 
Europe (1902). The feudal incidents are discussed in detail in Pollock 
and Maitland, English Law, I, bk. II, ch. I, and J. S. McKechnie, Magna 
Carta (1913), pp. 52-77. Pollock and Maitland treat Norman and Anglo- 
Norman Law in I, bk. I, chs. Ill, IV. 

For the Church see Wakeman, Makower, and W. R. Stephens, English 
Church (1901). 

For social and industrial conditions, in addition to works already referred 
to, see Mary Bateson, Mediaeval England (1904) ; R. E. Prothero, English 
Farming Past and Present (1913), the most recent and authoritative work 
covering the whole period of English agriculture. References to sources 
and for further reading, Davis, 534-544 ; Adams, Political History, 448-458 ; 
and White, XXVI. 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, Select Documents of 
English Constitutional History, nos. 1-11, especially 1 and 7. 



CHAPTER VII 

HENRY II (1154-1189). THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL 
POWER AND THE RISE OF THE ENGLISH COMMON LAW 

Henry II, Founder of the Angevin or Plantagenet Line. 1 — Henry II, 
a boy barely turned twenty-one, was the first representative of a new 
line which continued in unbroken succession for two hundred and 
forty-five years. Of feverish energy and uncommon endurance, he 
was, when not engaged in war or State business, either hunting or 
hawking or deep in a book or in conversation with some of the learned 
men whom he delighted to gather about him. Subject at times to 
ungovernable fits of passion, he was generally good-humored and easy 
of access. Resuming forthwith the good work begun by his grand- 
father, Henry I, which had been all undone by nineteen years of 
anarchy, it was his aim to subdue the barons, to check the growing 
power of the Church, to bring its members within the control of the 
State in worldly things, and to attach the people to their Sovereign by 
protecting them from oppression and by advancing their welfare. 
If he did not reach his goal he took the right road and set the course 
for the future. 

His Original Interests not Primarily English. — Henry came to the 
throne practically a foreigner and apparently never learned to speak 
the English language. Indeed, England was only a part of the nu- 
merous territories which he ruled. At first his only interest in the 
land was to use it as a source of supply in defending and rounding out 
his possessions across the Channel ; but, after he had undertaken the 
task of developing his English resources, he became more and more 
interested in the undertaking for its own sake. Nevertheless, cir- 
cumstances kept him abroad more than half his reign, which makes 
it all the more notable that his most enduring work was done in Eng- 
land. 

1 It is sometimes known as the Angevin dynasty, from the fact that Henry on 
his father's side descended from the Counts of Anjou, sometimes as the Plan- 
tagenet, possibly from the emblem of Geoffrey of Anjou, a sprig of broom (Latin — 
planta genesta) which he wore in his hat. 

7i 



72 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Thomas Becket. — One of his first steps was to set in motion again 
the administrative machinery which had come to a standstill, and, of 
all the appointments which he made, that of Chancellor was fraught 
with the greatest consequences. Thomas Becket, whom he selected, 
was the son of a Norman merchant settled in London, and had been 
educated for the Church. Although he was a striking contrast to 
his master, fifteen years older and much more sumptuous in his tastes, 
he and Henry became fast friends ; they worked together, they hunted 
together, and on occasion they romped like schoolboys. But im- 
mersed as he was in worldly business and luxury and so martial that 
he more than once rode in the King's armies, the life of Thomas Becket 
was so pure that even his enemies found no word to say against him. 

The Opening of the Conflict between Becket and Henry (1163). — 
A time came when the firm friends were turned into bitter enemies. 
In 1 161, Henry determined to appoint Thomas Archbishop of Can- 
terbury. The Chancellor resisted stoutly, for it was his nature to 
champion to the utmost any cause which he undertook, and he realized 
that, as head of the English Church, he would be bound to come in 
conflict with the royal policy. His scruples, however, were overborne, 
and, in 1162, he assumed the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Without delay, he resigned the Chancellorship and all his worldly 
interests and became an ascetic of the most extreme type as well as 
a most ardent defender of Church privilege. Not many months passed 
before he had broken with the King, though curiously enough, the 
first quarrel arose over a point which did not concern the Church at 
all. Henry demanded that the sheriffs should pay into the royal 
treasury a certain " aid " or fee which they had been accustomed to 
collect from the shires in payment for their work ; Thomas, at a coun- 
cil held in n 63, took the part of the sheriffs, thus becoming the first 
English subject on record to resist his Sovereign on a question of na- 
tional taxation. This breach was followed by many others in rapid 
succession, but the climax was reached in the struggle over criminous 
clerks. 

The Criminous Clerks. — William the Conqueror, in separating 
lay and spiritual jurisdiction, had failed to draw a definite line between 
the two classes of cases ; but he and his sons had apparently kept the 
clergy under the control of their courts in matters of temporal concern. 
In the troublous time of Stephen the Church courts had greatly ex- 
tended their powers, and, among other things, claimed the exclusive 
right to judge the offenses of clergymen even if committed against 
the law of the land. While the Church naturally wanted to protect 
its servants from profane hands, there was danger, since the sentences 




2 Longitude from Greenwich 2 



THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL POWER 73 

of the ecclesiastical courts were extremely light, that evil doers, by 
claiming exemption from lay jurisdiction, might escape the conse- 
quences of their misdeeds and menace the security of the State. This 
was what King Henry was determined to prevent. Two or three cases 
arose at this time of clerks found to be guilty of murder and robbery, 
and Becket not only refused to have them retried in the King's courts, 
but even to allow adequate sentences to be pronounced against them. 
The King summoned a council and ordered the bishops to agree that 
clerks accused of crime should be called before the King's courts to 
answer the charges; if well grounded, they should be tried in their 
episcopal courts in the presence of a King's justice, and if guilty they 
should be handed over to the lay courts for punishment. The King 
did not ask that clerks should actually be tried in his courts. At 
first the bishops, led by Thomas, refused to concede, but they finally 
agreed, Thomas last of all, to obey the " customs of the realm." 

The Constitutions of Clarendon (1164). — Thereupon, Henry as- 
sembled a Great Council at Clarendon, in January, 1164, and directed 
some of the oldest barons of the realm to draw up the " customs " as 
they had existed in the reign of Henry I. These customs which 
Henry II presented to Becket and the bishops for acceptance are 
known as the " Constitutions of Clarendon," and aimed to settle all 
questions at issue between the King and the clergy. However, they 
went far beyond the original question in dispute, indeed far beyond 
any claim that Henry had ever made ; for their provisions not only 
brought the criminous clergy under the cognizance of the King's jus- 
tice, but fixed the relations between the royal and ecclesiastical courts, 
and drew into the King's tribunals many cases involving Church 
property and large court fees. Their general aim was to put the King 
at the head of the English Church and to subordinate the clergy to his 
will, to make the law of the land dominant over the law of the Church. 

Resistance and Flight of Becket (1164). — Eventually, Becket re- 
pudiated the Constitutions as contrary to the law of God and took 
refuge abroad to escape the wrath of the King. He sought an au- 
dience with Alexander III, but Henry's ambassadors had already 
preceded him. The Pope, who needed Henry's support against a 
rival anti-Pope, and who, at the same time, did not wish to repudiate 
Becket as a champion of the Church, was in a delicate situation. Fi- 
nally, after some hesitation, without formally condemning the Con- 
stitutions, he absolved Becket from observing them, except so far as 
was consistent with his holy orders. For six years, from 1164 to 
1 1 70, the quarrel continued, Becket striving with might and main to 
force the King to recede from his position. 



74 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Murder of Becket, 1170. — At length, in 11 70, in order to evade 
an interdict which the distracted Papacy had finally prepared against 
him, Henry met the Archbishop, promised amends for a recent dis- 
regard of his authority as primate of England, and Thomas agreed 
to return to Canterbury. As none of the essential points at issue 
were settled, the reconciliation proved a hollow one, and the Arch- 
bishop made matters worse by suspending and excommunicating a 
number of his opponents. Henry received the news with a furious 
outburst of passion. " My subjects are sluggards, men of no spirit," 
he roared, " they keep no faith with their lord, they allow me to be 
made the laughing stock of a low-born clerk." At once four knights 
hastened to Canterbury, and after a heated interview with Becket 
they murdered him within the precincts of the Cathedral. Almost 
immediately miracles began to be wrought at his burial place, in less 
than three years' time he was canonized, and his shrine became the 
most popular of English centers for pilgrims. Henry had persecuted 
him in mean and petty ways, even if he did not intentionally cause 
his death ; but the cause for which the Archbishop contended — the 
exemption of the clergy from State control and the supremacy of the 
Church in important matters of temporal concern — was a political, 
not a religious one, and his death brought to his cause a greater victory 
than he would ever have been able to gain had he lived. Public opin- 
ion held Henry accountable for the base deed for which he was only 
indirectly responsible, so that he was obliged to seek reconciliation 
with the Pope at the expense of humiliating concessions. 

Henry in Ireland. State of the Country. — While he was waiting 
to see what the Pope would do he turned his attention to Ireland, 
first granted as an English possession by Adrian IV in 1154. The 
Irish, developing in comparative isolation, had attained a degree of 
culture and a fervor of religious life far in advance of their social and 
political development. Their zealous missionaries had carried their 
faith even to wildest parts of the German lands, they had beautiful 
legends and sweet-tongued bards, they excelled in the illuminating 
of manuscripts ; but the people were still in the tribal stage, law and 
order were sadly lacking, while the kings and chiefs were constantly 
warring against one another. Cattle was the chief standard of value, 
houses were primitive, clothing was scanty, and there was a dearth of 
arable land. In 1166, when the King of Leinster, hard pressed by 
rivals, appealed to Henry for aid, the English King allowed him to en- 
list volunteers among his subjects. Chief of the recruits was Richard 
de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, known as " Strongbow," who was fol- 
lowed by men from England, Wales, and from the Continent, restless 



THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL POWER 75 

and needy adventurers, eager for any stirring or profitable undertaking. 
Henry went over in person largely from apprehension of the growing 
power of Scrongbow. During his stay in the country, from October, 
1 1 71, to April, 1 1 72, he was able to secure the submission of most of 
the native rulers, and left officials to represent him; nevertheless, 
the English intervention, instead of bringing peace and order, added 
one more element of discord to the troubled country. 

Henry's Submission at Avranches. " Benefit of Clergy." — After 
leaving Ireland Henry crossed to Normandy, and at Avranches came 
to terms with the papal legates and received absolution. He swore 
that he had not instigated the murder of Becket, that he would sup- 
port Alexander III, and, without mentioning the Constitutions of 
Clarendon, agreed to do away with any customs introduced against 
the Church in his time. As a matter of fact, his courts continued to 
claim control over most of the property cases in which the Church was 
involved, though clergymen accused of criminal offenses claimed ex- 
emption from the lay courts — " benefit of clergy " it was called — 
for centuries. 

Henry's Remaining Years and Death. — Henry's remaining years 
continued to be clouded with difficulties. His sons were discontented 
with the niggardly revenues and small authority which he allowed 
them; he was on bad terms with his Queen, Eleanor; most of the 
barons were restive under his firm rule ; while Louis VII stirred up 
strife to increase his own possessions. Thanks to the selfish and con- 
flicting aims of his opponents and to his own promptitude, Henry was 
able, with the aid of mercenaries and a few faithful followers to sup- 
press a revolt which broke out, in 11 73, under the lead of his eldest son, 
Prince Henry. Yet, to the very end of his days, he had to contend 
against the feudal barons on the French side of the water, against the 
King of France, and against two of his sons, Richard and John. One 
fruitful source of difficulty was the redistribution of his lands, compli- 
cated by the death of Prince Henry, in 1 183. In 1 188, the two younger 
brothers joined Philip II, who had succeeded Louis VII as King of 
France, and Henry, old, discouraged, and sick, had to consent to their 
terms. Turning on his bed he muttered : " Now let all things go as 
they will, I care no more for myself, nor for the world." He died 
shortly after, in 1189, repeating in his last hours : " Shame, shame on 
a beaten King." 

Henry's Constitutional and Legal Reforms. — From this sad end 
to a still sadder struggle with treacherous and undutiful sons it is a 
relief to turn to a survey of those aspects of Henry's work which have 
given him deservedly a place among England's greater Kings. In 



76 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the field of domestic legislation and preeminently in legal reform he 
marked an epoch in progress. His Norman ancestors had begun the 
work of shaping the law as it exists to-day in the English-speaking 
world : they had wrought to break down or prevent the growth of 
special privileges, to unify conflicting customs, to introduce trained 
judges, organize courts, improve methods of procedure; in short to 
construct that system of common law — or law based on custom, 
usages, and court decision — and the methods of administering it, 
which it has been the work of succeeding centuries to perfect in detail. 
So Henry II did not originate this work, but he contributed so much 
toward the process of development that his reign was truly " a crit- 
ical period in the history of English law." The legal and constitu- 
tional edifice begun by William I and Henry I was demolished during 
the anarchy of Stephen's reign, and Henry II had to rebuild prac- 
tically from the foundation. 

The Political and Legal Problem. — Although he had the interests 
of his subjects somewhat at heart, his foremost aim was political, to 
strengthen the royal powers at the expense of the Church and the 
barons. To this end he reorganized, strengthened, and consolidated 
the old courts, established new ones, and, as a means of outbidding 
his rivals, introduced novel and improved methods of procedure in 
criminal and civil causes. As a result, before the close of his reign the 
King's courts and judges, instead of being exceptional resorts for great 
men and great causes, had come to exercise, as a matter of course, a 
vast and steadily increasing jurisdiction. When Henry and his judges 
began their work, law and procedure were as yet confused, conflicting, 
and disorganized. Anglo-Saxon law was still administered in the 
hundred and county courts ; aside from private and inadequate com- 
pilations, the law was practically unwritten; the Anglo-Norman 
officials who administered it, even though they might be willing to 
respect local customs, understood them imperfectly at best. More- 
over, manorial, borough, and other special courts enjoyed great powers 
and privileges. Obviously, if the royal power continued to increase, 
it would seek to bring order out of this chaos. If a more logical and 
uniform system could not be fashioned out of the existing native ele- 
ments, help might be sought elsewhere. 

Henry II Prevents the Roman Law from Becoming the Law of 
England. — Beyond the Alps, just at this time, there was coming to 
life again a code admirably suited to meet the needs of western Europe. 
This was the law of the old Roman Empire or Roman law, codified 
by order of the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century — a fusion 
of the practice and principles of a people of unparalleled legal genius 



THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL POWER 77 

and administrative experience. Although it had fallen into oblivion 
during the period of formation of the new Germanic states on the ruins 
of the Western Empire, the twelfth century witnessed its revival at 
the recently established University of Bologna. Students began to 
flock to Italy, and as time went on, doctors of law gradually made 
their way to France, England, and the Germanic Empire. The same 
century also marked an epoch in the development of the canon law, 
or law of the Church of Rome. In the thirteenth century the Roman 
civil law secured a permanent foothold in France, and in the fifteenth 
century we find it domiciled in Germany, but, except in the ecclesi- 
astical and chancery courts, it never obtained any considerable hold 
in England. It is due to the work of Henry II that it did not, for, 
while in other countries no single system existed able to dispute the 
superior claims of the intrusive guest, Henry II so simplified and 
unified divergent practices that by the time the Roman law was in a 
position to make itself felt in the Island, the common law was too wide- 
spread and too firmly founded to be supplanted by an alien rival. 

Henry II Brings the Jury into General Use. — Henry recognized 
that if his system of justice was to prevail it behooved him to intro- 
duce better methods than those already in vogue. His measures 
witness how completely he outbid his rivals. For instance, he 
brought into general use juries for accusing criminals and for deciding 
disputed points at law — the parents of our modern grand and petty 
juries. Curiously enough, this bulwark of English liberty, long re- 
garded as an Anglo-Saxon heritage, was of royal and foreign origin. 
Starting from the inquest, a device of the Frankish emperors who sent 
around officials to gather information on the sworn testimony of the 
communities they visited, the system, much developed on French soil, 
was brought to England by William the Conqueror from his Norman 
home. He and his sons employed it for various purposes, among other 
things to get information in judicial cases where the royal interest 
was involved. At first allowed for privileged subjects as an exceptional 
favor, Henry extended it to all. By the presentment jury, consisting 
usually of twelve men from each hundred, criminals were brought to 
account by men sworn to voice the common report of their vicinage. 
Inquisition or recognition juries, or assizes, 1 enabled men to determine 
their rights of possession against an intruder by forms of procedure 
juster and more summary than they had even before dreamed of. 
Moreover, by a royal decree it was first made possible to defend owner- 
ship by the testimony of those who knew the facts of the case, and to 

1 The word "assize" has many meanings: a royal enactment, a form of trial, 
an early form of jury, a judicial session. 



78 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

avoid the brutal and inconclusive trial by combat. Writs were de- 
vised by which such cases could be drawn into the royal courts which, 
in spite of their many shortcomings, gave speedier and more impartial 
hearings than those whose jurisdictions they invaded. 

The Development of the Jury. — Henry's juries were strikingly 
different from the bodies familiar to us. Members were at first chosen 
for their knowledge of the facts in the case to be decided, though grad- 
ually they came to supplement their personal knowledge by informa- 
tion acquired by a private examination of documents and men not in 
the panel. The separation of the witnesses from the jurors was a 
process of slow growth, for it was not till the fifteenth century that 
the former came to testify in open court. Moreover, the earliest trial 
juries — inquisition or recognition juries as they were then called — 
dealt only with civil cases ; in criminal cases the jury introduced by 
Henry II was concerned only with the presentment or accusation of 
offenders whose ultimate fate was still decided by the ordeal. But 
this form of test practically disappeared when Innocent III, in 121 5, 
forbade the clergy to participate in trials where it was used. So new 
juries were introduced to decide on the truth of the facts presented 
by the accusation jury. Oftentimes, however, the new jury might 
be the original body of accusers acting in the new capacity. Long 
practically obsolete, trial by battle was not abolished till 181 9 and 
compurgation not till 1833. 

Reorganization of the Courts and Administrative Reforms. — Aside 
from the introduction of the jury into general use there were many 
other instances of Henry's legal and administrative activity. He 
restored the Curia Regis and Exchequer founded by Henry I. In 
1 1 78, he selected from the former body two clerks and three laymen 
to hear certain important cases, thus creating the parent of the later 
courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. Then he marked Eng- 
land anew into circuits and sent out itinerant justices to represent 
him in the courts of the hundred and shire. In n 81, by his famous 
Assize of Arms, he took steps to reorganize the military forces in a 
more serviceable way by providing that every free subject of the realm 
should arm himself according to his property, and it is interesting to 
notice that, in determining each man's liability, he made use of the 
sworn testimony of neighbors. 

Revenue. — Though Henry II was always on the lookout for money, 
his income was barely adequate for his needs. One source of addi- 
tional revenue came from the increased royal courts. The old Dane- 
geld of two shillings a hide ceased to be levied soon after his accession, 
and in its place he imposed new levies in the counties and in the towns. 



THE RESTORATION OF THE ROYAL POWER 79 

Scutage, a tax on each knight's fee which the King might impose in 
lieu of military service, originated under Henry I, but was greatly 
increased by Henry II, because it gave him funds for mercenaries 
to use in his Continental wars. One form of taxation first met in his 
reign is a tax on incomes and personal property. The first levy of 
this sort was imposed in n 88, and is known as the Saladin Tithe be- 
cause it called for a tenth of the revenues and goods of subjects to 
assist in the recovery of Jerusalem captured by the great Moham- 
medan warrior Saladin, in the previous year. As in the Assize of Arms 
the liability of each person assessed was determined by a jury of 
neighbors. 

Summary of the Work of Henry II. — Such was the work of Henry II. 
As a ruler of many peoples, French and English, he was able to hold 
together vast dominions against opposing forces. In England he 
achieved great and far-reaching results : he restored, extended, and 
defined the organs of central government and increased the power 
of the Crown against the barons and the Church, and instituted a 
series of legal reforms from which English-speaking people receive 
benefit even to-day. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Ramsay, The Angevin Empire (1903), and Kate Norgate, 
England under the Angevin Kings (2 vols., 1887), the latter extremely full 
and interesting. Two very good brief biographies of Henry II are those by 
Mrs. J. R. Green (1892) and L. F. Salzmann (191 5). The best general 
works on Ireland are E. R. Turner, Ireland and England. In the Past and 
in the Present (1919) and P. W. Joyce, A Concise History of Ireland, to 1908 
(20th ed., 1914) and the latter's Short History of Ireland, to 1608 (3d ed., 
1904). John Morris, The Life and Martyrdom of St. Becket (2d ed., 1885) 
is the standard life of Becket. R. L. Poole, The Exchequer in the Twelfth 
Century (191 2), the most recent and scholarly work on the subject. 

References for further reading same as ch. VI. 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 12-20. 



CHAPTER VIII 

RICHARD I (1189-1199) AND THE TRANSITION FROM ABSOLUTE 
TOWARD LIMITED MONARCHY. CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE 
OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 

Twofold Nature of Richard's Reign. — In September, 1189, Richard, 
surnamed Coeur de Lion, or the Lion-Hearted, the eldest surviving 
son of Henry II, was crowned King of England. " A knight errant " 
had " succeeded a statesman," but the change was not at first very 
marked, because, with the exception of a few months in 1189 and 1194, 
the new King was absent from England throughout his reign of nearly 
ten years, and the Government was carried on by Ministers who sought, 
in the main, to continue the policy of Henry II. The reign then has 
to be considered from two points of view: one deals with personal 
exploit and adventures; the other with points of constitutional ad- 
vance, notably the growth of the representative principle in the system 
of administration employed by the central government in the local 
centers. 

His Personal Character. — Richard had many faults : he was an 
undutiful son, he was unscrupulous in extortion, and had little interest 
or capacity in problems of statesmanship. Yet he had his redeeming 
features: he was a " splendid savage " with the virtues and vices of 
the medieval hero ; he was warm-hearted, generous, and mag- 
nanimous toward his enemies ; moreover, much of the money which he 
squeezed from subjects he devoted to a cause that was regarded as 
the highest in which men could engage, the winning of the Holy 
City from the enemies of Christ. As a general he was the genius of 
his age. His romantic nature, his fondness for poetry and music 
mark him as a Frenchman rather than an Englishman. 

Departure for the Third Crusade. — Directly after his coronation 
Richard, having pledged himself to join Philip II of France in driving 
Saladin from the Holy Land, began to raise money for the Crusade 
and to provide for the government during his absence. William Long- 
champ, Chancellor and Justiciar, stood almost alone in representing 
the interests of the King ; on the other hand, he took with him some 

80 



CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 8 1 

of his most trustworthy servants, leaving behind many disaffected, 
some of them naturally embittered, because he had confiscated their 
estates for alleged disloyalty — for adhering to him against the late 
King, his father. He excused men from accompanying him on the 
Crusade in return for money payments, and besides sold everything 
he could, offices, lands, privileges, and favors; some men paid to 
resign offices, others to acquire them. Richard left England in Decem- 
ber, 1 189 ; but, owing to delays, did not until June of 1191 reach the 
scene of the fighting, where the French King had arrived before him. 
Shortly after the capture of Acre in July, Philip returned home on the 
plea of illness, though his real reason was to take advantage of Rich- 
ard's absence to improve his own affairs. With his remaining allies the 
English King marched on Jerusalem, and though they managed twice 
to get within striking distance, they failed to capture the city, after 
which, much against Richard's will, they turned back. Meantime, 
very disquieting news arrived from England. Richard's younger 
brother John, crossing over from Normandy, had become involved 
in a war with Longchamp and had succeeded in getting the Great 
Council to depose the Justiciar and to declare him heir to the throne 
in the event of his brother's death without issue. 

Treachery of John. Capture and Imprisonment of Richard. — In 
October, n 92, Richard left Palestine never to return. On his voyage 
home he was captured and handed over to the Emperor, Henry VI, 
who, besides itching for ransom, nursed a number of grievances against 
the English King. Philip and John were overjoyed at the capture ; but 
the prospect of 150,000 marks and Richard's promise to do homage for 
England and his other lands induced the Emperor to agree to his release. 

Richard in England, March to May (1194). — John and Philip were 
baffled in their efforts to prolong Richard's captivity and seize his 
kingdom. Though he was received with greatest enthusiasm by his 
subjects, he only remained in the country from March to May, 1194, 
and employed most of his time in selling again the offices and honors 
already sold to provide for the third Crusade. Disloyalty furnished 
him a good pretext, though he spared the lands of John and rather 
contemptuously forgave him for his treachery. In addition to sales 
and confiscations, Richard levied heavy taxes to carry on a war of 
revenge against Philip, and departed, as it turned out, forever. 

The Administration of Hubert Walter (1194-1198). — For the next 
four years the government was in the hands of Hubert Walter, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and Justiciar, a man trained in the methods of 
Henry II. Intrusted with the task of keeping order and supplying 
Richard's constant demands for money, the credit for the constitu- 
te 



82 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

tional and administrative progress of the period is due to him. Though 
charged with avarice and extortion he did much to conciliate the middle 
classes, to confer self-government on important towns, and to extend 
the jury system and make it more representative. 

His instructions to the itinerant justices in 1194 and in 1198 intro- 
duced important reforms. The justices in 1194 were ordered to 
provide for the election by the suitors, or those entitled to attend the 
court in each county, of four crowners or coroners to decide what were 
crown pleas and to reserve them for the royal judges. Both the in- 
structions for 1 194 and 1198 required that the presentment juries, hith- 
erto appointed by the sheriff, should be selected by four knights 
chosen in the county court. Moreover, these juries, who formerly 
confined their activities to criminal accusations, were instructed to 
report on all sorts of royal business. Certain of Hubert's measures 
miscarried. In 1197, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, refused in the Great 
Council to contribute to a sum for equipping three hundred knights 
to serve abroad for a year, thus establishing a precedent for resistance 
to an unpopular tax. Then in 1198, a new land tax, designed to re- 
place the old Danegeld, yielded very disappointing returns. Mean- 
time, in 1 196, William " Longbeard," a London alderman, when 
accused of stirring up the poor to sack the houses of the wealthy, took 
sanctuary in the Bow Church. Hubert smoked him out by setting 
the edifice on fire, whereupon the monks of Canterbury, who owned 
the Church, denounced the act to the Pope as sacrilege. The Pope 
demanded his removal from the Justiciar ship, and Richard, dis- 
appointed at his two recent failures to raise money, agreed. Hubert, 
however, retained his office of Archbishop and became Chancellor 
early in the next reign. 

Richard's Death (1199). Results of the Reign. — Richard, in 
1 199, was mortally wounded during one of his many wars in France. 
Although the Crusade and his conflicts with Philip of France were 
nearer to his heart than the welfare of his English subjects, they 
really contributed to English constitutional development, since the 
money they necessitated developed the machinery of representation, 
and at the same time awakened forces of opposition which later made 
use of this machinery against the Crown. 

Secular Character of the Period. Learning at Henry's Court. — 
Perhaps the most striking feature of the age of Henry II and his 
sons is its worldly or secular character. The death of Becket brought 
to an abrupt pause an intellectual and moral revival which, under 
the influence of higher clergy and monks, had shown its force as early 
as the reign of Henry I. On the other hand, science was mainly sub- 



CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 8$ 

ordinated to theology and, for that reason, made little progress. Partly 
owing to the number of quacks, notably in medicine and astrology, 
but most of all because of the superstition of the age, men of science 
were under suspicion and justified their pursuit of forbidden knowledge 
by curious apologies, generally to the effect that it aided in the 
comprehension of theological subjects. Although Paris and Chartres 
were centers of classical learning, and John of Salisbury, the foremost 
scholar of his time, was an enthusiast on the subject, even the classics 
had to yield the palm to law and logic. However, in spite of the 
material and bigoted character of the age, Henry II and many of his 
family were well educated, alert, and interested in learning. This 
is true even of King John, the blackest of the dark sheep ; for the story 
that he got his reputation from having once borrowed a book of the 
Abbot of St. Albans is unjust. Many learned men, though more par- 
ticularly historians and legal scholars, surrounded the King, and there 
was much intercourse with foreign countries, diplomatic, ecclesiastical, 
and scholarly. 

Legal and Historical Writing. — As one might expect, the writings 
of the period were mainly of a legal and historical character. In the 
reign of Henry II appeared a Treatise Concerning the Laws and Customs 
of the Kingdom of England, notable as the first systematic treatment 
of the subject ever produced in the country. It was formerly ascribed 
to Henry's great Justiciar, Ranulf de Glanville, though it is quite 
possible that the author was his nephew Hubert Walter. To Richard 
Fitzneal, Treasurer, and Bishop of London, we owe the Dialogue of 
the Exchequer, describing the organization and procedure of that cele- 
brated financial body. The chronicles of the period differ greatly 
from the earlier ones ; while they are annals, bare notes of events, they 
are written by men in the midst of affairs, busy statesmen and diplo- 
mats and not by solitary monks ; moreover, they reach out beyond the 
boundaries of England and deal with what is going on in Europe and 
with the Orient which the Crusades had opened to western Christen- 
dom. One work that stands out as really historical, that tries to grasp 
events and to interpret their meaning, is William of Newburgh's 
History of English Things, the production of a canon of a remote 
priory in Yorkshire. Since too, he was the first to denounce the mass 
of fable which that unblushing romancer Geoffrey of Monmouth 
passed off as history, he has sometimes been called " the father of 
historical criticism." 

Walter Map and Giraldus Cambrensis. — Two writers throw vivid 
lights on the conditions in which they lived. One was Walter Map, 
a versatile, many-sided man of great learning. His only surviving 



84 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

work, Courtiers' Triflings, is an interesting scrapbook on all sorts 
of subjects with the dominating aim of satirizing the Church and clergy 
and the follies and vices of the court. The other was Gerald the Welsh- 
man, or Giraldus Cambrensis as he is more commonly called, who 
wrote a valuable and lively account of the conquest of Ireland as well 
as topographical descriptions both of that country and of his native 
Wales. Although his Irish works are manifestly hostile to the 
natives and full of wild and horrible tales, they are among the few 
sources for the period. Gerald produced %iany other works on vari- 
ous subjects ; and has been characterized as " the father of English 
popular literature." These works were all in Latin. First in the 
reign of John, Layamon, a simple Worcestershire priest, in his Brut, 
or legendary history of Brutus and Britain, set himself " to tell the 
noble deeds of Englishmen " in the English tongue — the earliest seed 
of a noble national literary revival. 

The Rise of the Universities. — In the last years of Henry II 
England's most ancient seat of learning, Oxford, came into prominence, 
although it was not formally known as a " University " till the reign 
of his grandson Henry III. One of the most notable features of the 
twelfth century is the rise of the universities. The earliest teachers 
in England as elsewhere were in schools attached to monasteries, 
cathedrals, parish churches, and occasionally to a royal court. Grad- 
ually, however, groups of students began to gather in this place or that 
to hear some man famous for learning or eloquence ; then, as time went 
on, groups, sometimes of masters, sometimes of scholars, organized 
themselves into corporations or gilds called universities. Originally 
meaning any body of men in a collective capacity, the term universitas 
came at length to be restricted to those combined together for learn- 
ing or teaching, with the aim of regulating conditions of member- 
ship and methods of instruction. Oxford traces its origin to an ex- 
pulsion of English students from the University of Paris about 1167. 
There had been teachers at Oxford before this date, but they had 
taught merely in a private capacity. 1 The university of Cambridge 
apparently owes its origin to one of the town and gown conflicts 
common in early times, which led to a migration from Oxford in 1200, 
though it was not till 13 18 that the younger institution secured formal 
recognition. 

Conditions at the Universities. — Conditions were at first very 
primitive. The students lodged with the townsmen, and the masters 
lectured wherever they could, sometimes in the open air with their 

1 There is a story that a famous canonist Vacarius, silenced by Stephen, lectured 
there, but it rests on no adequate evidence. He probably taught at Canterbury. 



CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 85 

classes sitting about them on the bare ground. During the course of 
the thirteenth century houses began to be established for communi- 
ties of poor scholars. These have developed into the modern colleges 
with organized bodies of masters, fellows, and scholars. Studies 
were grouped under various heads — liberal arts, theology, law, and, 
in some universities, medicine — each with its faculty or recognized 
hierarchy of teachers and governors. The faculty of arts gave 
instruction in the seven liberal arts, divided into the trivium, which 
included grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, and the quadrivium, 
including geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. 

Growth of Towns since the Conquest. — The progress of boroughs 
and cities was marked by new and important stages during the reign 
of the sons of Henry II. It should be recalled that before the Conquest 
they were distinguished by certain well-recognized characteristics : 
they were walled, they were under a special peace, they enjoyed 
certain market rights, and they paid a lump sum known as firma 
burgi, or farm of the borough, in place of the dues and taxes custom- 
arily collected by the sheriff. Concessions purchased from Kings 
after the Conquest were recorded in charters, which either confirmed 
old liberties and privileges or allowed new ones. Those to London 
were the most important and were much in advance of the others, for 
which they served to a large extent as models. While that of William 
I was little more than a promise in general terms that the liberties 
and property of the City should not be disturbed, Henry I, in 1100, 
granted a charter containing distinct concessions : in return for £300 
a year he abandoned all revenues from Middlesex; he allowed the 
citizens to appoint their sheriff and to hold their court ; he exempted 
them from trial by battle, from special tolls and exactions as well 
as from a number of general imposts ; and limited fines or amerce- 
ments in amount. No notable gains came under Henry II : he granted 
many charters ; but as a rule they did nothing more than to confirm 
liberties enjoyed in his grandfather's time. The reign of Richard I, 
however, marked a distinct stage in the progress of English municipal 
autonomy. The main aim was doubtless to get money, though some 
see in the royal policy an intelligent recognition of the signs of the times. 
Perhaps the most interesting concession — to London, in 1191 — was 
granted not by Richard, but by John to secure the aid of the city 
against William Longchamp. While some features of the grant have 
been variously interpreted, the right to have a mayor is clear enough, 
and in the Lord Mayor, together with the board of aldermen, and 
a common council subsequently added, the government of the City 
is vested to-day. 



86 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Gilds. — Side by side with the municipal governments, other 
organizations grew up with the primary aim of controlling commerce, 
trade, and industry. These gilds, as they were called, were, in the 
original medieval sense, private voluntary societies for mutual help 
and pleasure. Some were merely social or religious in character. 
The merchant gilds, whose purpose was to further the trading privi- 
leges of members and to exclude from competition all non-members, 
date from the eleventh century and became very numerous in the 
twelfth. In course of time these gild merchants came to control a 
large number of the town governments and even in many cases to 
take their place. They were wealthy and exclusive bodies, a feature 
that led the handicraftsmen, according to a widely accepted view, to 
organize associations of their own, known as craft gilds. Of the latter 
sort, the earliest known is that of the weavers, who received a charter 
from Henry I, while, in the course of the twelfth and the following 
century, the bakers, the fullers, the grocers, the butchers, the clothiers, 
and many other mysteries, or crafts, came to have their separate 
organizations. The central government and the municipal authori- 
ties seem to have looked on their growth with some disfavor, or were, 
at least, very jealous in guarding their rights of granting them licenses. 1 
It would seem that the opposition existing between the aristocratic 
merchants and the humbler craftsmen has been exaggerated. At 
any rate a common motive of the latter in organizing craft gilds was 
not so much hostility to the gild merchants as a desire to raise their 
own standards of production and conditions of labor. London never 
had a gild merchant ; but her craft gilds, growing in wealth and impor- 
tance, came to take an important share in the government of the City. 

Markets and Fairs. Foreign Trade. Growth of London. — With 
the growth of trade and industry there was also an increase in the 
number of markets, where local products were disposed of, and of 
fairs, held at less frequent intervals, to which people, foreigners as 
well as natives, came from far and near to buy and sell. Naturally 
there was much rivalry between neighboring markets, involving 
disputes as to their respective rights. Some were settled peaceably, 
in other cases the contending parties resorted to club law. London 
at this time was steadily increasing its trade relations with the mer- 
chant cities of northern Germany and the Low Countries. 2 With the 

1 A c.urious case occurred in 1201 when the citizens of London bought from 
John the privilege of turning out the weavers' gild. Having received the money 
he turned to the weavers and got them to pay him to take them under the royal 
protection, thus nullifying the privilege which he had just sold. 

2 In 1 194, Richard, supplementing an earlier concession of Henry II, granted 
to the citizens of Cologne a gild hall in the city, and probably the hall, known from 



CONDITIONS AT THE CLOSE OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 87 

extension of trade and the increase of wealth considerable building 
was undertaken, which may explain an interesting ordinance of 121 2, 
framed by the common council to provide against fire. Wooden 
houses were to be replaced by stone at dangerous points such as the 
market place ; thenceforth no thatched roofs were allowed, only 
tiles, wooden shingles, and lead might be used ; a tub of water must be 
placed before each building ; and cooks and bakers might not work at 
night. 

Rural Life. — Among rural classes the customary services were 
apparently becoming lighter, with a consequently increasing tendency 
to substitute rents in money and kind in their place. Moreover, 
rents were rising, for the tillers of the soil were beginning to share in 
the general prosperity. Even at that, some payments were success- 
fully resisted, — as when the cellarer and the men of the Abbot of Bury, 
in a forcible attempt to collect reap-silver, were stopped by a body of 
old women who berated them with hard words and threatened them 
with saucepans. Some villeins rose from the ranks to become great 
scholars and prelates, yet, in general, the lot of the villein was a hard 
one and there was ordinarily little hope of bettering it. They were 
occasionally sold apart from the land as late as the thirteenth century ; 
toward the end of the twelfth the Canons of Osney bought one man 
for twenty shillings, another for four pounds and a horse. Living 
conditions were grievous: leprosy and skin diseases prevailed, while 
lack of drainage and ventilation, the difficulty of communication, and 
the necessity of subsisting on salted fish and meats made the winters 
cheerless and unhealthy. 

Fusion of Races. — In spite of serious obstacles, Henry II and the 
Ministers who carried on his work had wrought well ; their administra- 
tive and judicial reforms, aided by time, had welded Saxon and Norman 
into a united English people, while the foreign policy of the King and 
his son Richard had secured for England a recognized place among 
the powers of Europe. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Besides Ramsay, Davis, G. B. Adams, Norgate already 
mentioned, Stubbs, Historical Introductions to the Rolls Series (ed. Hassall 
1902) — a volume made up of Bishop Stubbs's introductions to certain of 
the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain, commonly known as the 
"Rolls Series," and embodying some of the soundest work on the periods. 

the fourteenth century as the Steelyard, which came to be the headquarters of 
the Hanseatic merchants, dates from this period. 



88 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Medley has a good brief account of the origin and development of bor- 
oughs; for a fuller treatment see A. Ballard, The English Boroughs in the 
Twelfth Century (1914). Stephens covers this period on the Church. For 
social and intellectual conditions, in addition to the works already cited, 
see two brilliant and learned lectures on "Learning and Literature at the 
Court of Henry II" in Stubbs, Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History 
(1900). The standard work on the universities is H. Rashdall, The Uni- 
versities of the Middle Ages (2 vols., 1895). 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, no. 21. 



- 



CHAPTER IX 

THE REIGN OF JOHN (1199-1216). THE LOSS OF NORMANDY, 
THE QUARREL WITH THE CHURCH, THE BARONIAL REVOLT 
AND MAGNA CHARTA 

Reigns of John and Henry III. — In 1199, after years of intrigue 
against his brother Richard and against Richard's next lineal heir, 
his nephew Arthur, 1 John at length attained the Crown. His reign 
and that of his son Henry III mark the most important constitutional 
crisis in England's history ; they witnessed the first significant limi- 
tation of the royal absolutism since the Conquest, together with 
the rise of an institution that was gradually to voice the will of the 
nation in such limitation — sharing in the government and ultimately 
controlling it — the English Parliament. While the chief responsi- 
bility for precipitating the crisis by which these changes came about 
rests with John, circumstances were to some degree operative : the 
existing sources of supply were inadequate to meet the growing needs 
of the State, and, in order to secure sufficient revenues, it was neces- 
sary to demand more than the customary services and taxes, a demand 
that was bound to be resisted. To increase the revenues and meet 
the inevitable discontent, to mold the representatives of the subjects 
as willing instruments of the royal will would have been a critical 
problem for a capable and worthy ruler. 

Character of John. — Contemporary writers were almost unan- 
imous in their denunciation of John. Giraldus Cambrensis, for ex- 
ample, declared " that of all tyrants of history " he " was the very 
worst " ; truly he was " burdensome to rich and poor," there was no 
truth or sincerity in him, and " through thirty years of public life," 
it has been truly said, " we search in vain for any good deed, one kindly 
act to set against his countless offendings." A younger son, greedy of 
lands and power, he plotted against his father and against his brother ; 
he was ungrateful to them and to the Ministers who faithfully served 
him. Cruel, too, beyond measure, he is reported — to cite a single 

1 See table in Introd. 
89 



90 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

instance — to have wrung 10,000 marks from a rich Jew of Bristol 
by causing a tooth to be drawn every day until the unfortunate yielded 
at the end of a week. Very extravagant and self-indulgent and sub- 
ject to spasms of furious rage, he led a sinful life and sought to atone 
for it by almsgiving. He manifested an ill-timed levity on solemn 
occasions and was often strangely apathetic at crises. Yet he was 
personally brave and not unskilled in arms, he showed moments of 
fitful energy and was possessed of a certain low cunning. But his 
lack of foresight, his neglect of opportunity, and his rashness led him 
to situations, political, diplomatic, and military, which almost in- 
variably ended in defeat. 

The Three Critical Events of John's Reign. — Almost at once a 
blending of impolicy and mishaps plunged the new King into difficul- 
ties, and the subsequent course of the reign is marked by three succes- 
sive crises which came to a head in a great combination of all classes, 
headed by the barons, resulting in the great charter of liberties 
known as Magna Carta. 

I. The French War and Loss of Normandy. — The first of these 
crises was the outcome of the war with France. Arthur, a lad of twelve, 
had been forced to do homage, but he was still not without supporters. 
Philip Augustus, one of the most astute kings who ever ruled France, 
wanted to extend his powers at John's expense and was quite ready 
to use the claims of his rival as a pretext ; moreover, there was a grow- 
ing sentiment in parts of northern France against continuing under 
English rule. In the face of all this, John committed the first of a 
series of blunders w T hich led to the triumph of Philip. In the year 
1200 he divorced his wife Isabel (sometimes called Avice) of Glouces- 
ter and married Isabel of Angouleme, thereby antagonizing not only 
the powerful family of his discarded wife, but a large section of the 
Poitevin nobles as well ; for the new Isabel had been betrothed to 
Hugh of Lusignon, one of their number. In order to anticipate any 
resistance from the family of Hugh, John seized some of their castles 
and charged their supporters with treason, whereupon the Lusignons 
appealed to Philip, who, early in 1202, summoned John to appear 
before a court of his peers at Paris. On his disregard of the summons, 
Philip declared his fiefs forfeited, and proceeded to make war on his 
Norman possessions. John, in one of his spasmodic bursts of energy, 
captured Arthur, who had taken the field in Poitou, and then, so the 
story goes, went in person to the castle of Rouen whither Arthur had 
been removed, and had him stabbed and thrown into the Seine, April, 
1203. Whether true or not, Arthur disappeared and rumor attributed 
the crime to John. Without formally charging him with the murder 



THE REIGN OF JOHN 91 

of his nephew, Philip continued the war with added vigor. One by 
one John's strongholds opened their gates to him and one by one John's 
vassals came over to his side, and before the end of the year 1204, 
Normandy, Anjou, Poitou, indeed every one of John's French posses- 
sions except Aquitaine had passed out of his hands. Thus many of 
the barons, broken off from their Norman connections, were drawn 
more and more to make common cause with the English people, while 
for John the loss in prestige was immense, and had no small share in 
bringing to a head the movement resulting in the crowning event of 
his reign. 

II. The Disputed Archiepiscopal Election (1205). — The death of 
the great Archbishop Hubert Walter, in 1205, marked the next crisis, 
for the attempt to fill the vacant See gave rise to complications which 
led to the King's second great humiliation — the submission to the 
Papacy. In a conflict over the choice of Hubert's successor the dis- 
putants appealed to Rome. Innocent III, one of the greatest of 
Popes, was ever alert to extend the papal power, so instead of deciding 
between the rival candidates, he set aside both and ordered a fresh 
election, in 1206. The choice fell on the Pope's candidate, Stephen 
Langton, an English theologian, who, though he had lived long in 
Rome, later proved himself a sincere patriot. 

The Struggle between King and Pope. — John, beside himself with 
rage, refused to admit Stephen, seized much property of his clerical 
opponents, and forbade appeals to Rome. Thereupon, in 1208, the 
Pope laid the land under an interdict, 1 an impending blow which John 
sought to avert by vain bluster, threatening to drive all ecclesiastics 
out of the country and to tear out the eyes of the messengers from 
Rome. Many of the bishops found it safer to flee, leaving their 
property to be confiscated, and even the monks and lower clergy were, 
for a time at least, persecuted and pillaged. After a series of futile 
negotiations Innocent finally, in 1 209, declared John excommunicated, 
though the sentence was only proclaimed in France, not in England. 

John's Surrender to the Pope (1213). — With the King under the 
ban of the Church his subjects turned more and more against him, 
while John made matters worse by seizing the castles and hostages from 
those he suspected until he had almost as many enemies as he had 
barons. And it availed little that he succeeded, to some extent, in 
extending his royal power in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Then 
appeared a poor half-crazed hermit, Peter of Wakefield, prophesying 

1 By this the church doors were closed, the dead could only be buried in uncon- 
secrated ground, and the performance of most of the rites of the Christian Church 
was withheld. 



92 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

that by Ascension Day, 12 13, John would be no longer King. With 
his prospects steadily darkening John felt it necessary to resume 
negotiations with the Pope. Innocent's terms were, in substance, 
that he should accept Langton as Archbishop, that he should restore 
all bishops, monks, and others, clerk or lay, who had been deprived 
during the late struggle and make them full compensation. The 
alternative was deposition, but John held off, until Innocent, to bring 
pressure upon him, authorized Philip of France to invade England and 
deprive him of his kingdom. John made frantic efforts to meet the 
threatened attack, but, finding that he could count on little support 
from his subjects, decided to yield, and, 13 May, 1213, met the papal 
legate, Pandulf, at Dover and accepted the hard terms. Two days 
later, on his own accord, he took the further step of surrendering his 
kingdom to the Pope; he received it back as a fief, did homage to 
Pandulf, and promised, for himself and his heirs, to pay an annual 
tribute of 1000 marks. Doubtless he felt that nothing else would 
check the threatened invasion and counteract the growing disaffection 
of the barons, and while his action has often been denounced as ig- 
nominious, it must be remembered that the state of vassalage was not, 
in those times, regarded as degrading. English Kings since the Con- 
quest had held their continental possessions as fiefs of France, and even 
the lion-hearted Richard had agreed to yield all England in fief to the 
Emperor. It was the getting into the difficulty rather than the way 
he extricated himself that was most detrimental to King John, and, 
in some respects, to his successors: it furnished the Papacy with a 
precedent for interfering in disputed elections, while the ill-usage of the 
clergy alienated a class hitherto generally on the side of the Crown. 
Nevertheless his submission to Rome was a confession of defeat, and 
he had been forced to admit as Archbishop a man who shortly became 
the guiding spirit of the opposition. Still, Ascension Day passed safe- 
ly, and poor Peter was hanged. Now that John was a vassal of the 
Holy See, Innocent prohibited Philip from waging war on him, while 
Langton, arriving in July, solemnly absolved him from his excommu- 
nication, though the interdict was not yet lifted, since the vacant 
benefices were still unfilled and the compensation due the clergy had 
yet to be settled. 

III. The Opening of the Struggle with the Barons (12 13). — John's 
efforts to revenge himself against Philip brought to an issue the third 
and final crisis of the reign. Directly after his submission, he began 
to prepare an expedition to Poitou. Most of the barons refused to 
follow, mainly on the ground that he was excommunicated, and when 
the ban was removed they took the ground that their tenures did not 



THE REIGN OF JOHN 93 

bind them to serve abroad. While there seems to have been no legal 
ground for this latter contention, they had many and excessive causes 
of discontent; they got promises in plenty, but little else. There 
were the grievances purely feudal, some dating from the past, such as 
forcing heiresses into unequal marriages, extorting excessive reliefs, 
and abusing the right of wardships. Others bore on the non-feudal 
classes as well : taxes were excessive and arbitrary, while assessments 
on lands and movables increased in frequency and amount, and there 
were exactions from the Jews, and fines, some without a shadow of 
justice. Demands for foreign service were not unusual, though 
Henry II had usually provided mercenaries paid from the scutage. 
Three reasons led to the resistance under John. In the first place, 
his demands were more frequent. In the second place, men were 
alienated by his capriciousness and futility. In 1201, and again in 
1205, he had levied men for foreign service and then dismissed them 
with a fine ; in 1 202-1 203, he had failed to accomplish anything with the 
force he took abroad ; moreover, the interest of Englishmen in foreign 
service was growing less and less. Additional discontent arose from 
the fact that John had allowed his royal baronial supporters to oppress 
the people, while, in spite of the recent reconciliation with the Papacy, 
the Church could not forget what it had suffered while the fight was 
raging. In short, England was suffering under " all the evil customs 
which the King's father and brother had raised up for the oppression 
of the Church and the realm, together with that which the King him- 
self had added thereto." 

The Winning of Magna Carta. — Such was the situation when John, 
gathering such forces as would follow him, started, February, 12 14, 
to invade Poitou. After gaining a few momentary successes he was 
obliged to retreat before the French forces, since the Poitevin barons 
would not fight for him in the open field. While he was planning his 
next move his hopes were utterly dashed by the news that a great 
army, combined according to his plans under his nephew Otto, 
the German Emperor, had been met and defeated, 27 July, by Philip 
as it was hastening down to attack France on the northern border. 
John was obliged to make peace, 18 September, 1214, and, isolated 
and humiliated, he returned to England on the following month. 
Unmindful of his precarious situation he brought matters to an issue 
by demanding a scutage from the barons who had refused to accom- 
pany him to Poitou. Thereupon, the hardier spirits united, it is said, at 
St. Edmunds under pretense of a pilgrimage, demanded the confirma- 
tion of Henry I's Charter, and took an oath to wage war on the King 
in case he refused their terms. All through the winter the negotia- 



94 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

tions went on. John put off a definite answer as long as he could and 
employed the interval in trying to circumvent his adversaries by vari- 
ous subterfuges ; but all his twistings and doublings availed him noth- 
ing. The barons, when he finally rejected their terms, decided to wage 
war and renounced their allegiance, on the ground that the King had 
ceased to observe his feudal obligations, and marched down and oc- 
cupied London. John, finding that almost no one but his mercenaries 
would stand by him and that Stephen Langton, really in sympathy 
with the baronial cause, would not excommunicate his enemies, was 
forced to yield. After some further parley the barons met him, 15 
June, 1 21 5, at Runnymede, where he set his seal to the Great Charter. 

Magna Carta and Its Meaning. — The importance of Magna Carta 
is due rather to the use that was afterwards made of it by the cham- 
pions of popular rights than to what was actually desired by the men 
who framed it. Actually it was secured by the barons primarily in 
the interests of their own order, to safeguard their feudal privileges 
against the encroachments of John and his royal predecessors ; and 
many guarantees of popular government and popular liberty subse- 
quently traced back to it are not to be found among its provisions. 
For example, it does not say that there shall be no taxation, except 
by the voice of the people, because Parliament, as the representative 
of all classes of the realm, did not yet exist. Moreover, the two most 
effective means by which the common man is protected against legal 
injustice to-day, trial by jury and habeas corpus — the latter a device 
to prevent holding a man in prison without cause shown — are not 
worked out in anything like their modern form. Another notable 
fact is that although five sixths of the population at that time were 
villeins whose chief grievances were at the hands of the manorial lords, 
very little is done for them. Certain great general principles were 
indeed embedded in the momentous document, namely that property 
shall not be taken from the subject for public use without compensa- 
tion, that punishments shall not be cruel or unusual, that fines were 
not to be excessive, and that justice was to be open to all, freely and 
fairly administered ; nevertheless, machinery had later to be devised 
to make these principles operative, and there were long stretches when 
they were practically forgotten. 1 

The Real Significance of Magna Carta. — In what then does its 
significance consist ? Not so much in any of its particular provisions 
as in imposing restrictions upon royal absolutism, and in establishing 
the principle that Kings must observe the law, even though the law 

1 Shakespeare in his great drama King John does not mention Magna Carta 
at all. 



THE REIGN OF JOHN 95 

which the barons had in mind was the feudal law, to which they and 
the King were the contracting parties. The principle of contract, or 
of reciprocal obligation definitely defined between the parties to an 
agreement, is an essentially feudal principle; and it is noteworthy 
that that dying feudalism left this priceless contribution to the cause 
of English liberty. While the barons led the movement primarily 
in their own interest, they united with them the Church, they kept the 
mass of freemen from supporting the Sovereign, and consequently, 
to some degree, undertook the business of these two classes as well as 
their own. 

Summary of the Provisions Relating to Each of the Three Estates 
Separately. — The provisions of Magna Carta have been most con- 
veniently grouped under two main heads : first, provisions relating to 
the rights and privileges of the three separate estates or political classes 
into which society was divided ; secondly, provisions relating to these 
classes as a whole. 

I. The following provisions relate to the Church, the barons, and 
the commons respectively. 1. The Church is to be free and to hold 
its rights entire and its liberties uninjured, particularly in the election 
of bishops. 2. The baronage are promised many concessions. Feudal 
abuses in the matter of reliefs, wardships, marriages, and the collection 
of debts shall be renounced. No scutage or aid beyond the three 
customary aids shall be imposed except by the Common Council of 
the tenant in chief. The same conditions which the King agrees to 
observe toward his immediate vassals shall be observed by them in 
dealing with their mesne or under-tenants. 3. Concessions to the 
commons 1 refer to all freemen or freeholders below baronial rank. 
Ancient liberties and free customs are guaranteed to London and other 
towns. The ancient rents of the counties were not to be increased. 
Merchants are to come in and go out of the kingdom, free from all 
evil tolls and by the ancient and rightful customs. All goods seized 
for the King's use are to be paid for. 

II. Summary of Provisions Relating to the Three Classes as a Whole. 
— The provisions relating to the kingdom as a whole have mainly to do 
with judicial reforms, of which the two most celebrated provisions are 
those contained in clauses xxxix and xl. The former provides that 
" no freeman shall be arrested, or detained in prison, or deprived of 
his freehold, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way molested, and 
we will not set forth against him, nor send against him, unless by the 
lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land." It is gen- 

1 On the Continent the term was restricted to the members of organized civic 
communities. 



96 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

erally thought by modern scholars that the provision concerning judg- 
ment of peers was introduced by the barons to secure their exemption 
from accountability to the King's judges. This has survived in the 
right of peers in certain cases to be tried by the law of the land, hence 
it was reactionary rather than progressive ; nor does the clause 
guarantee trial by jury, for the law of the land at that time recognized 
forms of trial other than and quite different from jury trial. Clause 
xl declares : " to no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay 
right or justice" ; but was centuries before the writ of habeas corpus. 
which was to make this clause fully operative, was developed. Never- 
theless, the germ of great principles is to be found in this and the pre- 
ceding provisions. 

Means of Enforcement and Future Importance of Magna Carta. — 
To insure the enforcement of the terms of the Charter a committee of 
twenty-four barons and the Lord Mayor of London was appointed, 
who were authorized to levy war on the King until any transgression 
of which he may have been guilty should have been amended. This 
machinery for securing its observance was the weakest thing about 
Magna Carta, for there could be no peaceful progress under any such 
arrangement ; indeed, it was soon given up, and in due course of time 
the maintenance of the Charter's great principles was intrusted to 
Parliament. 

Such was Magna Carta : " in form a grant from the King to his 
people, in reality a treaty extorted from him by his barons, acting 
with the clergy and the commons." One great cause of its enduring 
significance is that it dealt with actual conditions, it aimed not so 
much to create new liberties and privileges as to define those already 
existent and to guard against their infraction. As a wise historian 
has said, the Great Charter is " not the foundation of English liberty 
but the first, clearest, and historically the most important enuncia- 
tion in it " and " the maintenance of the Charter was henceforth the 
watchword of English liberty." 

The Baronial War and the Death of John (12 16). — Although, for 
the moment, steps were taken to carry out its provisions, John had 
made concessions which he could not afford and did not intend to 
keep. Moreover, certain of the extremists among the northern barons 
had refused to enter into the agreement at Runnymede and continued 
in arms. In August John prepared to renew the war, whereupon the 
barons made ready to depose him. The Pope who, since John's 
submission, was on his side, had already, before the sealing of the 
Charter, ordered the excommunication of the disturbers of the king- 
dom : now, in August, he issued a bull declaring the Charter null and 



THE REIGN OF JOHN 97 

void on the ground that it had been extorted by force. Also, he sus- 
pended Stephen Langton for refusing to carry out his sentence of ex- 
communication. The leaders of the baronial opposition thereupon 
took the extreme step of transferring their allegiance to Louis of France 
" begging him " to come and " pluck them out of the hand of the 
tyrant." This drove John into one of his spasms of energy, and during 
the winter of 1215-1216 he harried the land from the south of the 
Thames to the Scottish border. In spite of papal prohibition, Louis 
landed at Thanet, 21 May, while John, who had returned from the 
north, retreated before the invader to the borders of Wales where he 
remained inactive until the end of August, when he marched into the 
east midlands ravaging as he went. On 19 October, he died at 
Newark of an illness brought on partly by his recent exertion, partly 
by an excess of eating and drinking. No King of England has since 
borne his name, yet his very vices and incapacity precipitated the 
downfall of absolutism and the rise of constitutional liberty. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. The most recent detailed account of the reign of John is 
Kate Norgate, John Lackland (1902). Other accounts may be found in 
Ramsay, G. B. Adams, and Davis. 

For a discussion of the constitutional significance of the reign of John 
and Henry III, see G. B. Adams, "The Critical Period of English History," 
American Historical Review, July, 1900. This is developed in his Origin 
of the English Constitution (1902). Edward Jenks, "The Myth of Magna 
Carta," Independent Review, November, 1904, pp. 260-273, is stimulating 
but exaggerated. The standard work on Magna Carta is W. S. McKechnie's 
Magna Carta: A Commentary (1913). It contains an historical introduc- 
tion, also the text of the Great Charter, both in Latin and in English trans- 
lation, and an elaborate commentary on each clause. See also Magna 
Carta Commemoration Essays (191 7). The text of Magna Carta may be 
found also in translation in Adams and Stephens, no. 29. 



CHAPTER X 

HENRY m. THE STRUGGLE OF THE BARONS TO MAINTAIN THE 
CHARTER, TO EXPEL FOREIGN INFLUENCE, AND TO CONTROL 
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE KINGDOM. CONDITIONS AT 
THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN 

Henry's Minority (1216-1227). — Less than two weeks after his 
father's death, Henry, a boy of nine, was crowned at Gloucester. Under 
a capable Regent the new reign opened with the brightest of prospects. 
The King's very youth and innocence were a source of strength, for 
the barons had risen not against the royal office but against an un- 
popular and oppressive King, and now that he was no more, most of 
them turned gladly from a foreign invader to a native ruler. Louis' — 
against whom the papal legate proclaimed a crusade — was defeated 
and forced to leave the country. The fair prospects under which 
the new reign opened did not remain long unclouded. In 1219 the 
Regency ended with the death of William Marshall, a fine type of 
the medieval soldier-statesman, who had labored effectively to re- 
store peace and good government, and it fell to Hubert de Burgh, a 
faithful Minister and leader of the loyal English party, to combat on 
the one hand such of the barons as were still unreconciled to the Crown, 
on the other, foreign favorites and military adventurers. After some 
futile risings the restless barons were for the time being suppressed, 
and, in 1224, the most aspiring of the leaders of John's mercenary 
troops was forced to leave the country. 

However, Hubert had many other perplexing complications to face. 
In Gascony — a division of the ancient Aquitaine — the commons, 
although they preferred English to French rule, resented any inter- 
ference with their municipal liberties, and while they were unwilling 
to spend money on defense, expected the English governors to protect 
them in their quarrels with the neighboring barons who were very 
turbulent. One governor after another threw up the office in despair. 
Moreover, the young Henry was burning to retrieve the French pos- 
sessions which his father had yielded. After Hubert proclaimed him 

98 



HENRY III 99 

of age, in 1227, he steadily lost control over his vain and unstable 
master. Thus, much against his will, he had to fit out an expedition 
which the King in person led, in 1230, to aid certain Norman barons 
who had risen in revolt. After an inglorious campaign, in which the 
English soldiers performed greater feats in deep drinking than in fight- 
ing, he returned home, in September, having accomplished nothing. 

Beginning of Henry's Personal Rule (1232). — Instigated by a wily 
foreign counselor, Henry made Hubert the scapegoat for all his troubles 
and miscarriages, as well as for the bad state of the finances — due to 
his own extravagance and military vainglory — and dismissed him 
in 1232. The common people were loud in their sympathy and a 
courageous smith, who was ordered to fetter him, refused to touch one 
to whom the country owed so much. But part of Hubert's property 
was taken from him and he had to spend some years in captivity. For 
the next quarter of a century Henry's personal government was un- 
hampered by any wise or effective control and was marked by favor- 
itism for foreigners and inept caprice. 

Increasing Abuses and Futile Opposition. — Henry's marriage to 
Eleanor of Provence, in 1236, brought swarms of foreigners to England 
including needy kinsmen to be provided for. Although more than 
one attempted the task, there seemed to be for many years no leader 
in England capable of withstanding these aliens. In addition, the 
country had to bear the burden of heavy papal exactions. At Henry's 
request the Pope, in 1237, sent a cardinal legate, who, it is said, during 
a four years' sojourn took away as much gold and silver as he left in 
the country, claiming besides for his master the right to fill three hun- 
dred livings with Italians, while the spiritless King declared : " I 
neither wish nor dare to oppose the lord Pope in anything." Truly 
" England was a like vineyard with a broken hedge so that all who 
went by could steal of her grapes." Finally, there arose as leader of 
a national clerical party one of the most notable men of the century — 
Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, whose first achievements were 
in theology, science, and, what was most rare in those days, in Greek. 
After he became Bishop, late in life, he turned his attention to politics, 
striving to unite the Church and the baronage in the defense of their 
common liberties and in resistance to papal encroachment. Particu- 
larly did he set himself against foreign nominees to English livings, 
whom he described as intruders " who not only strive to tear off the 
fleece, but do not even know the features of their flock." But, wedded 
to the theory of the superiority of the Church over the State and a 
stanch advocate of clerical immunity, he proved not to be the man to 
lead most effectively the popular cause. 



IOO SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Baronial Demand for Elected Ministers. — In April, 1243, 
after Henry had led a futile, expedition to assist the Poitevin barons 
and the Gascon towns in a rising against the French King, he was 
obliged to consent to the incorporation of Poitou into the French 
dominions. The situation grew steadily darker. London became 
disaffected and another papal agent came to glean after his predeces- 
sor's harvest. The King fell into sore financial straits, and the barons, 
taking advantage of his needs, began to demand that Ministers be 
appointed of native birth and acceptable to the country. Soon they 
went further, and, in 1244, as one of the conditions of a money grant, 
stipulated that the Justiciar, the Chancellor, and the Treasurer should 
be chosen in the Great Council. It was some years before they were 
able to carry their point. Henry might yield to the Pope but he 
maintained a lofty attitude toward his subjects. Since they persisted 
attaching conditions, which he would not accept, to all money grants, 
all sorts of expedients were resorted to for supplying the royal neces- 
sities. Curiously, the barons were at length to find a leader among the 
very foreigners they were seeking to oppose. 

Simon de Montfort Becomes Leader of the National Party. — Si- 
mon de Montfort was a Norman by birth who first came to England 
in 1229. Beginning as an adherent of the royal party, he married 
Henry's sister Eleanor, and, in 1248, was sent to rule Gascony on the 
express condition that he should enjoy full powers, including control 
of the Gascon revenue, for seven years. In the face of unrest, intrigue, 
and revolt he adopted such drastic methods in restoring order that he 
reaped a harvest of discontent, whereupon, yielding to bitter com- 
plaints, Henry, in spite of the Governor's protests, finally dismissed 
him. Whoever was at fault, the fact remains that on the eve of the 
great crisis of his reign, the King forced into the enemy's camp the 
most remarkable man of his generation, a man destined to become one 
of the most notable figures in English history. 

The Baronial Opposition Comes to a Head (1254). — In 1254, two 
years after this event, Henry culminated his impolicy by an act of 
extravagant folly which brought to a focus all the forms of opposition 
which had been slowly converging against his internal misgovernment, 
his futile foreign policy, and his abject submission to papal exaction. 
He accepted for his second son Edmund the crown of Sicily, which the 
Pope had long been striving to wrest from the Imperial house of Hohen- 
staufen. Edmund never attained the Sicilian throne but the efforts 
which his father made in his behalf were none the less momentous. 
He pledged himself to provide an army and 140,000 marks, and applied 
to his Great Council for supplies to redeem his bond. They refused, 



HENRY III IOI 

in 1255, and again in 1257, when Henry brought his little son before 
them, and sought to work on their sentiments. Everything combined 
to foster discontent. Rain, flood, bad harvests, cattle-murrain, and 
high prices were estranging the poor. In 1256 the Pope had added 
another exaction by demanding for the first time annates or first fruits 
— the first year's annual revenue from clergy newly inducted into 
benefices. Aside from the new grievances, old ones continued from 
the previous reign, for, although the charters had been frequently 
confirmed, their concessions had been disregarded. Many castles 
were in the hands of foreigners, sheriffs and itinerant judges were per- 
verting justice and levying excessive fines, and the forest laws were 
unmitigated in their severity. The storm burst in 1258. 

The Provisions of Oxford (1258).— On 28 April, 1258, a Great 
Council of magnates, reenforced by representative knights from the 
shires, assembled. When the King in the face of the gathering dis- 
content ventured again to ask for money for the Sicilian campaign, 
the barons and . knights in full armor, though they laid their swords 
aside, crowded into the royal presence chamber and presented their 
terms. They demanded the dismissal of all aliens and the appoint- 
ment of a committee of twenty-four — half from the royal party, half 
from the baronial — to draw up a scheme of reform to present at the 
next meeting of the Great Council. The King was forced to assent. 
To an assembly which met in June at Oxford, known as the " Mad 
Parliament," the committee submitted, not only a list of grievances, 
but a plan of government by which all authority was to be transferred 
from the Crown to representative bodies of the baronage. Chief 
among them was a permanent committee of fifteen which was to have 
complete control of the administration to which the King's Ministers 
were to be answerable. Three times a year it was to meet with another 
committee of twelve chosen from the Great Council to transact the 
business formerly in the hands of the latter body. Other committees 
still were to undertake the work of financial and Church reform. Such 
were the Provisions of Oxford. Their merit was in putting a check 
on the absolutism of an unpatriotic and incompetent King ; yet they 
are open to serious criticism in that they aimed to put in his place an 
oligarchy that would tend to become equally self-seeking and ineffec- 
tive and would be far more likely to hamper the executive and to fo- 
ment discord than to advance the welfare of the Kingdom. 

Preparation for War (1263). — No sooner were the Provisions ac- 
knowledged than the baronial party split into two factions. One 
was led by Simon de Montfort who seems to have been honestly de- 
sirous of securing the interests of all classes. The other was selfishly 



102 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

concerned with the interests of its own order. Simon secured a mo- 
mentary ascendancy by attaching Prince Edward to his cause, and, 
in 1259, carried the passage of a series of measures known as the Pro- 
visions of Westminster, by which the powers and profits of the private 
feudal courts were greatly curtailed. For a time the King worked 
loyally with the new council ; nevertheless, before many months, he 
shook himself free from the baronial shackles, he made an alliance 
with Louis IX, King of France, he drew the baronial faction opposing 
Simon to his side, he reconciled himself with Edward, and, finally, 
appealed to Pope Alexander IV to release him from his oath to observe 
the Provisions. This last request was granted by a bull, dated 13 
April, 1 261, which annulled the whole legislation of 1 258-1 259. With 
his hand thus strengthened, Henry returned to his old courses. The 
renewal of danger drew the two factions of the barons together again, 
and civil war broke out in 1263 ; but the opposing forces proved so 
evenly balanced that they decided to arbitrate and appealed to Louis 
IX to settle the points at issue. However, when the French King, in 
1264, decided almost every question in favor of the Crown, Simon, 
whose chief following was now among the lesser folk, refused to be 
bound by the award. 

Simon's Victory at Lewes (1264). His Famous Parliament (1265). 
— In the civil war which followed he was able to win a great victory over 
the royal forces, 14 May, 1264, at Lewes, as a result of which Henry 
was forced to agree to uphold the Great Charter, the Charter of the 
Forests, and the Provisions of Oxford, while Edward was to be a hos- 
tage for the good behavior of the " Marchers," or men of the Welsh 
border who were bitterly hostile to the baronial leader for having 
called in the Welsh as allies. During the period of his triumph de 
Montfort had the King issue writs, summoning a notable assembly 
which sat from January to March, 1265. This has often been spoken 
of as the first Parliament in English history, because it was the first 
body in which both knights of the shire and representatives from the 
towns sat with the Great Council, but it was a partisan body and far 
from being completely representative in other respects. De Mont- 
fort's Parliament, however, is not without constitutional significance 
as a stage in the development from the Great Council to the institution 
which came to represent the three estates of the realm. More than 
once, already, knights from the shires had sat with the barons, but 
never before had they been reenforced by representatives from the 
towns. 

Defeat and Death of Simon (1265). His Character and Work. — 
In April, 1265, war broke out again, the standard of revolt being 



HENRY III 103 

raised by the Marchers, whereupon discontented members of Simon's 
party and old royal adherents flocked to the western country. Prince 
Edward, who had escaped from his keepers while hunting, soon ap- 
peared as leader and, 4 August, he succeeded in entrapping the bar- 
onial army at Evesham, on a narrow tongue of land formed by an 
abrupt bend of the Stratford Avon, where Simon fell bravely fighting. 
By the victory of Evesham and the death of Simon the royal party 
was again triumphant. " Sir Simon the righteous " was not a hero 
without blemish ; he started life as an adventurer, nor did he begin 
his opposition as a disinterested advocate of popular liberty, but be- 
cause of quarrels with Henry, culminating in the Gascon affair. Even 
after he put himself at the head of the national party he was at times 
shifty and cruel, and always masterful and impatient of restraint; 
yet whether from interest or conviction, he threw himself on the sup- 
port of the people, worked sincerely for their interests, and secured them 
a more complete representation in the National Council than they had 
ever enjoyed. Consequently they adored their departed leader as a 
saint, and miracles were worked at his tomb. 

Final Submission of the Barons (1267). Results of the Struggle. — 
A fragment of the barons held out stubbornly at Kenilworth until 
December of 1266 when disease and famine compelled them to sur- 
render. By way of concession the reenactment of the Charters was 
promised, as well as the redress of some of the grievances mentioned 
in the Provisions of 1258 and 1259, but another revolt had to be faced, 
and some minor risings had to be put down before the country was 
really at peace. The barons had failed to secure the supremacy at 
which they aimed and it was well for England that they did ; but they 
had broken the power of absolutism, they had aroused and kept alive 
the national opposition against foreign favorites, they had made the 
Charters a reality, they had taken steps to make the Great Council 
a popular representative body. The result of their work was to mani- 
fest itself in the next reign and to live in time to come. 

Death of Henry (1272). —While his sons, Edward and Edmund, 
were away on a crusade Henry died, 16 November, 1272 in his sixty- 
sixth year. Personally he had many commendable qualities. His 
private life was blameless, he was religious, he had a refined mind and 
cultivated tastes. A generous patron of art, his most enduring monu- 
ment is Westminster Abbey, the foundation of Edward the Confessor 
which he caused to be rebuilt. As to his faults they are manifest in 
the history of his reign ; he lacked moral courage, he was timid, evasive, 
weak, and obstinate. Worst of all he had no talent for administration 
or grasp of politics, and was quite un-English in feeling. 



104 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

England and the Intellectual and Religious Movements of the Time. 
— One good side there was. to the un-English policy of Henry III, 
it helped to open the country to the best fruits of Continental civiliza- 
tion. By a strange contradiction the period, in spite of maladminis- 
tration and turbulence, was one of high achievement in art, in reli- 
gious revival, and intellectual progress. In England, as elsewhere, two 
antagonistic tendencies were at work : politically there was a tend- 
ency to accentuate national differences, which ran counter to the 
other great tendency of the Middle Ages, that toward unity or uni- 
versality. The Catholic Church with the Pope at the head was the 
church of all Christendom, its clergy, its monks, and friars were sub- 
jects of no country, but citizens of heaven — as they sometimes pleased 
to call themselves. The academic system was a universal one, 
famous scholars were equally at home in England, France, and Italy, 
while Latin was the language of the learned in every Christian land. 
The Crusades, too, offered a common enterprise which brought to- 
gether men without distinction of boundary. The friar, the knight- 
errant, the scholar, and the merchant tended to maintain and foster a 
union which a growing sense of nationality threatened to break. 

The Franciscan and Dominican Friars. — Perhaps the most potent 
factor in the revised intellectual and religious life of the age is to be 
found in the new orders — the friars. Two of these orders of brothers 
(Latin fratres) came into being at about the same time, and they sup- 
plemented each other. That of the Spanish St. Dominic was strong 
in organization and the defense of orthodoxy, that of the Italian, St. 
Francis, in spiritual impulse and ideals of pure living. Shortly before 
Henry III of England was born, a young merchant of the little town 
of Assisi felt prompted by a divine voice to renounce his past life and 
to devote himself to the service of God and his fellow man. In one 
direction particularly there was an abundant field : the towns had 
scant regard for the poor who lived on their outskirts; the parish 
priest proved unequal to the situation, while the monk was a recluse 
and fled from the crowded haunts of men. St. Francis, for so he came 
to be known, taking literally the words of Christ : " provide neither 
gold nor silver ... in your purses, neither scrip for your journey," 
renounced his worldly prospects and went forth to teach and preach 
and minister to the simple and needy. After some years he went to 
Rome, hatless and barefoot, and obtained from Innocent III permis- 
sion to establish a rule of life from which grew his famous order of 
mendicant friars — formally recognized in 1223. In three respects 
the Franciscans grew away from the original intention of their founder : 
he started with the idea of wandering missionaries, with no formal 



HENRY III 



I05 



organization, who should not concern themselves with theology; 
however, even in his own lifetime they came to center chiefly in cities, 
they were constituted into a regular order, and as time went on, they 
became famous for their learned scholars. Meantime, in southern 
France, the son of a noble Castilian house, trained in the best academic 
traditions of the day, was devoting his rare talents and pitiless zeal 
to combating heresy and schism. This was the redoubtable St. 
Dominic who founded the order of preaching friars which adopted the 
Franciscan principle of poverty, and was formally recognized in 1220. 

The Coming of the Friars to England. — In 1221 a band of thirteen 
Dominicans landed in England. Establishing themselves in London, 
they proceeded to Oxford, where they set up schools and gathered 
disciples about them whom they trained as preachers. The Domini- 
cans were followed two years later by a small group of nine Franciscans, 
who grew and spread until within five years they were domiciled in 
almost every considerable town in England; but their houses were 
held for them in trust, for they could possess no property. Settling 
down outside the city walls, among the destitute and lowly, they taught 
and ministered with heroic devotion, preaching to the people in a 
homely style and spicing their sermons with merry jests and tales. 
What with their humor and their zeal they gained a wonderful hold 
wherever they went. Moreover, the English Franciscans produced 
some of the most famous scholars of the age. 1 As time went on, how- 
ever, so many unworthy recruits entered the ranks that by Chaucer's 
day friars had come to be generally regarded as beggarly rogues. 

The Parish Priest. — The earlier friars, as well as doing their peculiar 
work in the towns and the universities, acted as evangelists conducting 
revivals in the rural districts. Nevertheless, the parish church was 
still the center of village life, though the gilds, too, had a very marked 
religious aspect, for they provided masses for the souls of deceased 
members and had their patron saints and funds for charity. The 
parish priests were simple men of very scanty learning, with just enough 
Latin to say mass. They were forbidden to accept any secular office, 
such as that of steward or bailiff, or any judicial function involving 
power to inflict capital punishment, and were also prohibited from 
dressing in military fashion or from taking part in " scot ales " or 
public feasts where there were competitions in drinking. While there 
were frequent complaints of ignorance, of negligence in teaching and 
in visiting the sick, of hurrying through the service, and of too fre- 
quent absence from the parish, some performed their duties excellently 
and many others did their best according to their lights. Riotous 

1 The most famous Dominican scholars were not Englishmen. 



106 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

sports, gluttony, and heavy drinking were among the chief offenses 
of the laity. 

The Popular Religion. — The religion of the age was very real. 
The people, though rude and boisterous, were simple and childlike 
and ready to atone for their sins by crusades and pilgrimages, by con- 
tributing to the building of churches and monasteries, and by gifts 
at shrines and altars. Anchorites, living in caves and on the banks of 
lonely streams, were visited by pilgrims marveling at their faith and 
holiness. Worship was chiefly a matter of outward form. Though 
the people were generally instructed in the creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
and the ten commandments, they blindly worshiped images and relics 
and sought to approach God mainly through the medium of the saints. 
Belief in witchcraft, charms, and spells was practically universal. Some 
of their superstitions were very touching and pretty. A story is told 
of the appearance, one harvest time in East Anglia " no man knew 
whence," of a boy and girl " completely green in their person and clad 
in garments of strange color and unknown materials." These strange 
visitors were most kindly welcomed, baptized into the fellowship of 
the Church, and cherished, " till at length they changed their natural 
color through the natural effect of our food." 

The Universities. — At the beginning of Henry's reign the two 
essentials of a university were the masters and the scholars, who might 
migrate wherever they would. A great step in advance was taken 
when men began to found colleges, or houses with a master and scholars 
or fellows, with the object of providing shelter for poor students and 
of encouraging systematic study. John Balliol's foundation at Ox- 
ford, in 1260, was hardly more than an almshouse for needy scholars; 
but Walter de Merton's, three years later, was well organized and 
furnished a model for subsequent college benefactors. The univer- 
sities were far from being centers of secluded calm, for we hear of fre- 
quent riots among the students ; moreover, they exercised a profound 
and active influence on the politics and government of the time, and 
produced men who took prominent places at court or on the episcopal 
bench. Grosseteste and Adam Marsh, lecturers to the Franciscans, 
were famous scholars, but their fame has been eclipsed by that of 
Roger Bacon (12 14-1294). The prevailing interest of the learned had 
been, since the eleventh century, to elaborate the great philosophical, 
theological system known as Scholasticism, the aim of which was to 
defend the authority of the Church by weapons of logic supplied by 
Aristotle. There were two schools, the Realists who asserted that 
general ideas, " Universals " as they called them, alone were real; 
opposed to them were the Nominalists insisting that they had no real 



HENRY III 107 

existence but were only names. The dominant method of the School- 
men was deductive, that is they proceeded from general principles 
to particular cases. Bacon, who mastered all the scientific learning 
of the time and who knew Greek and Hebrew as well, sought to in- 
troduce the experimental or inductive method by which general prin- 
ciples are discovered or framed from particular facts. Unfortunately 
he was ahead of his time, he was suspected of being a heretic and ma- 
gician, and spent years of his life in exile and confinement. Although 
the age was a learned one, the tendency was toward formalism and 
speculative philosophy rather than toward elegant culture, broad 
human interests, and graceful literary expression. 

Literature and Language. — In this period the only historian to 
compare with William of Malmesbury and William of Newburgh was 
Matthew Paris, who set himself not only to record events but to com- 
ment on their significance and to discuss the motives and character 
of the men who took part in them. Furthermore, his knowledge was 
not confined to purely English affairs, but included those of the Con- 
tinent as well. The chronicles were of course written in Latin which 
was still the language of the learned. French remained the elegant 
language of the Court and upper classes, and of the romances by which 
they were diverted. It was used, too, in pleadings in the law courts 
and in the debates in the Great Council. However, because of the 
growing national sentiment, English, the tongue of the yeoman and 
the lower classes, was steadily developing as a vehicle of literary ex- 
pression. There are a few fine poetic pieces, while, in village ale- 
houses and fairs, strolling minstrels sang of the early heroes, Arthur 
and Merlin, Alexander and Charlemagne. 

Architecture. — " Architecture, the great art of the Middle Ages, 
was in its perfection " in this reign. The transition from the Norman 
to the early English style with its delicate spires and pointed arches 
was complete by the reign of John and under his successor the latter 
style reached its maturity. King Henry's chief architectural interest 
was in the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, though, curiously 
enough, this national monument is French rather than English both 
in structure and in decoration. Very few castles were built in this 
period except along the frontier districts facing the Welsh border, and 
although increasing attempts were made to render them habitable 
by the addition of fireplaces and other comforts, the fortified manor 
houses were being more and more preferred as dwellings for the great, 
while the poor folk still lived in simple wooden houses. 

Foreign Trade. — Merchants, except during the intervals of war 
with France, were allowed to come and go freely. English staples 



108 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

were mainly agricultural, grain, flesh, and dairy produce. Such sur- 
plus as was raised was sold at local markets and fairs. Wool, wool- 
fells, and hides had come to be the chief articles of export, along with 
tin, lead, and iron. The crusaders had given a great impulse to inter- 
course with the East, and the great nobles, lay and clerical, imported 
fine cloths, silks, furs, and jewels, wax, spices, and wines. While the 
best cloth came from the looms of Flanders and the north of France, 
where most of the English wool found a market, the Rhine cities sup- 
plemented the Gascon ports as sources for the wine supply, and the 
Hanseatic League controlled the Baltic trade and brought in furs, 
tar, and fish. The Italian cities were for two centuries to come the 
chief carriers for the Oriental traffic. Although the foreign trade was 
mainly in the hands of foreign merchants, English shipping was stead- 
ily increasing. The Cinque Ports 1 were coming into importance and 
securing peculiar privileges because of the ships which they furnished 
for the royal navy ; as a matter of fact they were still little better than 
" nests of chartered sea robbers " and many complaints were brought 
against them on this score; but they rendered indispensable serv- 
ice on more than one occasion. Henry's reign is notable in 
many ways as a stage in the progress of maritime affairs; for ex- 
ample, licenses to privateers were first issued, and the magnet 
began to be used. 

Internal Trade. Markets and Fairs. — The danger and difficulty 
of traveling, as well as the innumerable and vexatious charges for tolls 
and ferries, hampered internal trade. There were some good roads, 
the survival of Roman times, particularly that from Dover to London ; 
but many were almost impassable during certain seasons in the year, 
and off the beaten path the country was infested by robbers. Outside 
the local markets and the towns, trading centered in the great annual 
fairs, the most famous of which were at Stourbridge and Winchester. 
The Stourbridge fair — opening annually 18 September for three 
weeks — controlled the trade of the eastern counties and the Baltic 
Sea, though every trade and nationality was represented. More im- 
portant still was the Winchester fair. Lying between Southampton 
and London it was the great mart for the southeast, and opened every 
year on the eve of St. Giles (31 August) for sixteen days. During the 
session of the fair, all trade was suspended in the neighborhood and 
weights and measures were carefully scrutinized ; in return for priv- 
ileges and protection the merchants paid heavy toll to the lords who 
controlled the fairs. 

1 Originally five port towns in Sussex and Kent (Hastings, Rommey, Hythe, 
Dover, and Sandwich) to which two were subsequently added. 



HENRY III 109 

Native Industries, Towns, and Gilds. — The progress of the native 
industries was not as yet very great. Agriculture, fishing, and mining 
were the chief pursuits. Such cloth as was manufactured went to 
supply the needs of the household, except in certain towns where the 
Flemish weavers, dyers, and fullers were established. Each village 
had its own tanner and bootmaker, smith, carpenter, and miller, and 
usually a professional hunter of wolves, cats, and otters, and moles 
whose skins were mainly used for hats. The towns, however, were 
developing steadily, even the smaller ones were no longer the homes 
of agriculturists but contained flourishing organizations of trade and 
handicraftsmen. A very pronounced feature was the division of 
labor. For instance, in connection with the production and distribution 
of each of the staple commodities, wood and leather, we find ten or a 
dozen separate gilds or companies, each with its special quarters or 
market. Houses were arranged with the dwelling rooms at the top, 
the workshop below, while the goods were exposed for sale under the 
overhanging porch on the edge of the street. The gilds were exercis- 
ing an increasing influence on the town government, for their members 
occupied the most important offices, and municipal affairs were regu- 
lated in their interests. 

Rural Life. — After all, however, England was still mainly an agri- 
cultural country. The long vacations of the universities and the law 
courts are a survival of this time when the students and the practi- 
tioners were needed at home to work on the harvest. All evidences 
point to a quiet steady improvement of conditions. Landlords de- 
voted more and more personal attention to their estates. Though 
the tenant farmer had appeared, he as yet played little part in rural 
economy. The status of the cultivator continued to improve and, 
more and more, serfs became free agricultural laborers. The clergy, 
however, were constantly preaching to the tillers of the soil to remain 
where God had placed them, comparing the ambitious to the worm 
that thought it had wings or the rat who wished to marry the sun's 
daughter. Owing to the faulty communications which made it nec- 
essary for each district to be so far as possible self-sufficing, the waste- 
ful system of mixed farming persisted. Wheat, rye, and stock were 
all raised together without regard to the fitness of the special locality 
for one or the other, except in certain parts of Yorkshire where the 
Cistercians devoted themselves to wool growing. Because of the 
difficulty of transportation, the lords and even the kings wandered 
about from manor to manor to consume the supplies belonging to them. 
Some magnates had as many as ten or eleven estates scattered over 
different counties, each with a bailiff to keep its accounts and under 



HO SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the general supervision of a steward whose duties were mainly legal. 
It was still practically impossible to keep any considerable amount of 
stock over the winter. Aside from a heavy famine, during the years 
1 257-1 259, the period was, in general, one of plenty and prosperity. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Davis; Sir J. H. Ramsay, The Dawn of the Constitution 
(1908) ; and T. F. Tout, Political History of England (1905), an interesting 
and scholarly account of the period from the accession of Henry III to the 
death of Edward I. Stubbs, Early Plantagenets (1886), owing to its group- 
ing of topics, gives perhaps the best brief account of the reign of Henry III. 
Kate Norgate, The Minority of Henry III (191 2) is the fullest and most 
recent narrative of the early years of Henry III. 

Constitutional and Legal. Taylor; A. B. White; Taswell-Langmead ; 
Stubbs, Constitutional History; Pollock and Maitland. 

Social, industrial, and intellectual conditions. Traill ; Bateson ; Davis ; 
Moody and Lovett ; Taine; Cambridge History of Literature; Jusserand; 
and A. G. Little, Roger Bacon (1914). 

Biography. G. W. Prothero, Simon de Montfort (1877) ; F.S.Stevenson, 
Robert Grosseteste (1899), "the most complete life of Grosseteste " ; M. 
Creighton, Historical Lectures and Addresses (1903), three brief excellent 
lectures on Grosseteste and his times. 

The Church. Wakeman ; Stephens ; also F. A. Gasquet, Henry III and 
the English Church (1905), from the Roman Catholic standpoint; and A. 
Jessopp, The Coming of the Friars (1890). 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 30-36. 



CHAPTER XI 

EDWARD I AND EDWARD II (1272-1327). THE COMPLETION OF 
THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTIONAL 
SYSTEM 

Edward I (1272-1307), Accession and Early Life. — Henry III had 
been dead for nearly two years before Edward I returned from the 
Holy Land, in the prime of his young manhood. The son of the pet- 
tiest of the Angevins and of a foreign mother, he seemed far from fitted 
to lead a people whose national and patriotic aspirations were rapidly 
awakening. Nor did his childhood or early youth promise much. At 
fifteen he was married to a foreign princess, Eleanor of Castile, and 
jousts, tournaments, and the pleasures of the chase caused him for a 
time to neglect graver occupations. The baronial revolt, however, 
brought him for a season under the influence of de Montfort : although 
his royal instincts and his affection for his father soon drew him from 
the ranks of revolt, he had learned lessons in military and political 
affairs which deeply influenced his future, and he came to be recognized 
as the first truly English King since the Norman Conquest. 

Personal Traits. — Yet, in spite of his ancestry and some unpromis- 
ing signs in his youth, Edward was well qualified both in mind and body 
to become the representative of English hopes. His fair hair and 
ruddy cheeks were typically Anglo-Saxon. So tall that he got the 
name of " Long-shanks," his commanding presence, united to skill 
in chivalrous exercises and military ability, were bound to impress 
the medieval Englishman. While prompt to resist encroachments 
of the Church or the Papacy, he was genuinely religious; he was 
devout in visiting shrines, he made vows in time of stress, and when 
delivered from danger and difficulty never failed to offer public thanks. 
Though he prided himself on his truthfulness, adopting as his motto, 
Pactum serva (" keep troth "), yet he was not above legal evasions 
when he kept the letter of his agreement at the expense of the spirit. 

The Subjugation of Wales (1277-1282). — The first serious problem 
that the King had to face was the conquest of Wales. The Celtic 
peoples occupying the strip of coast to the north and south of the 

in 



112 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

peninsula now known as Wales had been isolated from their kinsmen 
and had been conquered and absorbed before the Conquest, and the 
Normans had set up earldoms to protect the Marches, or border, 
from the fierce mountaineers who remained unsubdued. During the 
reigns of John and Henry III, Llywelyn, and his grandson of the same 
name, succeeded in extending their authority over all Wales. The 
older Llywelyn by making common cause with the barons against 
John secured important concessions in Magna Carta. The younger, 
in alliance with Simon de Montfort, took an active part against 
Henry III during the Barons' war, at the close of which the English 
King granted him extremely liberal terms ; in return for homage and 
an indemnity he was to be recognized as Prince of Wales and immediate 
lord of all the Welsh chieftains outside the limits of the Marches. 
However, when Edward came to the throne, Llywelyn refused to per- 
form homage or to pay indemnity. A succession of invasions and 
more than five years of intermittent fighting were required — during 
which time the unscrupulousness and brutality of English administra- 
tive officials did much to keep resistance aflame — before the defeat 
and death in battle of Llywelyn, 1282, enabled the English King to 
complete the conquest of Wales. 

The Statute of Wales or Rhuddlan (1284). — In 1284 the Statute 
of Wales was issued at Rhuddlan to provide for governing the recent 
acquisitions, which were secured by fortresses. Wales was formally 
annexed to the English dominions and the English shire system was 
extended by the creation of four shires in the north and by the reorgan- 
ization of two already established in the south. English law admin- 
istered by English sheriffs was introduced, though, wherever possible, 
Welsh local customs were allowed to stand. In 1301 the title of Prince 
of Wales was conferred on Edward's oldest surviving son, born at 
Carnarvon in 1284. This has been the customary title of the heir 
apparent to the throne ever since. 

The French and Scotch Wars and Their Consequences. — Within 
a few years Edward involved himself in Scotch complications that, 
combined with a French war which followed, led to most significant 
consequences. Henceforth, English Kings were constantly inter- 
fering in Scotch affairs, a policy which threw Scotland into the arms 
of France and established a close association between the two coun- 
tries, with a consequent French influence on Scotch manners and cus- 
toms that left enduring marks. Also French intrigue so accentuated 
the natural hostility of the Scots that — to say nothing of persistent 
plundering raids — England had to reckon with her northern neigh- 
bors in every crisis, foreign and domestic, during the next four cen- 




BORMAY * CO.jENGR'SrN. 



EDWARD I AND EDWARD II 1 13 

turies. Finally, the wars against the Scots and French forced Edward 
to make demands of money and service from his subjects which re- 
sulted in their securing from him constitutional concessions of great 
and enduring value. 

The Disputed Succession in Scotland. — The country ruled by the 
Scotch Kings in the thirteenth century was composed of many diverse 
elements. Although the Highlands and the royal race were Celtic, 
the Lowlands, forming the richest and most populous part of the realm, 
were inhabited by people of English blood with English institutions 
and bound to England by close feudal ties. Ever since the time of 
Edward the Elder, English Kings had claimed a shadowy overlordship 
over the Scots ; but its extent and character had never been clearly 
determined. Suddenly, in 1286, Alexander III, the reigning King, 
was killed by his horse falling, leaving as his only direct heir a little 
granddaughter, who died in 1290. In 1291 Edward ordered the 
Scottish barons and clergy to meet him, and announced his intention, 
as Superior and Lord Paramount, to settle the succession. There 
were no less than twelve claimants, of whom the two leading ones 
Were John Balliol and Robert Bruce. The law of the case was re- 
ferred to a body of commissioners, and as a result of their findings 
Edward pronounced in favor of Balliol, who swearing fealty to him 
was crowned in 1292 at Scone. 

The Conquest of Scotland (1296). The Deposition of John Bal- 
liol. — Edward had intervened in the interests of order, and he ob- 
served the law, as declared by the commissioners, in his award. At 
the same time he took advantage of the situation to press his claims 
to overlordship, and in pursuance of this policy demanded that English 
courts should decide cases which were appealed from the courts of 
Scotland. Balliol sought to evade this requirement, contracted, 
in 1295, an alliance with France, sent an expedition across the Border, 
and ended, in 1296, by renouncing his allegiance. Thereupon, Edward 
invaded Scotland, took Balliol prisoner, and forced him to renounce 
his claim to the kingship. Though far from harsh, many of Edward's 
measures galled the already irritated pride of the Scots. He made a 
triumphal march through the country, he declared the Kingdom 
forfeited, placed most of the great offices of State in English hands, 
and carried off the ancient coronation stone of Scone to Westminster 
Abbey where it has remained ever since. 

The War with France (1293). — A breach with France, beginning 
in 1293, arose out of quarrels between English and French sailors due 
to bitter commercial rivalry, and the wily Philip IV, now King of France, 
seized the pretext to pronounce the forfeiture of Edward's Gascon 



114 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

possessions, a step which led the English King to declare war in June, 
1294. In order to meet the Franco-Scottish alliance, concluded the fol- 
lowing year, he took the decisive step of appealing to the whole body 
of his subjects by summoning, in November, the Model Parliament, 
which marks the culmination of the growth of English representative 
government and perhaps the most important stage of its history. 

The Beginnings of Parliament to 1265. — The term " Parliament " 
means literally a speaking or conferring, and came to be applied to 
the body in which the speaking took place, a general council of the 
realm, summoned by the King, to consult on the affairs of the realm 
and to transact its business, to vote taxes, to enact and repeal laws. 
Matthew Paris first employed the name in connection with an as- 
sembly of the Magnates, in 1246, though that particular body was no 
more representative or elective than the Witan or the Great Council. 
The origin of the representative element may be traced to the juries 
first employed regularly under Henry II to bring criminals to justice, 
to decide suits at law, and to assess taxes, and who, during the time 
of Richard's able Minister, Hubert Walter, came to be more and more 
elective in character. As the lesser nobility came to count for less 
in the Great Council they began to identify themselves with the landed 
gentry and to serve on juries transacting local business. In the course 
of the conflicts under John and Henry III, sometimes the Crown and 
sometimes the barons called these local representatives to meet with 
the Great Council until gradually they came to form a part of the reg- 
ular machinery of central government. In 12 13 it is recorded that 
representatives from certain towns were summoned to meet at St. 
Albans in August, while, in November, four discreet knights of each 
shire were called to Oxford " to confer with the King on the affairs 
of the kingdom " ; but it is uncertain whether the local representatives 
appeared at either place, and taxes continued for many years to be 
voted in councils of great tenants-in-chief and assessed and collected 
in the separate shires by representative knights. The first clear 
case of a central assembly of representative knights came in 1254, 
when, upon the refusal of the bishops and barons to vote supplies 
during a Gascon campaign, two knights from each shire were sum- 
moned through the sheriff to declare what the electors were willing to 
grant. 

The Growth of Parliament from 1265 to 1295. — The next step was 
taken in 1265 when Simon de Montfort summoned to his Parliament 
not only two knights from each shire, but also two citizens or burgesses 
from each of twenty-one cities and boroughs which he selected. This 
has often been called the first English Parliament ; but, while Simon 



EDWARD I AND EDWARD II 115 

deserves credit for first bringing together the two elements that make 
up the later House of Commons, his was not a completely representa- 
tive body. It .consisted exclusively of his own supporters, the lower 
clergy were not summoned at all ; only the barons of his following were 
present, and, in the case of the towns, the writs were directed to such 
mayors as were on his side, and not, as came to be the case later, to 
the sheriffs of the shires in which the towns were situated. All one 
can say is that the Parliament of 1265 represented more classes than 
any which had met up to that time. While, moreover, in all the Parlia- 
ments summoned during the next thirty years, some one of the three 
estates — nobles, clergy, commons — were either absent or incom- 
pletely represented, nevertheless, Simon de Montfort deserves credit 
for initiating a very important step in parliamentary progress. 

The Model Parliament (1295). — Edward's Parliament of 1295 was 
the first to represent all classes. Here were present representatives 
from the nobility, earls, and barons; from the clergy, archbishops 
and bishops, abbots, priors, heads of the military religious orders, deans 
of cathedrals, and proctors or delegates from the various chapters 
and dioceses ; from the commons, two knights from each shire and 
representatives from more than a hundred cities and boroughs. In 
spite of a reference in the writ of summons to the " most righteous 
law . . . that what touches all shall be approved by all," Edward 
was more interested in getting money for his wars with France and 
Scotland than in perfecting the constitution of Parliament. While 
some incomplete assemblies met after 1295, the assembly of that year 
furnished the model for time to come. It was the work of the next 
century to determine how the estates now represented should arrange 
themselves. The lower clergy soon dropped out and transacted their 
business in representative bodies of their own, known as Convocations, 
of which there were two, one under Canterbury and one under York, 
each divided into two houses, an upper and a lower. The higher 
clergy had seats both in the upper house of Convocation and in 
Parliament. In the latter body they soon came — in 1332 — to 
be organized, together with the temporal peers, into the House of 
Lords, while the knights of the shire and the representatives of the 
cities and boroughs united to form the House of Commons. 1 

The Opposition of the Clergy, the Barons, and the Merchants 

1 However, it was a long time before the Commons came to appreciate their 
privilege, and for various reasons : it was a hard and expensive journey to West- 
minster; they were usually called only to vote supplies, at first counting for little 
in the deliberations of the prelates and nobles ; and local centers had to pay the 
salaries of such representatives as they sent. 



Ii6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

(1296). — From the money granted by the Model Parliament Edward 
was able to conquer Scotland in 1296, but an expedition to Gascony 
led by his brother Edmund was a dismal failure. While the barons, 
knights, and burgesses, assembled in a new Parliament, November, 
1296, made liberal grants for another campaign against Philip the 
Fair, the clergy took their stand on a bull known as Clericis laicos 
recently issued by Boniface VIII, which forbade the lay authorities, 
under pain of excommunication, to collect taxes from the clergy 
without the Pope's consent. Edward replied by putting them out- 
side the protection of the law so that any man might plunder them at 
will, and all lay fiefs of clerks in the see of Canterbury who refused to 
pay were seized by royal order. Increased necessity soon forced Ed- 
ward into conflict with both the barons and the merchants. In a 
stormy baronial assembly, the former, led by the Marshal, the Earl 
of Norfolk, and the Constable, the Earl of Hereford, refused to serve 
in Gascony unless the King commanded in person, and collected men 
at arms to support their resistance. The King embittered the mer- 
chants by seizing a portion of their wool and subjecting the remainder 
to a heavy tax. Disaffection was further spread by requisitions for 
grain and salt throughout the Kingdom. 

Edward's Expedition to Flanders. Wallace's Rising in Scotland 
(1297). — Edward's courage and resource and the loyalty of his sub- 
jects in the face of danger enabled him to tide over the crisis. The 
clergy grudgingly yielded their quota; the merchants were satisfied 
with a promise that they would be compensated for their wool when 
peace was restored ; while the King paid for his requisitions and 
agreed to pay for the services of all who would respond to his " affec- 
tionate request." Leaving Prince Edward as Regent, he departed 
for Flanders in the summer of 1297 with a goodly following. Though 
the Gascon expedition was dropped, Norfolk and Hereford resigned 
their offices and held sullenly aloof. Meantime, a formidable rising 
broke out in Scotland headed by Sir William Wallace, one of the Low- 
land knights. Edward refused to be diverted from Flanders, though 
he sent some of his best warriors to the North ; but the English forces 
were overcome at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, n September, and 
Scotland passed for the moment out of English hands. 

The Confirmation of the Charters (1 297) . — After Edward's departure 
for Flanders, those barons who still remained disaffected took advan- 
tage of the Scotch crisis to renew their demands. Coming to Parlia- 
ment armed, they threatened to vote no more supplies and, 12 Octo- 
ber, the Regency was forced to give way. The concessions were em- 
bodied in a famous document known as the Confirmatio Cartarutn, 



EDWARD I AND EDWARD II 



117 



providing that the Charter of Liberties and tie Forests should be 
confirmed, that the King's recent exactions should not be made prece- 
dents, and, most important of all, it was enacted that, " no aids, tasks 
or prises were to be taken, but by the common consent of the realm 
and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises 
due and accustomed." 1 The Conjirmatio was ratified by the King at 
Ghent. By specifying "aids, tasks, and prises" the barons sought to 
cover all forms of taxes known to them, and the King recognized the 
principle that no new or extraordinary taxes should be levied without 
the consent of Parliament. At least twice afterwards Edward evaded 
the spirit of his concessions ; moreover, in 1305, he secured from the 
Pope a solemn absolution from the engagement of 1297. Yet, in spite 
of all wriggling, a principle had been formulated and recognized which 
was to influence profoundly the course of English constitutional 
history. 

Peace with France (1299). Defeat and Execution of Wallace 
(1305). — Edward accomplished little in Flanders, and, as Philip IV 
was not anxious to continue fighting, a peace was arranged in 1297 — 
concluded in 1299 — by which each party was to retain what he had 
at the beginning of the war. Thus the English King was free to take 
the field against the Scots, and, 22 July, 1298, met and defeated the 
forces of Wallace at Falkirk. In spite of his victory, Edward, owing 
to desertions, and the scarcity of provisions, had to march south in 
the early winter of 1299, leaving southern Scotland still unconquered. 
Two campaigns, in 1300 and 1301, were equally inconclusive, indeed, 
it was not till 1304 that Edward was able to strike a decisive blow. 
William Wallace, who held out after the bulk of his countrymen had 
submitted, was betrayed by a Scot in the King's service, was taken to 
London, and executed. 

Robert Bruce. Edward's Last Campaign against the Scots 
(1307). — In spite of wise laws which Edward framed for them, the 
Scots remained unreconciled. A leader arose in Robert Bruce, the 
grandson of Balliol's old rival, who was crowned at Scone, 25 March, 
1306. 2 Edward, regardless of the infirmities of age, hastily made 
preparation and started north ; but died, 7 July, 1307, before he reached 
the Border. The approach of death did not diminish his hatred toward 
his opponents. By his order, Edwardus Primus, Scotorum Malleus, 
Pactum Serva, was inscribed on his tomb, while he further ordered 

1 The Statutum De Tallagio non concedendo, formerly accepted as a statute, was 
probably a preliminary draft of the baronial demands. 

2 Every one has heard how in one of his discouraging moments when he was a 
fugitive in the lonely wastes a spider taught him patience. 



Il8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

that his bones should be carried with the army whenever the Scots 
rebelled, and only buried after their defeat. His was a noble idea to 
unite the various races of Britain into a single nation ; but to seek to 
carry it out in the teeth of such intense opposition was criminal folly 
and involved England and Scotland in untold losses of men and money. 
Elsewhere, beyond the English borders, Edward's management of 
affairs was not unsuccessful. He had reduced Wales ; to Ireland, in 
spite of bristling difficulties, he was able to give a fairly satisfactory 
rule ; also he frustrated Philip's attempt to seize Gascony, and admin- 
istered the country with few complaints from either barons or com- 
mons. 

His Work as Administrative Organizer and Lawgiver. — It was as 
an administrative organizer and lawgiver that Edward did his most 
enduring work. His task was to resume what Henry II had begun, 
to preserve what was best and adapt it to new conditions, to accept at 
the same time the most beneficial and necessary of the reforms which 
had been forced on the Crown under John and Henry III, and to fuse 
the old and the new into the structure of the Constitution. Although 
he adapted and supplemented rather than originated, he completed 
the ground plan of the English government as it exists to-day. Those 
who came after had only to complete the edifice on the foundations 
which he had reared. By the end of his reign the principle was ac- 
cepted that the King was in general bound to respect the privileges of 
his subjects and to observe the laws of the land ; that the voice of the 
people should be declared in Parliament, a body, which for the first 
time completely represented all three classes of the realm, and that 
all taxes, except those sanctioned by custom, should be granted by 
this body. 1 Moreover, the common man was protected more securely 
than ever before by the law of the land against the feudal lord ; the 
three common law courts, the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, 
and the Exchequer, had taken shape each with its distinct records; 
the circuits and functions of the itinerant justices had been carefully 
marked out, and the Council, to assist the King in his deliberations, 
had become a recognized institution ; and a body of officials under the 
Chancellor was emerging which was to judge suits on their merits 
by right or " equity " when the common law was too inelastic to meet 
the requirements of an individual case. All this and more was brought 
about largely by a series of laws or statutes so comprehensive, and so 
superior in numbers and importance that the reign can almost be said 
to mark the beginnings of English legislation. 

1 These principles were often violated in subsequent centuries to come ; but it 
was much to have secured their recognition thus early. 



EDWARD I AND EDWARD II 1 19 

The First and Second Statutes of Westminster (1275, 1285). — 
Edward was determined to correct the abuses of officials acting in 
his name, as well as to enforce the royal rights : to that end, ordinances 
were issued to prevent extortion. The royal attitude is manifest too, 
in the first and second Statutes of Westminster, enacted in 1275 and 
1285 respectively, which aimed " to redress the state of the Realm in 
such things as required amendment . . . that Common Right be 
done to all, as well Poor as Rich, without respect to Persons." These 
two Statutes are mainly a summary restatement of previous enact- 
ments such as Magna Carta and the Provisions of Westminster, and 
of the best features of the administrative measures of Henry II, and 
his successors. While their main aim is to deal with existing abuses 
in royal and feudal jurisdiction and to regulate the procedure of the 
courts rather than to formulate new general principles, the second 
Statute contains one important new provision — " concerning con- 
ditional gifts," de donis conditionalibus. It established entailed 
estates ; that is, estates that should be handed down in an order of 
succession established by the original donor, failing which they should 
go back to him and his heirs. The measure was acceptable both to 
the King and to the great nobles, to the former because it enabled 
him, when the conditions were not fulfilled, to get back lands originally 
granted by the Crown, to the latter because it prevented their estates 
from being diminished by division among heirs or in payment of debt. 

The Statute of " Mortmain" or de Religiosis (1279). — In 1279 
Edward attempted to deal with another grievance. The Church had 
gradually absorbed fully a third of the lands of the kingdom, and 
these Church lands were said to be held in "Mortmain," as if by a 
dead hand that never relaxes its grasp, for corporations, unlike fam- 
ilies, never died. Moreover, ecclesiastical holdings were exempt from 
most of the military obligations and other services, such as wardships, 
marriages, and reliefs. In consequence, the custom arose for those 
who wished to evade those obligations to grant their lands to the 
Church on condition of enjoying part of the income. In order to check 
this abuse Edward enacted his famous statute De Religiosis, or Mort- 
main, prohibiting such grants without royal license. 1 

The Statute of Winchester (1285). — By the Statute of Winchester 
the King sought to revive and reorganize the old institutions of na- 
tional police and defense. Every district was to be responsible for 
the robberies, murders, burnings, thefts, and other crimes committed 
within its borders. In walled towns the gates were to be shut from 

1 The effect was regulative rather than prohibitive, for many licenses for aliena- 
tion were given. 



120 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

sunset to sunrise, and during the summer months the inhabitants 
were to set a watch at each gate, strangers were to be arrested and 
examined, and those who escaped were to be followed by the watch, 
with hue and cry, " from town to town until that they be taken and 
delivered to the sheriff." It was further enacted that every man, in 
proportion to his lands and goods, was to provide himself with arms 
and armor, according to the ancient Assize of Henry II. View of 
armor was to be made twice every year, and in every hundred and 
franchise two constables were to be chosen to perform this task, 
and, likewise, to report to the justices all failures, in their district, 
to keep arms and armor, to punish crime, to follow the hue and 
cry, as well as all illegal harboring of strangers, while the justices 
were in their turn to report such information to the King at every 
Parliament. 

Expulsion of the Jews (1290). — One step backward taken by Ed- 
ward was his expulsion of the Jews, in 1290. Welcomed by the Con- 
queror and his sons as agents for extorting money from their subjects, 
they were carefully protected by Henry II. Although legally chattels 
of the Crown, practically they became masters of the resources of the 
kingdom. Especially, since usury, or the taking of interest, was for- 
bidden by the law of the Church, the bulk of the business of money 
lending fell into Jewish hands. Cruel massacres at the opening of 
Richard's reign indicate the popular hatred against them, due to 
their exemption from the laws of the land, and to their extortion for 
which they were not altogether to blame. Also they were accused of 
openly mocking at the belief and ceremonies of the Church, and wild 
stories were circulated of their buying Christian boys to crucify them. 
The old accusations were repeated in the reign of Edward with many 
more besides ; for example, they were charged with playing into the 
hands of the rich by making over small mortgages to great landowners 
and even of forgery and money clipping. Edward was prejudiced 
against them, and his mother and the clergy were even more so ; 
consequently, he readily agreed to drive them out in return for a 
parliamentary grant. By his bigotry he deprived himself of useful 
servants, and, no doubt, seriously retarded the financial development 
of the country. It was centuries before the Jews were allowed to 
return to England. 

The Statute of Westminster III. Quia Emptor es, 1290. — The 
same year, 1290, is notable for the passing of the third Statute of West- 
minster, otherwise known as Quia Emptores, from the opening words : 
" For as much as purchasers of land." It aimed to prevent the pro- 
cess of increasing sub-infeudation, whereby services due to great land- 



EDWARD I AND EDWARD II 121 

owners were becoming so divided and confused that it was difficult 
to keep track of them. Henceforth, lands granted by a tenant ceased 
to be under his control and passed to that of his lord. In other words, 
the grantee was not the vassal of the grantor ; but of the grantor's 
lord. As the Statute expressly authorized the sale or alienation of 
lands under such conditions, many landowners from financial necessity 
took advantage of the authorization, in spite of the restriction, and 
since the King was in many cases the overlord, the number of small 
freeholders was greatly increased. 

Edward as a Ruler. Significance of his Reign. — Edward I was a 
masterful man who sought to be every inch a King, but he had the 
good of his subjects at heart and spent his life in their service. While 
claiming all that was due him, he was wise enough to recognize the 
limitations put upon the royal authority in the struggles of the century 
by admitting the two great principles that Parliament should represent 
all classes and that it should have a voice in granting all revenues 
over and above those belonging to the King by law and ancient 
usage. When, in addition, his legislative activity, his judicial and 
administrative reforms and all his other work is taken into account, 
it is evident that his reign is one of the most notable in the annals of 
the country. 

Edward II (1307-1327). The Ordinances of 1311. — Edward of 
Carnarvon, the unworthy son of a worthy father, had been carefully 
trained in the business of war and state ; he had acted as Regent in 
1297, and accompanied his father on his later Scotch campaigns; 
nevertheless, he had no inclination or aptitude for business, and was 
so yielding in temper that he was the victim of unscrupulous favorites, 
unhappily choosing the worst when he needed the best. In the in- 
cessant conflicts which plagued the country from his very accession, 
the political issues, if they can be called such, were on a distinctly lower 
level than those of the last. The King was opposed, not as a strong 
man seeking to solve national problems in his own way, but because 
he was extravagant, frivolous, and incapable, while on the other hand, 
the men who led the fight against him were, even more than those of 
the preceding generation, seeking personal and class privileges. 

Edward's heavy exactions and misgovernment received their first 
check and the first acute crisis came to a head, when in March, 13 10, 
the barons, in the teeth of the royal prohibition, assembled fully armed, 
and forced the King to assent to the appointment of a body of twenty- 
one commissioners to reform the administration. These Lords 
Ordainers, as they were called, drew up a body of " Ordinances " 
which aimed not only to reform the whole system of finance and ad- 



122 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ministration of justice, but to transfer the governing power from the 
Crown to a narrow baronial oligarchy. In a frantic effort to save 
his favorite, Piers Gaveston — a greedy adventurer and trifler whose 
mocking tongue had contributed to estrange many of the royal oppo- 
nents Edward put off ratifying the Ordinances till October, 1311, 
and then broke his pledge. Thereupon the barons took up arms, 
captured Gaveston and, after a trial which was but a farce, beheaded 
him, 19 May, 131 2. 

The Scotch Victory at Bannockburn (1314). — Although this 
brought him to time, Edward failed to profit by the lesson. In con- 
sequence of his inability to attach his opponents to his service, the 
Scots were able to inflict on the English the most disastrous defeat in 
the centuries of conflict between the two countries. In the early 
summer of 13 14 Edward marched to relieve Stirling Castle which the 
Scots were besieging. Though the hostile barons refused to follow in 
person and only grudgingly sent their legal contingents, the English 
army was the greatest ever yet sent to invade the north and outnum- 
bered the enemy more than two to one. The battle, fought 24 June, 
in the royal park between Bannockburn and Stirling Castle ended in 
a complete rout for the English. Edward fled to Dunbar, whence he 
took to the sea and never stopped until he reached his own kingdom. 
During the remainder of the reign the northern border suffered one 
inroad after another. In 1323 Edward, though he still refused to 
acknowledge Bruce as King of the Scots, concluded a truce which was 
still in force at the close of the reign. 

Temporary Triumph and the Declaration of 1322. — Edward 
subsequently found new favorites in the two Despensers, father and 
son, who although " neither foreigners nor upstarts," were regarded 
with envy by the barons because of their greed and ambition. Even- 
tually they broke into armed revolt in 1322; but this time Edward 
was able to raise a force strong enough to gain a victory. As a result, 
the Ordinances were revoked in a Parliament held the same year and 
the important principle enunciated that : " matters which are to be 
established for the estate of our Lord the King and his heirs, and for 
the estate of the realm and the people, shall be treated, accorded, and 
established in Parliament by the King and by the Council of the prel- 
ates, earls, and barons, and the commonality of the realm." How- 
ever, nothing came of this bid for popular support; the flighty Ed- 
ward proved incapable of winning the people anymore than the barons. 
For four years, from 1322 to 1326, he ruled completely subject to the 
Despensers. Disorder, failure, treachery were the results. To cap 
all, the Despensers affronted Queen Isabella, a passionate, unscrupu- 



EDWARD I AND EDWARD II 123 

lous woman embittered by humiliation and neglect, who eagerly seized 
an opportunity which presented itself to overthrow the hated coun- 
selors, and, as it turned out, her Consort as well. 

Overthrow and Deposition of the King (1326-1327). — In 1325 
Isabella found a pretext for going to France, where, aided by Roger 
Mortimer, one of the disaffected lords, she gathered a party about her. 
In September she invaded England, and before the close of the year 
both the Despensers, against whom she had proclaimed war, fell into 
her hands and were put to death. For the King, who was also taken 
prisoner, a longer period of debasement and suffering was reserved. 
Parliament assembled, January, 1327. In a tumultuous meeting Prince 
Edward, a boy of fourteen, was chosen King. Then six articles were 
framed to justify the deposition of his father. They declared in 
substance : " that he was incompetent to govern, that he had neglected 
the business of the kingdom for unbecoming occupations, that he had 
lost Scotland . . . that he had imprisoned, exiled, and put to death 
many of the noble men of the land, that he had broken his coronation 
oath, especially in the matter of doing justice to all, that he had ruined 
the realm, and there was no hope of his correction." After he had, 
with much weeping, accepted the decree, homage and fealty were 
solemnly renounced. Even yet, the furious Queen pursued him with 
unrelenting ferocity until finally he was murdered, at Berkeley Castle, 
21 September, 1327. The folly of Edward of Carnarvon brought upon 
him a terrible retribution, though the instruments of his downfall were 
most unworthy. Yet one step in their procedure was fraught with 
significance. They took a long stride in the direction of popular 
liberty when they called upon Parliament, as the voice of the people, 
to declare the great principle that allegiance to a King, who had ceased 
to govern in the interest of his subjects, might be renounced. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Tout; Ramsay, The Dawn of the Constitution and The 
Genesis of Lancaster (1913) ; K. H. Vickers, England in the Later Middle 
Ages (1913) ; and E. Jenks, Edward Plantagenet (1902), particularly good 
for the legislation of Edward I. 

Constitutional. White, Taylor; Taswell-Langmead ; and Stubbs, 
Constitutional History; Maitland, Constitutional History of England (1908) 
gives (pp. 18-164) an excellent account of the public law in the time of 
Edward I ; Medley's Manual contains a good summary of the origin and 
development of Parliament. C. S. Mcllwain, The High Court of Parliament 
and its Supremacy (19 10) is an able discussion of the boundaries between 
legislative and judicial powers. L. O. Pike, The Constitutional History of 



124 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the House of Lords (1894) the standard work on the subject. For a full 
account of the origin and development of the law courts, see W. S. Holds- 
worth, History of English Law (1903), I. 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 37-55. 

Scotland. P. H. Brown, History of Scotland (3 vols., 1899-1909) is the 
best brief history. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE REIGN OF EDWARD III (1327-1377)- THE BEGINNING OF 
THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. CHIVALRY AT ITS HEIGHT. 
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE COMMONS. THE IN- 
CREASE OF NATIONAL SENTIMENT. FIRST ATTACKS ON 
THE POWER OF ROME 

The Misgovernment of Isabella and Mortimer (1327-1330). — Al- 
though Parliament appointed a guardian for young Edward and a 
Council to carry on the government during his minority, the real power 
was in the hands of the Queen Mother and Mortimer, who shamelessly 
appropriated two thirds of the royal revenue and were so high-handed 
that " no one dared to open his mouth for the good of the King or of 
the kingdom." This continued till 1330, when Edward, now eight- 
een, determined to put an end to their intolerable rule. With a 
trusty follower and a body of men-at-arms he seized the guilty pair, 
and issued a proclamation that henceforth he would govern himself. 
Heavy charges were framed in Parliament against Mortimer, who 
was condemned without a hearing, and hanged 29 November, while 
Isabella was allowed to live in honorable retirement till her death, 
assuming a nun's habit in her later years. 

Character of the New King. — Edward, now truly King, shone dur- 
ing most of a long and eventful reign as the typical hero of chivalry. 
Generous to a fault, with a bearing at once courtly and winning, he 
excelled in " beautiful feats of arms," both in the tournament and in 
war. On the other hand, he was ambitious, prodigal, and ostentatious, 
having no interest in his people except in so far as they contributed 
resources for his pleasures and his warlike designs. Hence, while he 
dazzled them for a time by the glories he achieved, he failed in the 
long run to win their hearts, and reverses in his later years left him a 
broken, deserted man. Spending most of his life fighting, now with 
France, now with Scotland, he brought England into a prominence 
that she had never before enjoyed, but the price was a heavy one, and 
the ultimate result was failure. Other aspects of his reign, less dra- 

125 



126 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

matic, were enduring. Parliament shaped itself into the modern House 
of Lords and House of Commons, while the Lower House began to 
assert rights which point the way to its later position as mouthpiece 
of the nation. Commerce advanced with tremendous strides, feu- 
dalism and chivalry yielded to the rising importance of the middle 
class, and a new literature in the national tongue made its appearance. 
Significant religious changes manifested themselves, forerunners of a 
movement which was, in less than two centuries, to overthrow the 
universal supremacy of the Church of Rome. Finally, labor and capital 
began a conflict which has continued with varying intensity even to 
this day. 

The Hundred Years' War and its Significance. — In April, 1328, 
Robert Bruce died, leaving a little son David as his heir. Thereupon, 
Edward Balliol set himself up as king, and, with the support of an 
expedition sent by Edward III, overcame the party of Bruce at Hali- 
don Hill. The little David was sent to France, and the determination 
of Philip IV to assist him plunged England into a war which lasted 
well into the next century. 

" The Hundred Years' War," as it is called, profoundly affected 
many aspects of English history. Socially, it brought the middle 
and lower classes to the front, for it demonstrated in battle the su- 
periority of the yeoman archer over the mailed knight, and it pro- 
duced poverty and discontent which contributed much to labor risings 
of peasants against their lords. Politically, it resulted in notable 
concessions wrung from the King as a result of his need of money for 
carrying on campaigns. Moreover, owing to a considerable degree 
to the fact that the Papacy fell temporarily under the control of France, 
a conflict with Rome was developed which culminated in the Reforma- 
tion. Finally, the war created a spirit of nationality in the two coun- 
tries ; England as purely English and France as purely French are a 
product of this struggle. 

Causes of the Hundred Years' War. — In the first year of the war, 
7 October, 1337, Edward assumed the title of King of France. Al- 
though this was a mere pretext, although other and more complex 
causes made the conflict inevitable, it is necessary to understand the 
grounds on which he based his claims. On the death of Charles IV, 
in 1328, it was maintained, in behalf of Edward, that his mother, sister 
of the late King, was the next lineal heir. The peers of France, how- 
ever, decided in favor of Philip, an uncle of Charles IV, on the ground 
that, by the law of the Salian Franks — one of the ancestral tribes of 
the modern Frenchmen — women could neither inherit estates nor 
transmit them to a son. After some negotiations, Edward accepted 



THE REIGN OF EDWARD III (1327-1377) 127 

the situation and did homage to the new monarch, Philip VI, for his 
possessions in France. Philip, however, burning to extend his sway 
over Guyenne, irritated him by constant encroachments. Then came 
Philip's espousal of the cause of the Scots. While these were the two 
main causes which led to Edward's resumption of his pretensions to 
the French succession and his subsequent invasion, other reasons 
contributed to urge him on. Chief among them was the English King's 
desire to get a foothold in the County of Flanders where the Flemings, 
the great cloth makers of the period, had recently revolted against their 
overlord, Count Louis, who suppressed them with French aid, and 
sought to prevent Edward from entering into negotiations with his 
disaffected cities by prohibiting all commercial intercourse with the 
English, and by seizing their merchants and confiscating their goods. 
The Opening of the War (1337), and Edward's First Campaigns 
(1338-1340). — Before embarking on a campaign Edward sought alli- 
ances abroad, of which the most imposing was with the Emperor Louis, 
the Bavarian. Philip VI, who formed counter-alliances, began war, 24 
May, 1337, by pronouncing the seizure of Guyenne where several castles 
were besieged and capitulated. The people of Ghent, embittered by 
the interference with their trade, put at their head Jacques Van Arte- 
veld, a rich cloth merchant. The leading Flemish cities joined with 
Ghent, and, in June, 1338, concluded a treaty of commerce. In July 
Edward sailed for Flanders ; but while the Emperor Louis, as temporal 
head of Christendom, solemnly guaranteed his title to the crown of 
France, his allies were slow in coming to his aid, his finances were in- 
adequate, and it was months before he was ready to face his enemy. 
Finally, in October, 1339, he invaded France. Philip, who had a glori- 
ous array, sent a herald with a formal challenge to a pitched battle ; 
yet when the English King eagerly accepted his challenge, he sud- 
denly turned about and started for Paris. Edward returned to Flan- 
ders, and, in February 1340, crossed over to England leaving hostages 
to the Flemings for his enormous debts. The campaign had been little 
more than a grand parade, though the poor folk along his line of march 
suffered bitterly, for flaming towns and villages marked the wake of 
his progress through a fertile and populous district. To the knightly 
class war was a noble pastime; to the peasantry it was a gruesome 
reality. Equipped with new supplies, Edward started on a second 
expedition 22 June, 1340. Brushing aside the French fleet lurking to 
intercept him along the Flemish coast, he made himself master of the 
narrow seas ; but the land campaign was fully as futile and inglorious 
as that of the previous year. Philip cautiously refused to fight ; Ed- 
ward's allies proved as apathetic as ever, and his debts accumulated 



128 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

steadily. So he patched up a truce, and, in November, stole " away 
privately for England to elude his creditors." One by one his allies 
dropped off, the last to go being the Flemish cities, after the murder 
of their leader, Van Arteveld, in a popular rising in 1345. 

The Campaign of 1346 and the Battle of Crecy (26 August). — 
Largely owing to lack of funds, Edward was unable to resume active 
hostilities till 1346, when the first notable triumph in the Hundred 
Years' War was achieved. Landing on the Norman coast, 12 July, he 
had intended to march south and join another English force which had 
been operating in Gascony since the previous year, but finding that the 
main French army under Philip's son John blocked his way, he turned 
north and made for the Flemish coast. Philip, who had hastily gath- 
ered additional forces, sent detachments ahead and made vain efforts 
to intercept him first at the Seine and then at the Somme. Edward, 
having successfully forded the latter river — for the bridges were all 
destroyed or securely guarded — halted at Crecy and disposed his 
forces on the slope of a hillside, his men-at-arms dismounted and pro- 
tected on both flanks by archers, to give battle to Philip and the bulk 
of his army hurrying in pursuit. There Philip attacked, 26 August, 
with a force estimated at 60,000, or three times the number of the 
English. However, his crossbowmen, his men-at-arms and, finally, 
his mailed knights in successive charges were stopped, riddled, and 
routed by the deadly flight of the arrows of the English longbowmen. 
Night ended the carnage, when Philip, after leading a final vain charge, 
was persuaded to withdraw. Edward's son, the Black Prince, a youth 
of sixteen, won his spurs in the brunt of the battle. At Crecy, Edward 
completed successfully a foolhardy campaign by a victory due to splen- 
did tactics, to the choice of a strong position, and a skillful combination 
of archers and men-at-arms. The ultimate consequences were mo- 
mentous ; for the very foundations of medieval society were shaken 
when the flower of French mailed knighthood had to yield to yeomen 
archers, and to Welsh and Irish serfs armed with knives and spears. 
It was a mortal blow at the old system of warfare and the social and 
political structure built on it. 

The Siege and Capture of Calais (1346-1347). — On 28 August, 
Edward started for Calais, which he was anxious to secure. Not only 
was it a refuge for pirates and privateers who devastated English 
shipping, but it commanded the Channel, and offered an easy means 
of communication with Flanders as well as a basis of operations against 
France. Finding the place too strong to carry by assault, he prepared 
for a siege. Throughout the long winter, and until well into the fol- 
lowing summer, the inhabitants held out. Efforts to relieve them by sea 



THE REIGN OF EDWARD III 129 

failed, and finally Philip appeared with an army ; but he suddenly de- 
parted, declaring it was better to lose the town than to put the lives 
of his men in jeopardy. Thus deserted and with the garrison starving 
the Governor consented to treat. According to a familiar story, Ed- 
ward required six leading burgesses to come forth with halters 
around their necks and the keys of the town in their hands, and 
was only persuaded from putting them to death by the tears of his 
Queen. At any rate, he did spare the lives of the whole garrison, 
though he replaced the old population by English settlers. For two 
hundred years Calais was held as an English market and fortress. 

English Magnificence and Ostentation. — The capture of Calais 
was the turning point in the career of Edward III. Although only 
thirty-five years old he withdrew almost entirely from the war, and 
occupied himself with domestic concerns, with hunting and hawking 
tournaments. For eight years hostilities were nominally suspended ; 
but, while the truce was frequently renewed, it was frequently broken 
in Guyenne where the " unhappy citizens had hardly more quiet in 
peace than in war." In England, on the other hand, it seemed as if a 
" new sun had risen on account of the abundance of peace, the plenty, 
and the glory of the victories." What with constant plays and tourna- 
ments the upper classes seemed to live only for pleasure. 1 Dress was 
gorgeous and extravagant ; that of the women is described "as diverse 
and wonderful," even the clergy adorned themselves magnificently, 
more like soldiers and men of fashion than servants of God. 

Causes for Popular Discontent. — However, the picture had its 
reverse side. While the war brought much booty it involved great 
expense, and the exactions levied to meet it aroused stout opposition. 
Edward was ever copious with promises which he did not observe. 
When he sought the advice of the Commons it was only to put them 
under the obligation of paying for the policy in which they acquiesced. 
In order to evade responsibility, they professed themselves, in 1348, 
too ignorant and simple to advise him in military affairs ; at the same 
time they presented no less than sixty petitions complaining of abuses, 
such as monopolies of wool and tin, and an unauthorized impost on 
manufactured cloth. In view of the King's usual assurances, they 
granted supplies ; but the growing discontent was to come to a head 
before the close of the reign. 

The Black Death (1348-1349). — Moreover, the country was visited 
by a frightful scourge from which it was never again wholly free for 

1 It was probably in this period that Edward founded the celebrated Order of 
the Garter, in imitation or memory of King Arthur's Round Table, an order which 
still remains the most exalted in England. 



130 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

more than three centuries. The Black Death, as it was called, ap- 
peared first in Asia, whence it spread along the trade routes to Europe, 
reaching England in the late summer of 1348. While its appearance 
was foretold by all manner of signs and wonders : "an extraordinary 
dreadful comet"; showers of blood, and the appearance of strange 
monsters, as a matter of fact famine — due to floods, droughts, and the 
devastations of war — and the unhealthful conditions of ventilation 
and drainage prepared the way for ravages of the plague. It was a 
most loathsome and contagious disease. Among its symptoms were 
boils, vomiting of blood, fever, and black patches all over the body — 
whence its name; it created the greatest havoc in the overcrowded 
parts of cities, but there was little chance of escape for such as had 
once breathed the tainted air. Those who fled to the fields and woods 
fell dead and spread the contagion on the way, and ships were found 
at sea with not a living soul on board. The administration of justice 
ceased for lack of judges ; and, in many places, divine service stopped 
because the priests had died or fled. Numbers of villages were wholly 
deserted, and the grass grew long in the flourishing port of Bristol. 
The Scots, who mocked at the "foul death" of the English, caught 
the infection and lost a third of their population. 

Moral and Religious Effects of the Black Death. — The approach- 
ing end of the world was predicted. Some gave themselves over to 
excesses of drinking and reveling ; but the greater number, regarding 
the plague as a divine visitation for their sins, sought to avert the wrath 
of God by exaggerated religious observances. For example, a queer 
sect known as the " Brotherhood of the Flagellants " (the " whippers ") 
was revived ; passing over to England from Hungary and Germany 
they went about from town to town scourging one another with iron- 
tipped scourges and chanting mournful hymns. Multitudes on the 
Continent and not a few in England joined their ranks. The Pope, 
who regarded such fanatical excitement as dangerous to established 
order, issued a bull, in 1349, for their suppression, though it was only 
with the return of quieter times that they gradually disappeared. 

Social and Economic Effects. — In England the Black Death pre- 
cipitated a social and industrial crisis. Losing, it is estimated, 
from a third to a half of its population, the number of laborers in the 
country was so diminished that they began to demand excessive wages 
and the value of land fell steadily from lack of cultivation. "Sheep 
and cattle strayed through the fields and corn, and there was none 
who could drive them " ; harvests rotted on the ground ; then, to make 
matters worse, a murrain among the cattle accompanied the plague. 
While some landlords remitted rents of their tenants and actually re- 



THE REIGN OF EDWARD III 131 

duced the service due from villeins to hold them on the land, others 
sought vainly to get their lands cultivated by resorting to all sorts of 
antiquated claims of service, or at least by claiming strictly such as 
were actually due. On 18 June, 1349, the King issued an Ordinance 
ordering that all unemployed persons should be compelled to work at 
wages prevalent before the recent calamity. Penalties were fixed for 
those who refused, and also for those who offered higher wages, or gave 
anything by way of charity to idle beggars. As an offset, it was pro- 
vided that fish, flesh, and fowl should be sold at a reasonable price. 
The Ordinance proved ineffective, and, in 13 51, Parliament reenacted 
its measures in the Statute of Laborers, one of the long series to follow. 
The laborers, however, were so " puffed up and quarrelsome " that 
they would not obey, and the landlords had to leave their crops un- 
gathered or violate the law by paying increased rates. It must be 
said that the laws of supply and demand and the decreased purchasing 
power of money to some extent justify the laborers. The result of 
the new conditions was to change the whole system of farming ; great 
landlords ceased to farm their estates with the aid of stewards, and 
leased them to tenant cultivators or else turned them into sheep pas- 
tures. Still it should be emphasized that the Black Death only 
accentuated changes already in progress, for the growth of manufac- 
tures, the spread of commerce, and the attraction of military service 
drew many from the land, and the landlords would have suffered had 
there been no plague. Laws to turn back the hands of the clock were 
unavailing. 

A Decade of Important Legislation. — Parliament, during the dec- 
ade following the Black Death, was uncommonly active. In 135 1 
it passed the celebrated Statute of Provisors, which declared invalid 
all appointments or provisions made by the Pope to English benefices, 
and punished with imprisonment all who accepted such appoint- 
ments. Two years later, 1353, the Statute of Praemunire l enacted, 
that any one carrying suits to foreign courts should be liable to for- 
feiture of lands and chattels, imprisonment of person, and outlawry, 
though the Pope and clergy, against whom these provisions are clearly 
aimed, are not mentioned in the Act. 2 More than once reenacted, 
neither of the two above Statutes were obeyed during the fourteenth 
century. The Act of Treasons, 1352, is important as the first legis- 
lative attempt to define the crime. Seven offenses were enumerated 
— including the compassing the death of the King or his consort or 

1 A corruption of the Latin praemonere — to be forewarned. 

2 In the reenactments of these respective Statutes in 1391 and 1393, however, 
they are distinctly mentioned. 



132 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

his heir ; adhering to his enemies ; slaying his Ministers or his judges ; 
and counterfeiting the Great Seal or the royal coins. In 1363 the 
Chancellor opened Parliament with a speech in English. In the pre- 
vious year it had been enacted that English should be the language of 
the law courts, for the reason that the "people have no knowledge nor 
understanding of that which is said for or against them," and that the 
court records should be in Latin. 1 By an act of 1362, renewed in 1371, 
it was provided that no subsidy on wool should be laid without the 
consent of Parliament. In 1363 a sumptuary law regulated very 
minutely matters of diet and dress to prevent the impoverishment of 
the country exhausted by plague and war. If part of the people were 
intent on fighting and display, there was a class who were grappling 
with the realities of life. 

The Battle of Poitiers (16 September, 1356). — In 1355 war was re- 
newed in real earnest. When, July, 1356, the Black Prince, who had 
been in Aquitaine since the previous year, started from Bordeaux for 
a raid through central France, King John, who had suceeded his father 
Philip VI, in 1350, marched south to defend his threatened territories. 
Eventually the two armies met near the town of Poitiers, and, in the 
battle which followed, as at Crecy, the French outnumbered the Eng- 
lish three to one. Again the mailed knight was overcome by the Eng- 
lish longbow, while King John, struggling manfully, was taken prisoner, 
together with his young son Philip. The Black Prince, however, was 
able to make little immediate use of his victory in a military way. Too 
weak to attempt to capture the city whither most of the vanquished 
fled for refuge, he hurried on to Bordeaux with his booty and his more 
important prisoners. On 23 March, 1357, a truce was arranged for 
two years, and, in May, John was taken a captive to London. While 
his people were ground with taxes and pillaged by roving soldiery, both 
English and French, he spent his captivity pleasantly in the chase and 
tournament. 

The Peace of Bretigny (1360). — Another invasion led by King Ed- 
ward and his four sons failed to achieve any notable success, since the 
French shut themselves up in their strong towns and castles and it 
was practically impossible to support the English army in the wasted 
country. Accordingly, terms of peace were finally arranged in 1360. 
By the Treaty of Bretigny it was tacitly understood that Edward 
should renounce his claims to the French throne. In return he re- 

1 As a matter of fact, however, cases continued to be argued and reported in 
French till well into the seventeenth century ; the language of the Statutes was 
French till Henry VII, and Latin did not cease to be the language of writs, charters, 
and records until 1731. 



THE REIGN OF EDWARD III 



*33 



ceived all of the ancient Aquitaine, 1 with many smaller districts in 
the south, and certain territories including Calais in the north. Also 
the French renounced their alliance with the Scots and the English 
renounced theirs with the Flemings. " Good brother France," said 
Edward, "you and I are now, thank God, of good accord." Such 
rejoicings proved premature, for in spite of the sincere efforts of King 
John, the French nobles in the ceded districts stoutly resisted the trans- 
fer of their allegiance, and towns were even more stubborn. Some 
districts refused to submit at all. Moreover, the French were 
unable to pay the installments of John's ransom, whereupon he re- 
turned to England, where he died in 1364. 

The Tide Begins to Turn against England. — Two years before, 
King Edward had erected Gascony and Guyenne into a separate prin- 
cipality and conferred it upon the Black Prince. In view of the Prince's 
past successes and the disordered condition of France, the prospects 
of the English seemed as bright as those of the French seemed dark ; 
but the tide was on the turn. John's successor, Charles V, greatly 
aided by Bertrand du Guesclin, who came to be recognized as the 
greatest general of the age, was able to win back ground that his more 
martial father had lost. Moreover, the Black Prince played into his 
hands by taking up the cause of Pedro the Cruel, a faithless and blood- 
thirsty creature, who had been driven from the throne of Castile. The 
Prince afterwards complained that the devil had dragged him into 
mixing in the affair — and well he might ; for it involved fighting in 
Spain where he contracted a disease that caused his premature death, 
and it compelled him to levy taxes from his Gascon subjects which 
aroused them to revolt. 

Renewal of the War (1369). — Charles V had taken advantage of 
the situation to make ready for war and to cultivate the disaffected 
among the Gascon nobles. When they appealed to him against the 
burden of taxation, he seized the opportunity, although he had no right 
to interfere in the affairs of Aquitaine, and actually, 15 January, 1369, 
summoned the Prince to Paris to answer the complaints of his own sub- 
jects. A defiant refusal, which he received, together with the con- 
tinued pillaging of his territories by English companies, prompted him 
to send the King of England a formal declaration of war, 29 April, 
and Edward replied by resuming the arms and title of the King of 
France. The war which followed " never rose above a series of raids, 
skirmishes, and sieges," in which the English, notwithstanding a 
few successes, met with one reverse after another and continually 
lost ground. Many causes contributed to this result. Edward III, 
1 It included Guyenne and Gascony. 



134 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

grown prematurely old, had withdrawn from active fighting, the Black 
Prince was suffering grievously from dropsy, and, at the same time, 
the English army had deteriorated owing to the fact that the depleted 
ranks of the archers, who had won the earlier battles, were filled by a 
motley throng of foreign auxiliaries. Moreover, the French tactics 
steadily exhausted their adversaries. On the English approach they 
wasted the land round about and took refuge in a castle or walled town, 
while Bertrand du Guesclin, constantly appearing and attacking re- 
mote and ill-defended garrisons, never stayed to face a relieving force 
and wore out the defenders of the land in futile marches and pursuits. 
In January, 137 1, the Black Prince, completely shattered in health, 
was succeeded by his brother John of Gaunt, 1 who, however, was unable 
to improve the situation. At length a truce was concluded which, 
by renewal, lasted till the end of the reign, when all that remained of 
the former vast conquests of the English were Bordeaux, Bayonne, 
Calais, and Brest. 

The Good Parliament (1376). — Owing to the burden of taxation, 
the ill success of the war, and general maladministration, public dis- 
content grew steadily. The Black Prince recovered his health suffi- 
ciently to head the opposition, which was directed against the Court 
party, particularly against John of Gaunt and Alice Perrers, an un- 
worthy favorite, to whom the King was devoted. The crisis came to 
a head in the " Good Parliament," called, in 1376, to obtain money for 
continuing the war. For the first time the House of Commons strik- 
ingly asserted their growing power — they demanded an audit of 
accounts, and proceeded to lay bare the iniquities of the King's coun- 
selors, to whom they attributed the national poverty. The leading 
offenders were mentioned by name and brought to account. Lord 
Latimer, the King's chamberlain, was accused of buying up debts, 
of extorting huge sums, of selling strong places to the enemy, and of 
intercepting fines which should have been paid into the royal treasury. 
Richard Lyons, a London merchant and former farmer of the customs, 
had been associated with him in various frauds — lending the King 
money at a usurious rate, forestalling the markets at ports, and 
raising the price of foreign imports. In bringing them to account 
a new process was employed, impeachment, which consists of a 
trial by the House of Lords on the basis of an accusation brought by 
the Commons against a public official for a public offense. Both 
were convicted and were sentenced to imprisonment and forfeiture, 
though Latimer, released on bail, managed to elude the execution of 
his sentence. 

1 So called from Ghent, his birthplace. 



THE REIGN OF EDWARD in 135 

The Reforms of the Good Parliament Frustrated by John of Gaunt. 

— Although the reform party attempted some important work during 
the remaining weeks of the session, the work of the Good Parliament 
practically terminated with the death of the Black Prince, 6 June, 1376. 
His chivalry was of the prevailing artificial type, without real gentle- 
ness or humanity ; he had little military genius, but he was a brave 
dashing leader, and his patience in suffering and his manful fight against 
corruption and misgovernment, even if impelled by hostility against 
his brother, made him deservedly popular. John of Gaunt gained 
the ascendancy, and caused the late Parliament to be declared no 
Parliament. A new one, which met 27 January, 1377, wholly under 
his influence, was the first of the "packed parliaments," so called be- 
cause composed largely of members pledged to do the will of the Gov- 
ernment, the necessity of such an expedient being a striking evi- 
dence of the growing power of the Commons. Alice Perrers, who had 
been driven from Court, was allowed to return and the acts against 
her and Lord Latimer were reversed. 

John Wiclif (?-i384). — John of Gaunt, head of a corrupt Court 
clique, was opposed to clerical ascendancy, and, in his struggle against 
it, took to himself a curious ally — John Wiclif, the first English re- 
former. Born sometime about 1324, in Yorkshire, Wiclif had passed 
most of his life at Oxford as a student and teacher of theology, though, 
in course of time, he came to supplement his academic work with that 
of a parish priest. John of Gaunt, finding that Wiclif, whom he first 
came to know in 1374, had been for some time occupied in framing 
views on the relations between the spiritual and the temporal power of 
the Church, undertook to make use of him in his battle against ec- 
clesiastical influence in political affairs. Wiclif's first appearance in 
public affairs was shortly before the meeting of the Good Parliament, 
when he published a treatise against the papal claim to collect arrears 
of the annual tribute promised by King John. However, no payment 
had been made since the accession of Edward III, and he was but voic- 
ing protests made in Parliament as early as 1366 against its renewal. 
Convocation, which met with Parliament in the winter, determined to 
call the reformer to account, primarily to strike a blow at his champion. 
On 19 February, 1377, he appeared before the assembled Bishops at 
St. Paul's accompanied by Duke John and the Earl Marshal; but 
the trial broke up owing to a fierce quarrel between his notable sup- 
porters and the Bishop of London ; the London mob, who hated John 
and the Marshal because of encroachments on the privileges of the 
City, taking the side of their Bishop. The next day the uproar be- 
came so great that John of Gaunt had to flee. The enemies of Wiclif 



136 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

then applied to the Pope, who, in May, issued a series of bulls against 
him, but they did not arrive till the beginning of the new reign. 

Death of Edward III (1377). — Since Christmas, 1376, the old King 
had remained in retirement. When it was certain that the end was 
near, Alice Perrers stripped the rings from his fingers and fled, the cour- 
tiers about him followed suit, and Edward III, once the glory of his 
generation, passed away 21 June, deserted except for a single priest, 
who remained out of compassion to minister the last offices of the 
Church. The pomp and circumstance, the chivalrous ideal, the strong 
personal power of the Monarch had faded away before Edward's body 
passed to the grave. New forces, economic discontent, political op- 
position, religious revolt, and the birth of a new literature were already 
struggling into being ; but how they grew and what they meant was 
not left for him to see. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. In addition to Tout, Ramsay, Vickers and Stubbs, William 
Longman, The Life and Times of Edward III (2 vols., 1869) ; James Mac- 
kinnon, The History of Edward III (1900) ; and C. H. Pearson, English 
History in the Fourteenth Century (1876). A good brief account of the 
period is William Warburton, Edward III (1887). S. Armitage Smith, 
John of Gaunt (1904) and R. P. Dunn-Pattison, The Black Prince (1910) 
are both scholarly biographies. G. M. Trevelyan, England in the Age of 
Wycliffe (1899) gives an interesting survey of political, social, and religious 
history in the last years of Edward III and the early years of Richard II. 
There are various translations of Froissart's famous chronicle ; the best is 
that of Lord Berners (Tudor translations, 1901) and there is a useful abridg- 
ment by G. C. Macaulay and another in Everyman's Library (1906). 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 56-83. 



CHAPTER XIII 

LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 

(1272-1377) 

Parliamentary Gains in the Fourteenth Century. — Before the end 
of the thirteenth century the two principles had been recognized that 
the three estates of the realm should be represented in Parliament, 
and that all taxes, except those sanctioned by custom, should be granted 
by the representative body. In the fourteenth century the estates 
were grouped into two houses, and steps were taken to prevent the 
King from evading the general limitations placed on his taxing power 
and to assert the rights of Parliament in legislation. The prevention 
of the royal practice of collecting tallages and subsidies on wool has 
already been noted. Other gains remain to be pointed out. In 1373 
Parliament began to grant the King tonnage and poundage, i. e. 
customs on wine and merchandise, which for nearly three centuries 
furnished an important supplement to tenths and fifteenths, 1 the usual 
direct taxes, also granted by Parliament. By a tight hold on the 
purse-strings Parliament managed to secure many liberties and privi- 
leges, since, even in ordinary times, — to say nothing of war and 
other crises — the regular Crown revenues were insufficient without 
special grants. While the King, after his immediate need was supplied, 
repudiated many concessions that were wrung from him, they never- 
theless furnished valuable precedents in future struggles. One great 
step in advance was the share which the Commons gained in making 
the laws. At first they were only asked to give their consent to bills 
framed by the King and Council, and not infrequently, royal ordi- 
nances were issued which had the force of law without Parliamentary 
sanction. However, since subjects, either individually or collectively, 
enjoyed the right of presenting petitions, such petitions began to be 
framed and presented by their representatives in Parliament. The 

1 So called because originally they consisted of a tenth of the revenues or 
chattels from burgesses and a fifteenth of those from the landholders of shires. 
After 1334 the amount of a tenth and fifteenth was a fixed sum — £39,000. 

137 



138 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

advantage was twofold : action was concerted, and Parliament could 
enforce its demands by its control over money grants. By the be- 
ginning of the fifteenth century it had become a fixed practice for the 
Commons to vote supplies only at the end of the session. Less than 
fifty years later, their claim, asserted in the previous century, was 
finally recognized, that answers to petitions should be enacted as law 
in the exact words in which they were first presented. Altogether, 
the fourteenth century was a time of great advance for Parliament. 
Its form of organization was determined ; it had greatly curtailed the 
right of arbitrary taxation; it had come to be consulted in public 
business ; it had claimed a voice in the appointment of Ministers and 
the right to call them to account ; it had deposed one King ; before 
the close of the century it deposed another and even established a new 
line of succession. Later events were to show that most of the gains 
were premature, but as precedents they, nevertheless, contributed 
powerfully to the ultimate progress of the English Constitution. 

Trade and Industry. Passage from Local to Central Control. — 
The commercial and industrial advance of this period is equally note- 
worthy, in the growth of the wool trade, in English shipping, and in 
the remarkable development of the English cloth manufacture. Up 
to the time of Edward I, regulation and control of trade were largely 
local, and were hampered by vexatious restrictions. Privileged towns 
and local magnates levied tolls on all goods bought and sold at markets 
and fairs that entered city gates, that unloaded at wharves, or that 
passed along certain roads. Merchants of chartered boroughs, banded 
together in their gilds, enjoyed exclusive privileges of trading within 
their district, while alien merchants, in addition to other handicaps, 
were forbidden to engage in retail trade at all. Aside from certain 
royal enactments regulating the price of bread, ale, and cloth there 
was no central control whatever. The regulations of Edward I, made 
" with the counsel and consent of the Commons of England," mark an 
epoch ; for the towns, which had hitherto treated separately with the 
Crown, were now united in Parliament to secure measures for their 
class as a whole. Edward " laid the foundations of a system of na- 
tional regulation of commerce and industry," and by his work made it 
possible for his grandson to develop an international commerce. In 
1275 he agreed with his Parliament to accept a fixed toll on wools, 
wool-fells, leather, and upon wine; he appointed officers called cus- 
tomers to collect revenue and to put down smuggling, and, to aid in 
this work, he named certain staple towns to which all trade in wool, 
the chief commodity of the kingdom, should be confined. In order 
to encourage and protect those engaged in traffic, he enacted better 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 139 

and more general police regulations, and by the Statute of Merchants 
provided security for creditors. Finally, he took measures for a purer 
and more reliable currency, and had tables set up at Dover where all 
merchants and pilgrims should exchange the money and plate they 
brought in for the coin of the realm. Edward III supplemented these 
efforts by selecting twenty ports where such exchanges could be made. 
Both Edward I and his grandson favored the Gascon merchants who 
imported wine and the Flemings who exported wool. While the ex- 
pulsion of the Jews by Edward I and the ruin of the Italians under 
the burden of Edward Ill's debts threw much business into the hands 
of the natives, and while great efforts were made to exclude foreigners 
from the English retail trade, the bulk of the foreign commerce was 
carried on by the latter till the reign of Richard II. There is much 
confusion and contradiction in the commerce legislation of the period, 
owing to the fact that as yet no general theories on the subject had 
been evolved and each measure enacted was largely experimental. 
The main aim, however, was to make exports dear and imports cheap 
rather than to build up English shipping and industry. 

The Y/ool Trade and Shipping. — By the close of the thirteenth 
century England had come to be the great wool producing country of 
Europe, with her chief market among the Flemish weavers. Various 
attempts were made to fix the towns or staples where the wool should 
be sold; sometimes they were in England, sometimes in the Low 
Countries, while, for a short period in the reign, trade was free and the 
staple towns were done away with altogether. In 1362 the staple was 
removed to Calais, where it remained, except for short intervals, till the 
town passed back to the French, in 1558. The native shipper in the 
early part of the reign of Edward III had to contend against great 
obstacles. The foreigner and the King's agent were greatly favored at 
his expense and he was generally prohibited from exporting wool out 
of the country ; even when the staple was fixed at Calais he could only 
as a rule take it across the Channel. Moreover, the North Sea was 
swarming with pirates and the coast towns were frequently subject 
to hostile raids. Indeed the bold seamen of the Cinque Ports when 
not engaged in the royal service often preyed on the commerce of their 
countrymen. But the sovereignty of the narrow seas asserted by 
Edward I was, for a time at least, made a reality by Edward III in 
consequence of his naval victories and the capture of Calais. For a 
while the seas were better policed than ever before. Piracy, however, 
did not altogether disappear. With the decline cf Edward's vigor 
the navy fell into decay, and the English shipping and port towns be- 
gan once more to suffer. The reign of Richard II was even more dis- 



I 4 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

astrous from the naval and commercial point of view. An attempt 
to build up English shipping by Navigation Acts came to nothing. The 
ships of merchants were seized for the royal necessities, yet the navy 
was even more neglected than in the last years of Edward III. Dis- 
cipline was lax, trade was unprotected, the country was in constant 
danger of invasion, and the most brilliant achievements on the sea 
were due to the patriotism and gallantry of individuals. 

Regulation of Native Industry and the Advent of New Industries. 

— Careful provision was made to prevent fraud in particular callings ; 
for instance, a royal proclamation of 1340 prohibited the London 
butchers from sewing the fat of good beef on joints of lean. In 1363 
merchants were required to deal in one sort of merchandise only, and 
handicraftmen to keep to one " mystery " or craft, except women who 
were engaged in such callings as brewing, baking, spinning, and the like. 
Edward's frequent prohibition of the export of wool did much to en- 
courage the native manufacture, which he fostered also by encourag- 
ing the Flemish weavers to come over to exercise their craft and to 
teach others. There had been migrations from Flanders ever since 
the Conquest, but the weavers now came in such numbers as to mark 
a new era in the development of English cloth manufacture. 

Sumptuary Legislation. — Edward III enacted various sumptuary 
laws which were aimed partly to protect native industries against 
foreign importations, partly to check extravagance and promote thrift, 
and had reference particularly to the lesser folk who had begun to 
imitate the upper classes in elaborate dress and costly meats, even 
before the temporary enrichment of the country from the loot of the 
French wars. Such excesses " sore grieved " the great men of the 
realm, who saw " evil therein ... as well to the souls as bodies " 

— a most serious one in their eyes, no doubt, was that it impoverished 
the subjects so that they were " not able to aid themselves nor their 
liege lord in time of need." Sumptuary laws were as old as the Romans, 
and were not unprecedented in England ; but Edward's were frequent 
and far reaching. They regulated the amount and quality of food a 
man should eat, they forbade any but members of the royal family to 
wear cloth except of English manufacture, and regulated the apparel 
of every class in the community from the servant and the handicrafts- 
man to the noble. 

Gilds. — The artisan in the fourteenth century seems to have been 
in a very prosperous state. To a considerable degree this was due 
to the protection of the Crown and Parliament, faulty and inadequate 
as it was. Concurrently with this central regulation that of the local 
organizations survived to some extent. But the gild merchants were 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 141 

gradually disappearing, either by merging with the municipal organi- 
zation or with the various craft gilds. Division of labor was still 
highly developed. In this period London alone had some fifty separate 
mysteries. The bow maker could not make arrows ; the cordwainer 
made shoes while the cobbler patched them. Each gild had its mas- 
ters, its journeymen who worked by the day, and its apprentices who 
paid a sum of money in return for which they were taught the trade 
and supplied with food, drink, and clothing. Every craft had a court 
with elected officers to regulate trade disputes. In the craft as well as 
in the older merchant gilds the religious, benevolent, and social aspects 
were prominent : they had patron saints and processions on holy days ; 
they provided money for masses for the souls of dead members ; they 
maintained altar lights at the parish church and often supported a 
chaplain ; they relieved the poverty of their poorer brethren and their 
families ; and they contributed money for the marriage portion of the 
daughters of members or for sending them into nunneries ; moreover, 
periodical feasts were an essential part of their organization. In a 
word "the gild in its various forms supplied to the people of the four- 
teenth century local clubs, local trade unions, and local friendly 
societies." 

Ordinances against Usury. — A striking feature of medieval eco- 
nomics is the sentiment against " usury," as any lending of money at 
interest was called. An Ordinance of 1363 denounces it as a " false 
and abominable contract, under colour and cover of good and lawful 
trading," which "ruins the honour and soul of the agent, and sweeps 
away the goods and property of him who appears to be accommodated." 
To understand this attitude it must be borne in mind that business 
conditions were quite different from those of later times. There were 
no credit systems, or banks in the modern sense ; indeed, money was 
seldom borrowed except for emergencies — to build a church or a 
monastery, to pay taxes suddenly imposed, to go on a pilgrimage or 
crusade, to fit out a military expedition. Rates were too high to 
make borrowing for commercial purposes profitable, and the usual 
practice for a man without capital who wanted to embark on a venture 
was to form a partnership with another to furnish the money and share 
the risk. The nearest approach to bankers were brokers who brought 
the borrowers and lenders together, and law and public opinion long 
frowned upon them. The medieval borrower could not see why, if 
he furnished security and paid his loan at the appointed time, he 
should render more than he had received to one who had incurred no 
risk. Had he caused his creditor inconvenience by failing to keep 
his agreement, then, and then only, was he prepared to pay interest. 



142 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Money lending, then, was regarded as a barren employment of funds 
which the lender ought more properly to invest in a partnership where 
he shared in the legitimate gains and risks. 

Agriculture and Enclosures. — The tendency to commute the per- 
sonal services of villein cultivators into money rents, already evident 
in the thirteenth century, became marked in the fourteenth. Lords 
and bailiffs preferred to hire laborers rather than to depend upon un- 
willing service. Moreover, the pomp and ceremony of chivalry, the 
increasing luxury, and the demands of building called for ready money. 
More and more, too, sheep raising began to be substituted for tillage. 
This was due to two causes : to the widening market for wool both at 
home and abroad ; and to the scarcity of labor after the Black Death. 
The process is known as "enclosing" from the means taken to prevent 
the sheep from straying. Both arable land and the old common fields 
were appropriated by the lords for their purpose. As the population 
began to recover during the next two centuries, enclosing began to be 
regarded as a hardship because it required much land and few laborers. 

Life of the People. Lawlessness. Justices of the Peace. — Con- 
ditions were still primitive when cows could be strangled by wolves in 
Lincolnshire. The state of the country was so lawless that merchants 
had to travel in large parties accompanied by armed horsemen for 
security. The woods were full of outlaws who robbed all who came 
their way, and even, on occasion, seized the King's judges and held them 
for ransom. Some were even bold enough to force their way into the 
law courts and overawe the justices. Moreover, the nobles often kept 
such ruffians in their pay and protected them, a custom which soon 
became widespread under the name of livery and maintenance. 1 One 
means of keeping order was the establishment of the justices of the 
peace ; in 1344 any two or more were intrusted with limited judical 
functions, while, in 1362, all from the county were empowered to hold 
four sessions a year, known as " quarter sessions," to try certain cases 
less serious than those reserved for the King's judges. They were 
chosen from the best county families and from the borough magistrates 
and served without pay. Besides keeping the peace and trying smaller 
offenders all the duties of local administration came to be loaded upon 
them, such as carrying out the statutes of Laborers and the later Poor 
Laws. Punishments were barbarous, aiming at retribution and ven- 
geance rather than prevention of crime. Prisoners were thrown, some- 

1 "Livery" comes from the provisions and clothes which were delivered as pay; 
it was later applied to the badge worn by such retainers and has survived in the 
modern servants' uniforms. "Maintenance" comes from the lord's custom of 
"maintaining" the suits of his servants in Court. 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 143 

times naked, into horrible dungeons, dark, damp, indescribably filthy, 
often partly rilled with water and swarming with rats and vermin, and 
their usual fare was moldy bread and stagnant water. Lesser offenders 
were put in the stocks. Torture was common to make the accused con- 
fess, or to make him submit to jury trial. The horrible practice of 
breaking on the wheel, where a man was stretched out and his limbs 
broken with an iron bar, was not unknown, hanging was most common, 
and, as towns and local lords had this right, gallows were often seen, 
gruesome spots on the landscape. In cases of treason a man was cut 
down while his body was still warm, he was drawn and quartered, and 
his bowels were taken out and burned. 

Lack of Individual Freedom. — What with royal regulation, town 
and gild, and Church regulation, the individual had very little free- 
dom. It was natural that children should not escape. " A child were 
better to be unborn," it was said, "than to be untaught," and numer- 
ous rhymed treatises were composed for their guidance. The boy was 
directed what to do from the time he got up in the morning till he 
went to bed at night ; how he should dress ; how he should eat ; how 
he should act on his way to school — he was to greet passersby, not 
to throw stones at hogs and dogs, not to run away birds-nesting — how 
he should act in school if he got there. Equally minute were the di- 
rections to girls. 

Eating and Drinking and Recreations. — Eating and drinking were 
most immoderate, and only the open-air life and exercise made it 
possible for medieval English folk to digest the huge quantities they 
consumed. They had no tea or coffee and little fresh meat or vege- 
tables, now regarded as necessities. Yet their fare was not coarse 
and simple. Medieval cookbooks and kitchen utensils show that 
there were all sorts of dishes highly spiced, complicated, and delicate. 
Nevertheless, they relished many things that would hardly tempt the 
modern palate, such as hedgehogs, swans, peacocks, rooks, porpoises, 
and sparrows. Fast days meant merely a change from meat to fish. 
Ale was the drink of the lower classes, while kings and nobles regaled 
themselves on costly wines from abroad, varied by numerous elaborate 
concoctions such as mead and posset. Because of defective means of 
lighting, meals were still very early, and owing to the heavy drinking, 
not infrequently were nothing more than carousals which broke up 
in fighting that sometimes proved fatal. Yet there were many peace- 
ful diversions : the tales of knights who had journeyed or fought in 
France or the Holy Land, songs of minstrels, feats of jugglers, and 
dancing. There were games too for young and old, though the chief 
resource of women was spinning, weaving, embroidery, and sewing, 



144 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

while the men devoted much of their time to hunting and hawking. 
Chivalry was greatly fostered by the custom of sending young boys 
and girls to serve as pages or maids at Court or at the castles of great 
nobles. There the page learned the code of gentleness and courtesy 
which were the ideal of the medieval knight. 

Warfare. — The two great innovations in the method of conducting 
war under the Edwards were the long bow and cannon with gunpow- 
der : the former, first used in the Welsh and Scotch wars of Edward 1 , 
won a European renown at Crecy and Poitiers. The fatal cloth-yard 
shaft could not only break up a charging squadron by killing or wound- 
ing the imperfectly protected horses, but penetrated the joints of the 
horseman's armor or, if it struck fair, even the plate itself. In seeking 
to meet this danger by thickening the plate, the armor became so 
unwieldy as to incapacitate the wearer, for an unhorsed knight could 
not rise without help and often he was stifled by the sheer weight of 
his own defense. Gunpowder supplemented the long bow in over- 
throwing the old system. While the assertion that cannons were used 
by the English at Crecy has not passed without question, Edward III 
probably employed them at Calais, though it was some time before 
they became effective in sieges, and still longer before they played any 
part in field engagements. 

Travel. — In spite of the badness of roads and bridges there was 
much traveling in fourteenth-century England. The King, the nobles, 
and bishops made stately progresses, accompanied by imposing reti- 
nues of horsemen, and dealt havoc with the goods of the lesser folk, 
who at their approach fled to hide their fowls and eggs and such other 
produce as their lords might seize. Merchants traveled about to buy 
and sell at the various fairs and staple towns, and abbots and monks 
journeyed from monastery to monastery on business connected with 
their orders. Most of the better sort rode on horseback. Luggage 
and goods too were carried on horses and mules, though great ladies 
were beginning to use litters and carriages, cumbersome and gorgeously 
ornamented, while the mass of the people traveled on foot. There were 
peddlers who supplied the country folk, there were strolling players, 
minstrels, and jugglers. On great occasions the minstrels flocked 
together from every part of western Christendom : at the marriage of 
Edward I's daughter, for instance, no less than four hundred and 
twenty-six were present. Some, of course, were regularly attached to 
royal and baronial households, and in many cities there were gilds or 
brotherhoods, formed for " well-ordered gaity," with rules for mem- 
bership, singing contests, and processions. Most of the singers, 
however, were wandering vagabonds who combined tumbling and 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 145 

sleight-of-hand performances with minstrelsy, and were often news- 
mongers, spies, and stirrers up of revolt. 

Beggars, Friars, and Pilgrims. — In addition, there were hosts of 
beggars and wandering laborers whom the statutes failed to check. 
More numerous still were those who claimed to be servants of God and 
the Church ; even the hermits no longer sought solitary places but 
settled along frequented roads to ask alms of the passersby. The 
strolling friars were as great a nuisance as any. Once they had ren- 
dered manful service in the care of the poor and the formation of educa- 
tion ; but the majority had become lazy and corrupt : they thrust 
themselves as guests on the houses they passed, eating and drinking, 
immoderately ; they acted as venders of news and small wares ; and 
encroached upon the parish priest by assuming the right to confess 
members of their flocks. Besides the friars there were the pardoners 
who sold remission of sins and supported their claims by exhibiting 
curious relics of doubtful pedigree. The roads were also crowded 
with pilgrims on their way to or from some holy place. The most 
popular shrine in England was that of St. Thomas at Canterbury; 
but many went even to Rome or the Holy Land. While the profes- 
sional pilgrim or palmer enjoyed various privileges beside the hope 
of divine favor — he was exempt from tolls, his person was protected, 
and he received free food and shelter along the road — others in course 
of time joined in pilgrimages from varying motives. " Some went 
like gypsies to a fair, to gather money; some went for the pleasure 
of the journey, and the merriment of the road." They told of the 
marvelous relics they had seen ; furthermore, like other strollers they 
were welcomed as bringers of news and letters. In spite of the super- 
stition and trickery which they fostered, pilgrimages were of intense 
value — they drew people together, broke down local prejudice, spread 
news and civilization, fostered commerce, and gave a holiday to many 
who would have got it in no other way. 

Accommodation for Travelers. — Travelers were accommodated 
in different ways. The King and his retinue might be billeted on the 
inhabitants of places along their road. Monasteries dispensed hos- 
pitality to all classes, frequently having a guest house outside the walls 
for the humbler folk. In many towns there were lodgings, the keepers 
of which were employed by the burghers to lure customers to them. 
In the country there were vacant buildings where merchants got shel- 
ter for the night, providing their own food and bedding — hence called 
" cold harbors." The inns were patronized chiefly by merchants. 
Although numerous enough they were not overcomfortable or clean. 
Moreover, the landlords were not infrequently suspected of being in 



146 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

league with robbers, and, when not so bad as that, were often guilty 
of trickery and extortion, a favorite device being to draw guests into 
ordering more than they had money to pay for and then to seize their 
baggage and clothes. The inns were favorite resorts for the less repu- 
table classes who spent their time drinking, gossiping, and gaming. 
By the roadside and in the smaller villages were alehouses, advertised 
by a stake or a bush projecting over the door. They furnished no lodg- 
ing, and were often kept by women — " ale wives " — who had a bad 
reputation for cheating both in money and measure. Under such 
conditions hospitality was regarded as a great virtue, and was general, 
from the lord of the manor to the poorest cotter. 

Public Health, Medicine and Surgery. — As in the past, lack of 
fresh food, unsanitary conditions, and inadequacy of transportation 
were the cause of famine and epidemics. In 13 15 heavy rains wrought 
destruction with the harvest, causing such pressure of hunger that not 
only horses and dogs but, it is said, children were eaten, and felons 
in jail tore one another to pieces, while, in 1322, there was another visi- 
tation of famine and disease when fifty-rive poor persons in London 
were crushed to death in a scramble for food distributed at a rich man's 
funeral. All this occurred while the upper classes were living in luxury, 
though there was more splendor than comfort ; for example, Edward 
III dismissed his Constable of the Tower because he had so neglected 
repairs that the rain came in on the bed of his sick Queen, and, in 1357, 
when his dead mother was brought to London for burial, the streets 
had to be cleared of filth for the passage of the body. Although the 
Black Death started a movement for better sanitation, the plague 
came back at least six times before the close of the century, causing 
the greatest destruction and demoralization, and preventing the natu- 
ral recovery from the devastation of 1 348-1 349. The science of 
medicine and surgery was still in a primitive state, even if some prog- 
ress was made during the century. Monks and Jews had been the 
first to practice the art of healing in England, and after the expulsion 
of the Jews the bulk of the practice fell to the monks, in' spite of pro- 
hibition of papal bulls. Prayers, ceremonies, visits to shrines, astrol- 
ogy, charms, and spells were the commonly accepted means for 
curing ills; and were sometimes employed as adjuncts by the 
practitioner. The incorporation of the Barber Surgeons as gilds 
at London and York, toward the end of the century, worked an 
era in surgery. 

Military and Domestic Architecture. — Castles, while they reached 
their highest degree of development in the time of the Edwards, came 
to be employed more and more exclusively as governmental and mili- 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 147 

tary fortresses; yet, curiously enough, by the time the art of building 
them had been perfected, the introduction of cannon and gunpowder 
rendered them useless. Fortified manor houses largely replaced 
the old private castles, though the causes making for this change were 
at work long before the new implements of war were generally adopted. 
Since the time of Stephen the Crown had refused to tolerate private 
castles, except in rare instances, and had usually been strong enough 
to enforce its prohibitions. Moreover, the cessation of feudal warfare 
made them no longer necessary, and the upper classes preferred more 
comfortable dwelling places just strong enough to protect them against 
robbers and occasional disorders, although these manor houses were 
bare and inconvenient enough according to modern standards. 

Ecclesiastical Architecture. — The prevailing style of church 
architecture during the period of the three Edwards was the so-called 
" decorated," an elaboration of the pointed Gothic or early English, 
distinguished particularly by the ornateness of its window traceries, 
but, with all its warmth and richness, lacking the dignified simplicity 
of the style which it displaced. In the reign of Edward III a new 
style began to appear, the perpendicular, which became dominant 
during the following century. In general, it was stiff, formal, and 
unadorned ; nevertheless, while beautiful curves gave way to straight 
lines and angularity, elements of beauty were not wholly lacking. 
Two notable features which did much to relieve the prosaic bareness 
of the perpendicular were the magnificent roofs, both open timbered 
and vaulted, and the fine towers, even though they do not equal the 
spires which they replaced. 

The Universities. — Following the trend of the times, the univer- 
sities became more and more national, and English scholars ceased 
to migrate to the Continent in any considerable numbers. Oxford, 
though it long maintained its ascendancy over its younger rival, Cam- 
bridge, had troubles of its own to contend with. Friction with the 
townsmen was intense, often leading to open fighting; the faculty 
were often at odds among themselves; and the ill-feeling between 
students from different parts of the country, particularly north and 
south, was so acute as to lead to frequent secessions. While the higher 
ranks were represented the majority were from the lower walks of 
life, the poorest of whom supported themselves by the work of their 
hands or even begged on occasion. Below the universities there were, 
in connection with convents, grammar schools presided over by secular 
clerks, the convents receiving the fees and paying the teacher a stipend. 
The Inns of Court at London furnished training for the common 
lawyer. 



148 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Literature : Chronicles and Romances. — History was still mainly 
in the hands of the monastic chronicles ; but the man who best voiced 
the chivalrous and martial ideals of the age of Edward III was Jean 
Froissart (1337-1410), whose Chronicle tells the story of the English feats 
in the Hundred Years' War with a richness and vividness of detail that 
has made the book a joy for all time. French metrical romances, telling 
of the wanderings of knights, good and valiant, of their deeds of daring 
in overcoming giants and paynims, of their succoring ladies in distress, 
and of their service to religion, continued to be very popular. Legends 
which had clustered about the names of mighty men of old time, 
Alexander, Charlemagne, and King Arthur, and the beautiful story 
of the search for the Holy Grail were among their chief subjects, most 
of them worked over from French originals in the new English speech 
which was shaping itself during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 

Religious Literature and Plays. Ballads. — Alongside the knightly 
romance there grew up a mass of religious literature, mostly in verse, 
lives of saints, sermons, tracts, and epics, some of which aimed to en- 
tertain as well as to instruct and edify. More popular still were the 
religious plays. The earliest were the miracle plays — which drama- 
tized Bible stories and the wonders wrought by saints. Beginning 
in certain ceremonies in the Church on such feast days as Easter, the 
mysteries were soon transferred to the churchyard and then to the 
town square, while, by the fourteenth century, they had passed from 
the hands of the priests to the gilds who gave annual exhibitions on 
Corpus Christi day. Usually each gild had a cart, drawn by appren- 
tices, with a stage erected upon it. Each of these moving stages — 
known as " pageants " l — represented one scene of the story, and 
the whole sequence was known as a cycle. Somewhat later appeared 
the morality plays which dealt with the strife between good and evil 
rather than with theology. Vice, greed, innocence, indeed all sorts 
of human traits were personified. To these plays and to the royal 
pageants representing scenes from classic and medieval legend, such 
as the fight between St. George and the Dragon, may be traced the 
beginnings of the later drama. Christmas " mummings," too, were 
very popular, in which Old Father Christmas, Old King Cole, and the 
Merry Andrew came to be well-known figures ; though, on other occa- 
sions, as well, mummers paraded the streets in grotesque masks, rep- 
resenting various animals, or dressed in the garb of beasts or satyrs 
with men's heads. Among a mass of ballads, many of them political 
in character, the best known are those which relate the deeds of the 

1 From this original meaning the term came to be applied to the play and then 
to any imposing spectacle. 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 149 

legendary outlaw Robin Hood, who was supposed to have dwelt in 
Sherwood Forest, in the later twelfth century, protecting the poor and 
robbing their oppressors. His many adventures and those of Little 
John, Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian were also worked up into plays. 

Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1403). — The great name in the literature 
of the age, indeed one of the great names in the literature of the world, 
was that of Geoffrey Chaucer, " the father of English poetry." The 
son of a London vintner, he began life as a page in a princely household. 
His residence at the English court, the most brilliant in Europe, his 
travels in many lands, his associations with all sorts and conditions of 
men gave him rare opportunities of which his genius made the fullest 
use. Chaucer's early literary products appeared under the spell of 
the old French courtly romances. A diplomatic mission to Italy in 
1372-1373 marked a crisis in the poet's life, for it was then that he 
came into the world of the Renascence, that marvelous revival of 
learning and outburst of literary and artistic creations which came to 
birth in Italian soil. There he learned to know the sublime vision of 
Dante, the exquisite poetic forms of Petrarch, and the tales of Boccac- 
cio. It was the latter which may have determined the form of Chau- 
cer's masterpiece and furnished him with some of the stories which he 
included in it. The result of his Italian sojourn is seen in various 
works which he produced after his return, among them Troilus and 
Creseide, described as " the first analytical novel in the English lan- 
guage." In his third or English period came the crowning achieve- 
ment of Chaucer's life, the Canterbury Tales, told through the mouths 
of a body of pilgrims journeying from the Tabard Inn in Southwark 
to the shrine of Thomas Becket at Canterbury. The poet completed 
less than a quarter of his projected work ; but he depicted the pecul- 
iarities of individuals representing various walks of life, the knight, 
the friar, the nun, the franklin, the physician, the Oxford scholar, the 
merchant, the miller, and many more, with a fidelity, a vividness, and 
a humor unsurpassed by any writer before or since. Writing in the 
tongue of the southeast Midlands he stamped that form upon the Eng- 
lish to the very borders of Scotland and Wales ; spreading as England 
grew into an Empire, the speech and writing of a considerable part of 
the world's population owes more to Chaucer than to any other single 
man. 

John Gower and William Langland. — Of the works of John Gower, 
a contemporary of lesser note, the Vox Clamantis, containing an ac- 
count of the Peasant Revolt, in 138 1, and a severe denunciation of 
government and society of the time, is of the most historic interest. 
But the social unrest of this age and the outcry against the oppression, 



150 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

folly, and vices of the ruling classes is best voiced in the Vision of 
William Concerning Piers the Plowman, sometimes attributed to 
William Langland. In the form of an allegory, written in a revival of 
the native alliterative verse, the Vision traces the exaltation of the 
common man, pictured as a simple rustic, until he becomes a mystical 
type of Christ. It lashes the sins of society and the individual, and 
preaches the gospel of man and the glory of work. In spite of its 
allegorical and abstract form, the descriptions are so concrete and vital 
that men and women seem to live and breathe before the reader. 

Wiclif a National Champion. — While Piers Plowman aimed chiefly 
at men Wiclif struck at a system. It was his work to mold the griev- 
ances against the Church and the Papacy into tangible form. Since 
the Popes from 1305 to 1378 were settled at Avignon under French 
control, his opposition had a popular national color. Not only, how- 
ever, did he oppose papal demands for money and papal claims to 
provide for English benefices, but he maintained that the Church 
should hold no property, because it hindered truly spiritual work. 
Hence, it was the duty of the State to take land and revenues which 
hampered the Church in the performance of its proper duties. More- 
over, he contended that a Pope, if unrighteous or unworthy, lost 
his right to rule ; and his decrees, if against the will of God, were of 
no binding force. When asked by Parliament whether, when the 
Kingdom was in. danger of invasion, it could refuse, even against a 
papal order, to send money out of the realm, he replied that the Pope 
could only ask for money as charity, and, since charity begins at home, 
it would be folly to give in the present juncture. 

Early in 1378, shortly after the arrival of the papal bulls against him, 
he was brought before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 
London, acting as papal commissioners ; but the Queen Mother, widow 
of the Black Prince, who had taken up his cause, sent a message for- 
bidding them to pass sentence on him, while a body of London citizens, 
accompanied by a disorderly rabble, now that his unpopular champion, 
John of Gaunt, was no longer in power to support him, appeared 
menacingly before the archiepiscopal palace. The upshot was a 
simple request from his judges that Wiclif desist from discussing 
the points enumerated in bulls. 

The Development of Wiclif's Views after 1378. — This very year, 
1378, marked an advance far beyond his original position. Gregory XI 
had moved back to Rome from Avignon, and, on his death, two rival 
Popes were elected, one by the Roman party, and one by the French. 
The resulting struggle, known as the Great Schism, which rent the 
Church in twain, led Wiclif to question the authority of the Papacy 



LIFE IN ENGLAND UNDER THE FIRST THREE EDWARDS 1 51 

altogether. Nor did he stop with attacking the Church's form of 
government ; but proceeded to strike a blow at her most central dogma, 
the doctrine of transubstantiation. According to the orthodox belief 
the bread and wine used in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper were 
transformed by the consecrating words of the priest into the very body 
and blood of Christ. 1 Wiclif did not go so far as some of the later 
Protestants and deny the Real Presence altogether; he maintained 
that after the bread and wine were consecrated they did not disappear, 
but that the body and blood of Christ came and dwelt in them. In 
other words, for transubstantiation he substituted consubstantiation. 
His doctrines, now too extreme for many, were twice condemned, and, 
though he was spared, his followers were persecuted rigorously. Dur- 
ing his last years, spent in peaceful retirement, he wrote nearly all of 
his English works and revised his Latin works, which fill together 
nearly thirty printed volumes. He died 30 December, 1384. 2 

The Two Channels of Wiclif's Teachings. — Some years before his 
death Wiclif had devised two agencies to spread his teaching among 
the humbler folk. One was his " poor preachers," sent out, staff in 
hand and clad in coarse russet gown, to preach the simple truths of 
the Gospel. Those who accepted his teachings came to be known as 
Lollards. As an organized sect they did not long survive Wiclif's 
death : they were accused of socialism and held responsible for the 
Peasant Revolt ; their doctrines shocked the orthodox; and the lowly 
character of their following excited the contempt of the great. Never- 
theless, their work lived after them : they struck the first mortal blow 
at the Church of Rome in England, and they infused a spirit of earnest- 
ness into English life which reached its fruition in the Puritan Revolu- 
tion nearly three centuries later ; and the Queen of Richard II carried 
their teachings to Bohemia, where John Huss, the forerunner of Martin 
Luther, felt their influence. Wiclif's second agency was the transla- 
tion of the Bible which he perfected, supervised, and assisted to carry 
out, though the bulk of the work was done by an associate, and after 

1 From the point of view of medieval "realist" philosophers the doctrine was 
more rational than it might seem to a modern Protestant ; in their minds the reality 
or substance of a thing was not the visible attributes which could be seen, touched 
and handled, but an inner invisible essence. That was what was believed to change. 
Two good reasons explain why the Church fostered the belief in transubstantiation. 
It emphasized the human side of Christ, which certain of the early sects denied ; 
and it exalted the priesthood, who were held in higher reverence from their ability 
to perform the miracle. It was to combat the sacerdotal power that Wiclif framed 
his view. 

2 In 1428, in accordance with a decree of the Council of Constance passed in 
141 5, his remains were dug up, burned, and cast into a neighboring brook. 



152 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Wiclif's death was revised and reissued in a completer form. Al- 
though not a stylist, Wiclif's achievements in spreading the Bible 
among the people exerted an influence which entitle him to be called 
the " father of English prose," for Chaucer wrote in verse. By sup- 
pressing the Bible the Government not only arrested the program of 
true religious thought, but the growth of English prose as well. 

England a National State. — In the wars against France, in the 
struggle to control its own commerce and to develop native industries, 
in the conflict against the power of Rome, in the rise of a purely English 
literature, one great fact is evident ; England had become a nation. 
As the barons, who, in the time of John and Henry III, fought selfishly 
against royal despotism and the exploitation of their country by 
foreigners, had unconsciously prepared the way for a constitutional 
monarchy, so they had, again unwittingly, taken the first steps to 
awaken a national spirit which first came to a full, conscious realiza- 
tion in the England of Edward III. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

For the constitutional aspects of the period the works already cited. 
Medley is particularly good on the development of Parliament. 

For social, industrial and intellectual conditions in addition to the works 
already cited, e.g. in chs. V, X, J. E. T. Rogers, A History of Agriculture 
and Prices (6 vols., 1866-1867) and his Six Centuries of Work and Wages 
(1890) based upon it, both valuable but not to be relied upon implicitly. 
G. G. Coulton, Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation 
(1918) ; G. E. Unwin, ed., Finance and Trade wider Edward III (1918) ; 
L. F. Salzmann, English Industries of the Middle Ages (1914) ; E. L. Cutts, 
Scenes and Characters in the Middle Ages (1872) ; Jusserand, English Way- 
faring Life in the Middle Ages (2d ed., 1889) ; Gasquet, The Great Pestilence 
(1893) ; Charles Creighton, History of Epidemics in Britain (2 vols., 1891- 
1894) ; R. L. Poole, Illustrations of the History of Mediaeval Thought (1884) ; 
A. F. Leach, The Schools of Mediaeval England (191 5) ; E. K. Chambers, 
The Mediaeval Stage (1903) ; Robert Withington, English Pageantry (vol. I, 
1919) ; W. H. Schofield, Chivalry in English Literature (191 5). 

For the Church see, W. W. Capes, History of the English Church (1903) 
and G. V. Lechler, John Wiclif and his English Precursors (2 vols., 1881- 
1884). 



CHAPTER XIV 

RICHARD II (1377-1399). THE END OF THE PLANTAGENET 

DYNASTY 

A Boy King. Unsatisfactory State of the Country. — On 16 July, 
1377, a boy of ten, Richard, son of the Black Prince, was crowned King. 
Although the reign began with a prospect of conciliation beween 
contending factions, nevertheless, Piers Plowman had prophesied 
truly that " where the cat is a kitten, the kingdom is full miserable." 
The pestilence and the long war had thinned the population and bur- 
dened the country with heavy taxes, while the English possessions in 
France had been reduced to marsh-girdled Calais and a portion of 
Aquitaine. Bands of armed men, wearing the livery of one or another 
great lord, roamed through England, plundering and disturbing the 
peace. In the face of suffering, danger, and disorder the Commons 
viewed with increasing resentment the luxury at court. 

The Poll Taxes of 1379 and 1380. — The Government, chosen by 
the Parliament to act for the little King, proved ineffective and un- 
popular. Its war measures were particularly unsuccessful, yet in 
order to meet the expenses which they involved, poll taxes were de- 
vised. The first, levied in 1379, was carefully graduated according to 
wealth, but in a new assessment, imposed the following year, the bur- 
den fell more heavily on the lower classes, causing great " dismay and 
woe," and furnishing the occasion for a revolt which had been brewing 
for years. 

Conditions Leading to the Peasant Revolt. — The widespread 
discontent was social and industrial as well as political. The peas- 
antry were infuriated at the attempts since the Black Death to revive 
old villein services, and joined the artisans in strenuous opposition to 
the Statutes of Laborers. In the towns, the lesser folk chafed also 
at the selfish, arbitrary policy of the ruling bodies. Very generally 
municipal governments had passed into the hands of little oligarchies 
who governed with a total disregard of their unprivileged fellow- 
townsmen. Another grievance was the restrictive gild regulation which 

153 



154 SHORTER ■ HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

bore with peculiar harshness on the unskilled laborers in preventing 
them from passing from one employment to another. Among other 
uneasy and discontented elements were soldiers released from the war 
and disinclined to work, while fugitive villeins, idlers, and criminals 
swelled the throng. Then there were the more extreme among the 
followers of Wiclif, though he himself had not sanctioned force. A 
" mad priest," John Ball, went about teaching that goods should be 
held in common and the distinction between lord and serf wiped away. 
However, the poll tax, received with " great grudging and many a 
bitter curse," was the spark that fired the train. 

The Peasant Revolt (1381). — While the chief centers of disturbance 
were in the south and east, the revolt broke out nearly simultaneously 
in almost every part of the country. The name " Peasant Revolt," 
by which it was commonly known, is misleading. In Kent, for example, 
where no villeinage existed, the chief grievances were the poll tax and 
the maladministration. The plan was to kill all lords and gentlemen 
and great churchmen, to burn tax rolls and title deeds, to secure pos- 
session of the King, and to take the government into their own hands. 

Outbreak in Essex and Kent. The March on London. — The first 
outbreak occurred in Essex, late in May, with the stoning of the royal 
tax commissioners. Within a few days the Kentishmen rose, choosing 
as leader one Wat Tyler, an obscure adventurer of ready wit and sharp 
tongue. Rapidly swelling in numbers the rioters started for London, 
burning houses of royal officials, lawyers, and unpopular landlords as 
they proceeded. On the evening of 12 June, they encamped on Black- 
heath; the same night the Essex insurgents, who had been busy 
destroying court and manorial rolls, reached Mile End ; thus London 
was threatened from the north and east. The next morning John 
Ball preached a fiery sermon, declaring that in the beginning all men 
were equal, that the wicked had reduced them to servitude and that 
the time had come to shake off the yoke. Stimulated by his words, 
the insurgents streamed into the City, though with wise moderation 
they spared the property of all except their chief enemies. 

The Conference at Mile End. — On the morning of the 14th, young 
Richard rode out to Mile End, northeast of the City walls, entering 
the howling mob^ as a " lamb among wolves." However, they re- 
ceived him joyfully on bended knees, crying: " Welcome, our Lord 
King Richard, an it please you we desire no other King than you," 
whereupon, he heard their petition, presented by Wat Tyler, and 
granted every article. Their chief demands were : abolition of serf- 
dom, full pardon to all insurgents, the right to buy and sell freely, 
fixed rents, and adjustment of wages by mutual agreement. 



THE END OF THE PLANTA GENET DYNASTY 155 

Excesses of the Rioters. Murder of Wat Tyler. — In spite of the 
royal concessions — which, as a matter of fact, Richard's councilors 
had no intention of carrying out — Wat Tyler led a band of rioters 
from the conference and sought out and cruelly murdered the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and the Treasurer, together with a few others 
whom they specially hated. Satisfied with what Richard had granted 
them, " the simple and honest folk " departed to their homes, while 
the extremists, the criminal, and the disorderly spent the night in 
slaughter, plundering, and burning. At a meeting, held next day to 
placate Tyler with further concessions, he was provoked into drawing 
his dagger and surrounded and cut down so promptly that it seemed 
as if the whole thing had been planned. When straightway the in- 
surgents began to draw their bows, little Richard, so the story goes, 
showed himself a worthy son of the Black Prince ; speeding toward 
them and waving them back he cried : " Sirs, will you shoot your King ? 
I will be your chief and captain, you shall have from me all that you 
seek." While he delayed them in parley the Lord Mayor hastened to 
rally the citizens, and, with their aid, the King was more than a match 
for the rabble, demoralized by the loss of their chief. Yet he was wise 
enough to let them depart in peace, though he ordered Tyler's head 
to be fixed on London Bridge. 

Suppression of the Revolt. Results. — The backbone of the re- 
sistance in London was broken. Kent submitted without fighting. 
The Essex insurgents demanded the confirmation of Mile End con- 
cessions ; but King Richard led an army against them and put them 
down, declaring, regardless of his promises : " Villeins ye are still, 
and villeins ye shall remain." About a hundred of the rebels were 
tried and put to death, among them John Ball. Outside of Kent and 
Essex, risings in East Anglia caused the most trouble, those in other 
parts of the country were scattered and were suppressed by September. 
Parliament met in November. While all the King's promises were 
revoked, a general amnesty, excepting almost two hundred names, was 
proclaimed. Thus encouraged, many lords not only reasserted their 
rights, but tightened the bonds. While it is notable as the first great 
struggle of labor against capital, the Revolt of 1381 led to no startling 
changes. Serfdom, for example, was only gradually abolished, and 
this was due mainly to substitution of pasture for arable, and of 
leasehold farming for direct cultivation by manorial lords. 

Royal Favorites and the Opposition (1382-1386). — Richard's edu- 
cation was very defective, awakening in him a love of luxury rather 
than of work. While Parliament sought to hold him in leading strings, 
self-seeking courtiers fed him with exalted notions of the royal powers 



156 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and urged him to throw off the parliamentary yoke. His chief 
favorites were, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and Michael de la 
Pole, later Earl of Suffolk — the former a person of mean attainments, 
the latter a trained general and diplomat whose aim was to make peace 
with France and to restore order by strengthening the royal authority. 
War with France dragged on languidly and fitfully, for Parliament 
would neither grant money for an adequate expedition led by the King 
in person, nor, though an occasional truce was made, would they accept 
peace on French terms. The conflict between the King and the 
Opposition was an unedifying one. While the issue was again raised 
of control of royal expenditure and the appointment of Ministers, the 
anti-Court party, among them two of the King's uncles, was more 
anxious for power than reform of abuses ; on the other hand, Richard 
developed a fiery, headstrong temper and heaped favors upon his 
favorites. In 1386 he was forced to dismiss Suffolk, who, though the 
charges against him of subverting the laws and enriching himself with 
public money could not be sustained, was impeached and temporarily 
imprisoned. 

The Lords Appellant (1387) and the Merciless Parliament (1388).— 
Richard refused to recognize a Council of Eleven set up by the baronial 
opposition in Parliament, and secured from the judges an opinion that 
such attempts to interfere with his prerogative were treasonable and 
that Parliament had no right to impeach his Ministers without his 
consent. Thereupon, both parties prepared for war, and, 14 Novem- 
ber, 1387, a group of the opposition lords, 1 headed by Richard's uncle 
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, " appealed of " or personally charged 
with treason five of the royal favorites, including de Vere and Suffolk. 
Richard, seeing that resistance was useless, advised them to save 
themselves and ultimately they all took flight. When a new Parlia- 
ment met, in February, they ordered the arrest of the judges who had 
signed the opinion in favor of the King, and the " Lords Appellant " 
repeated their original appeal against the royal favorites supporting 
it by formal charges, which were, in substance : that the accused had 
conspired to estrange the King from his proper councilors, that they 
had raised an armed force, and had sought to massacre their opponents 
in Parliament. Suffolk and de Vere, beyond reach, died in exile, but 
two of the remaining three were executed, while a number of others, 
whose only crime was their faithful support of King Richard, were 
sentenced to death by this " Merciless Parliament " as it came to be 
called. The leaders enriched themselves with the offices and estates 
of their fallen enemies, and the Lords Appellant, who had been 
1 The accusing lords were known as the "Lords Appellant." 



THE END OF THE PLANTAGENET DYNASTY 157 

preaching economy all along, actually wrung a grant of £20,000 from 
Parliament for their services. With the appointment of Ministers 
from their own party and a Council to control the King their victory 
seemed complete. 

Richard's Eight Years of Good Rule (1387-1396). — After less than 
a year of the new regime, Richard, by a sudden stroke, May, 1389, 
took over the government into his own hands. He was wise enough, 
however, not to put in office any of his old favorites and even to take 
no vengeance against the members of the Merciless Parliament. For 
eight years he ruled as a constitutional and popular King. 

Richard in Ireland (1394-1395). — In 1394 Richard went to Ireland, 
the first King to visit the country since the time of John. There was 
much to demand his attention, for conditions were growing steadily 
worse. The "Pale" 1 had shrunk to a small bit of country about 
Dublin, and the other districts under English rule " were mere 
patches," cut off from it by native tribes who were constantly in re- 
volt. In spite of the Statute of Kilkenny — passed in 1366, prohibit- 
ing the English from intermarrying with the Irish or adopting their 
language and dress — many of the original English settlers lived like 
the native Irish and their leaders ruled as independent tribal chiefs. 
Since Richard was accompanied by a large army, the Anglo-Irish and 
the Irish chiefs as well, thinking they could resume their old courses 
again after his departure, readily made their submission. He sought 
at once to dazzle them by his splendor and to attach them by his 
generosity : he published an amnesty for all past treasons both of the 
Englishry and the Irishry, he acknowledged that the harshness and 
corruption of his officials had caused much of the rebellion and dis- 
order of the past, and took steps to reform the judiciary and general 
administration of the country. 

Richard's Attempt to Rule as an Absolute King (1396-1398). — The 
death of Richard's Queen, Anne of Bohemia, in 1394, deprived him 
of a gentle restraining influence. In 1396 peace for thirty years was 
made with France and, in November of the same year, he married Isa- 
bella, the daughter of Charles VI. From the moment of this French 
alliance Richard began to throw aside all his recent caution and to 
nourish the most unrestrained ambitions — he increased the magnif- 
icence of his court, borrowed money right and left, resorted to all sorts 
of irregular and oppressive means to support his growing lavishness, 
and resisted with fury attempts at remonstrance. Suspecting that 
Lords Appellant were plotting against him, he had them seized and 
— in a packed Parliament which met in September, 1397 — " ap- 
1 The name of the area under English control. 



158 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

pealed " them of treason for their acts of 1387-1388. All of them 
were speedily punished; their leader, Gloucester, shipped off to 
Calais, met his death on the way, probably murdered by royal order. 
Richard rewarded his supporters with unsparing hand, creating no 
less than five dukes and one marquis and four earls, and, before he 
allowed the members of Parliament to separate, he made them take 
an oath to maintain all the acts of the session. 

Richard's Absolutism at Its Height. — The next year a new session 
was held at Shrewsbury, in which Parliament, overawed, it is said, by 
an armed force, passed measures that made Richard practically abso- 
lute. The acts of the " Merciless Parliament " were annulled ; a sub- 
sidy on wool was granted him for life ; and, this subservient body 
agreed to delegate its authority to a commission of eighteen for hearing 
petitions and transacting all undetermined business. Further- 
more, Richard offended his subjects by the wildest statements : " The 
laws were in his mouth and in his breast," he declared, " not in any 
statute books," and " the lives and lands of his subjects were his own, 
to be dealt with according to his good pleasure, despite all legal forms." 
His foolhardiness during the next few months almost passes belief : 
he not only increased his exactions, but he accused whole counties of 
treason, he browbeat judges, and imprisoned hosts of persons on the 
slightest pretext. To cap his folly, he seized, on the death of John of 
Gaunt, the enormous estates of the family in defiance of a promise to 
Henry, John's eldest son, whom Richard, in consequence of a pending 
duel with another noble, had recently banished for ten years with the 
assurance that his rights of inheritance would be in no wise diminished. 
Indeed, he went further and exiled for life this man who stood next 
but one in line of succession to the throne. 

The Landing of Henry of Lancaster 4 July (1399). — Having thus 
wronged his rival beyond endurance and fanned the anger of his 
subjects to a white heat, Richard departed for Ireland to chastise a 
rebel chief who had slain the Lord Lieutenant. While he was thus 
occupied, Henry of Lancaster landed, 4 July, 1399, at Ravenspur in 
Yorkshire. His following was small, but half of England had sent 
assurances that they were prepared to take up his cause. With solemn 
assurances he declared that he was not a traitor aiming at the throne ; 
but that he came only to recover his paternal heritage and to drive 
away the " King's mischievous councilors and Ministers." Directly 
he heard the news Richard hastened back from Ireland, but his king- 
dom was practically lost before his arrival, and almost no one would 
fight for him. At length, in despair, he consented to surrender, and 
even to abdicate, on condition that his life should be spared and 



THE END OF THE PLANTAGENET DYNASTY 159 

that the followers who had stood by him should be given a safe 
conduct. Amid the hoots of the multitude he rode into London 
a prisoner. 

The " Abdication " and Deposition of Richard (1399). — A Parlia- 
ment was summoned, in his name, to meet 30 September, 1399 ; but 
before it came together he had read before Lancaster and other 
witnesses a document in which he declared himself, " insufficient and 
useless," and unworthy to reign. This abdication was repeated 
before Parliament, together with a list of articles setting forth at length 
the acts by which Richard had violated the constitution and oppressed 
individuals, among them the murder of Gloucester and the banishment 
and disinheriting of Henry of Lancaster. After the articles had been 
recited, both Houses voted that Richard should be deposed. 

Henry of Lancaster Gucceeds to the Throne. A Parliamentary 
Dynasty. — Thereupon, Henry qi Lancaster rose and claimed the 
vacant throne — basing his clairri on two grounds, right of descent 
from Henry III and right of conquest. As a matter of fact Henry's 
claim of descent was merely a pretext. 1 His second claim was the 
decisive one. Parliament chose him because, as the ablest male of 
the royal house, he had overcome a King who had defied the laws and 
oppressed the subjects. This action was fraught with the deepest con- 
stitutional significance. It confirmed the precedent, in the case of 
Edward II, that kings could be deposed for misrule, and established a 
new one — that Parliament could choose a successor not necessarily 
the next in blood. The further fact that, as elective kings, the Lan- 
castrians made a bargain to govern in accord with the will of Parlia- 
ment was also of the profoundest importance. 

End of Richard. Final Estimate. — Richard, in February, 1400, was 
reported dead. According to some accounts he declined food and 
pined away, though more likely he was starved to death by his captors. 
Little fitted by training and disposition for his royal duties, his 
heritage from his grandfather had been a burdensome one, " debt, 
unlucky wars, popular discontent"; but he lived all that down and 
ruled for years as a constitutional and popular King. Then he 
suddenly plunged into a mad career of violence against his enemies, 
of extravagance, " vain boasting," " and freakish tyranny." His 

1 The Earl of March (see table, introd.) was actually the nearest lineal heir, since 
his grandfather had married Philippa, daughter of Lionel, Duke Clarence, second 
son of Edward III, while Henry by blood was one degree removed from the line 
of descent, since his father, John of Gaunt, was a younger brother of Lionel. In 
going back to Henry III, Lancaster was impliedly making use of a rumor spread 
by his followers that Edmund of Lancaster, the founder of his house, was really 
Henry Ill's eldest son whom Edward I had supplanted. 



l6o SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

wrongs to Lancaster merely furnished the occasion and the leader to 
overthrow him. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Ramsay; Yickers ; and C. W. Oman, Political History of 
England (1906), a good clear account but marred by many inaccuracies of 
detail. For the Peasant Revolt see Oman, The Great Revolt of 1381 (1906) ; 
and G. Kriehn, "Studies in the Sources of the Social Revolt of 1381," Ameri- 
can Historical Review, VII, 254-285, 458-484. 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 84-103. 






CHAPTER XV 

THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER IN TrfE ASCENDANT. HENRY IV 
(1399-1413). HENRY V (1413-1422) AND THE "CONSTITU- 
TIONAL EXPERIMENT" IN GOVERNMENT 

The Lancastrian Period. Its Constitutional Importance. — The 

Lancastrian regime of over sixty years was a period of wars at 
home and abroad, lightened by picturesque incidents, but, in general, 
dreary and inglorious. Yet this half century is notable for something 
more than the rise and fall of a royal family. Its real significance 
lies in the fact that Parliament, having put this family on the throne, 
exercised control over the affairs of the Kingdom all through the reign 
of Henry IV, Henry V, and well into the reign of Henry VI. Privi- 
leges which had been only occasionally asserted under previous Kings 
were now recognized, exercised, and extended. The parliamentary 
experiment proved premature ; nevertheless, the experience was a 
valuable one which later bore enduring fruit. 

Henry IV (1399-1413). Character and Problems. — Henry IV, 
sometimes known as Henry of Bolingbroke, from the place of his 
birth, was brave, active, temperate. By nature merciful, the bitter 
experiences of his later years made him suspicious and calculating, 
and when goaded by resistance and rebellion, cruel in retaliation. 
A good soldier, he was also a careful administrator and a wise states- 
man. The reign opened full of promise. Henry was welcomed by 
all classes, he was related to most of the great barons of the Kingdom, 
he was in close alliance with the Church and clergy, and pledged him- 
self " to abandon the evil ways of Richard II," and to govern, not 
by his own " singular opinion," but " by common counsel and con- 
sent." Notwithstanding his seeming popularity his position was 
insecure and trying. His title might be taken away by those who 
gave it, and there were such demands upon his resources that he was 
always in debt. The French refused to recognize him as Sovereign 
and coveted the English possessions on their soil ; Scotland was 
restless and Wales soon broke out into revolt. In addition, Henry 
was teased by his Parliaments and harassed by risings of the dis- 
m ■ 161 



1 62 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

affected ; he was the prey of factions ; attempts were made on his 
life ; and his last years were darkened by efforts of his son to supplant 
him, by the pains of illness, and by stings of conscience over his 
usurpation. Shakespeare could make him say with truth : " Un- 
easy lies the head that wears a crown." 

The Beginning of a Welsh Revolt under Glendower (1400). — In 
the first year of his reign, besides an abortive plot to restore Richard, 
who soon ceased to live, and an ineffectual rising of the Scots, insti- 
gated by France, there was'a more dangerous movement in Wales 
led by Owen Glendower, a Welsh squire, who, stung to revolt by 
failure to secure redress from the King against a grasping neighbor, 
obtained a great following of his countrymen, moved by resentment 
against English rule, the oppression of English officials, and the 
arrogance of the Lords Marchers. Year after year English armies 
marched against him, but Owen always eluded them. Fie nourished 
vast plans for setting up a great Celtic empire ; to that end he nego- 
tiated on all sides — with the Irish, the Scots, the French, the Pope, 
and with disaffected English barons who wanted to seat the young 
Earl of March, Richard's next heir, on the throne. All his ambitious 
designs came to naught, though for years he lived as an outlaw, a 
local terror to the Lords Marchers. He finally died, in 141 5 ; but 
the common people, among whom he was reputed to be a wizard, 
long dreamed that Owen Glendower only slept and would finally 
awake to deliver them from the English yoke. 

The Risings in the North. — In the early stages of his revolt he 
had counted on the Percies who ruled in the north with almost kingly 
power. Henry, the elder, Earl of Northumberland, who with his 
fiery son Sir Henry, known as " Hotspur," had aided to put the King 
on the throne, were richly rewarded and intrusted with the defense 
of the Scotch and Welsh borders. In spite of scanty supplies from 
the royal purse, they executed their duties effectively, and inflicted 
a crushing defeat on an army of Scotch invaders in 1402. The re- 
sult, however, was a deadly quarrel with their Sovereign over the 
payment of expenses incurred and the disposal of the prisoners. 
Hotspur opened communications with Glendower, and marched an 
army to join his Welsh ally. Hastily levying an army, the King 
marched to the Welsh border, and, 20 July, 1403, attacked his enemies 
at Shrewsbury before they could effect a junction with Glendower. 
The rebel forces were routed and Hotspur was killed. Northumber- 
land, who had been raising an army in Yorkshire, disbanded it on 
the news of the royal victory and begged for pardon. Very foolishly 
the King let him off with a short imprisonment ; whereupon, in 1405, 



THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER IN THE ASCENDANT 163 

the unquiet Earl united with a number of great lords in another 
rising, eluded capture, and was a constant source of trouble until, in 
1408, he was defeated and slain in leading a raid from Scotland across 
the Border. England had no occasion to fight another battle on her 
own soil for forty years. 

Henry's Last Years (1408-1412). — Henry was now supreme. 
Owing to the efficient campaigns of his son, Prince Hal, the Welsh 
from this time ceased to be dangerous ; James, King of Scotland, 
captured by English privateers on his way to France, was a prisoner ; 
while France — under Charles VI, a King subject to frequent fits of 
insanity and torn by party strife between the houses of Orleans and 
Burgundy — was only too glad to keep peace. Still Henry's last 
years were not happy. He suffered from grievous bodily infirmities, 
his usurpation and the deaths of Richard and of Archbishop Scrope 
— whom, against his better judgment, he allowed to be tried and 
executed for joining in the rising of 1405 — weighed heavily on his 
conscience, and he was much distressed at the impatience of Prince 
Hal, egged on by his ambitious uncles, to grasp the reins of govern- 
ment. Nevertheless, at his death, 20 March, 14 13, this much-tried 
King left behind him a strong government and an uncontested 
title. 

Constitutional and Parliamentary Gains. — However, it is from 
the constitutional point of view that the reign is most significant, for 
owing to Henry's necessities, Parliament secured the dominance in 
public affairs which they retained during the greater part of the 
Lancastrian period and which furnished a model to future genera- 
tions. In successive sessions they established the principle that 
redress of grievances should precede supply, that moneys should be 
voted only on the last day of the session after their petitions had 
been answered; they asserted successfully the right of freedom of 
debate ; and — often with scant justice — they cut down or revised 
the expenditures. For example, in 1406, we find them demanding 
redress of " good and abundant grievance " and telling their Sover- 
eign that his household was composed not of " valiant and sufficient 
men but of rascalry " ; they appointed a commission to audit all 
public accounts, while, furthermore, they forced the King to agree 
that he would do nothing without the consent of a continual Council 
of their own choosing. 1 In 1407 they secured recognition of the 
important principle that money grants should originate in the Com- 
mons. 

1 Had this scheme remained permanent the present Cabinet system would have 
been anticipated by many centuries. 



1 64 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Measures against the Lollards. — Parliament, too, passed cruel 
and searching acts against the Lollards, though the initiative came 
from the clergy and the King, for Henry IV, from policy, and his son, 
from conviction, were both very orthodox. In 1401 the important 
statute de haeretico comburendo was enacted, providing that impenitent 
heretics, after conviction -by the ecclesiastical courts, should be 
handed over to the lay authorities to be burned, " in order to strike 
terror into the minds of others." An Act passed in 1406 accused the 
Lollards of denying rights of property and of preparing men's minds 
for rebellion, and provided that all who were detected teaching or 
defending any Lollard doctrine were to be arrested as public enemies. 
In 1409 the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a series of constitutions 
condemning the doctrines of Wiclif, forbidding the translation of the 
Bible without authority, and prohibiting all discussion upon points 
determined by the Church. " An execrable crowd of Lollard knights," 
" true satellites of Pontius Pilate," in the Parliament of 1410, replied 
with a petition that the enactments against heretics might be softened, 
and even proposed a complete disendowment of the Church. As 
might be expected, the King refused to listen, and Prince Henry 
" bade them never for the future dare to put such stuff together." 
Parliament was progressive in politics, in religion the orthodox party 
was in the majority. The King identified himself with both tenden- 
cies. 

Henry V (1413-1422). Accession and Character. — Henry V, while 
he had already distinguished himself in the Welsh wars and had had 
considerable experience in government, had been a wild and boisterous 
youth. His accession changed him into another man, reputed the 
" most virtuous and prudent of all the princes reigning in his time." 
Rigidly attached to the Church, he has been blamed for his relentless 
persecution, but he believed, with the best minds of the age, that 
heretics should be made to recant for their own salvation or disposed 
of to prevent them from contaminating others. Moreover, the 
Lollards menaced the existing social order, joined in conspiracies 
against him, and leagued with his enemies. 1 He lived in a grim age, 
and when he awoke to his responsibilities, became frugal, cautious 

1 The suppression, in 1414, of a rising by Sir John Oldcastle, persecuted for hold- 
ing Lollard opinions, was followed by the hanging of thirty of his adherents as traitors 
and the burning of seven as heretics. Parliament, in the same year, passed an- 
other heresy act providing that any of the King's officers might seize suspected 
persons and hand them over to the Church courts for trial. Oldcastle escaped 
and wandered about as a proscribed outlaw, intriguing with the King's enemies, 
until 141 7, when he was captured and burned. The failure of his efforts marked 
the end of Lollaidry as a political and social force. 



THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER IN THE ASCENDANT 165 

and active, devoid of geniality and gentleness, though not of justice, 
a man to follow and obey, not to love. It was from his exploits in 
the struggle against France that Henry V achieved his greatest 
fame. To recover English prestige and to regain territory which 
he believed to be rightfully his, as well as to unite his subjects in a 
common undertaking, he renewed the war with France. All that he 
set out to do he accomplished ; he not only made himself supreme in 
France and awakened a genuine national enthusiasm at home, but 
came to be regarded as the first Monarch in Europe. His success, 
however, rested on foundations that could not prove lasting, on his 
personal prowess, and on the temporary weakness of France. 

Henry Resumes the War with France (1414). — Taking advantage 
of the disordered mental condition of Charles VI and of the factional 
strife in France, Henry V undertook to restore the English prestige 
in France to the highest point which it had reached under Edward III, 
and if possible to recover all the territory which his predecessors had 
possessed. Furthermore, he concluded to reassert Edward Ill's 
claim to the French crown, or, as an alternative, to demand in mar- 
riage Katherine, daughter of Charles VI. As the Orleanists, led by 
the Count of Armagnac, were momentarily in control of the French 
King, he allied himself with the rival Burgundian faction, and, 31 May, 
1414, sent ambassadors to demand the " restitution of his ancient 
rights." Since, however, the French could concede no terms which 
he would accept, he made ready to invade their country. 

The Invasion of France (1415). Agincourt (25 October). After he 
had completed his preparations, Henry was delayed by the discovery 
of a new plot to put the Earl of March on the throne during his ab- 
sence. Having made an example of the chief conspirator, 1 he set 
sail, 10 August, 141 5, with an army consisting of about 2000 men 
at arms and 6000 archers. Owing to the coldness of the season and 
the fact that nearly half his forces fell sick, he was obliged to give 
up his original plan of systematically conquering Normandy, and 
decided to return home by way of Calais, hoping to overawe the 
inhabitants along the march and to tempt the enemy to battle. At 
Agincourt a force three or four times his own assembled to block his 
advance ; again, as at Crecy and Poitiers the French were overcome 
by deadly clouds of arrows shot from the English long bows, and 
Henry, after three or four hours, gained an overwhelming victory 
with a loss of little more than 100, while the French left nearly 6000 
dead on the field. In November he sailed from Calais. Aside from 
impressing his opponents with his daring and skill as a general, and 

1 March, himself, who disclosed the plot, was spared. 



166 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

reviving the glory of English arms, he had gained little from his costly 
expedition. 

Henry's Second Expedition to France (1417). — On 2$ July, 1417, 
Henry embarked on his second expedition to France with an army 
twice the size of his first. He spent more than a year in reducing the 
strong places of Normandy ; Rouen, which offered the most obstinate 
resistance, holding out from 29 July, 1418, to 19 January, 1419. Al- 
though he entered into negotiations with both the Orleanists and the 
Burgundians, his terms were so extreme that the two factions patched 
up a peace " to resist the damnable enterprises of our ancient enemies, 
the English." But the Dauphin, Charles, a boy of sixteen, underthe 
thumb of the Orleanists, used' this agreement merely as a decoy for 
the destruction of the Burgundian leader, John the Fearless, who was 
lured to a conference and slain as he was kneeling to do homage to 
his royal cousin. The result of this base crime was to throw the Bur- 
gundian party in the arms of the English, and to make effective 
resistance out of the question. So, 21 May, 1420, Charles VI, who 
was momentarily lucid, signed the " very marvelous and shameful " 
Treaty of Troyes, by which Henry V was recognized as heir of the 
King of France and Regent, and was promised the Princess Katherine 
in marriage, while " Charles, who calls himself the Dauphin," was 
formally disinherited "for his enormous crimes." Henry, who spent 
the next few months in reducing Orleanist strongholds, marred his 
triumph by steadily increasing cruelty and arrogance — he deliber- 
ately put prisoners to death to terrify those still in arms, and, on his 
entry into Paris, in December, he alienated the citizens by his over- 
bearing manners. Late in the same month he returned to England 
after an absence of three and a half years, but the brief time that he 
remained in the country he devoted more to pageants and progresses 
than to affairs of State. 

Henry's Third and Final Expedition to France (1421-1422). — Henry 
departed, 10 June, 142 1, on his third and final expedition to France, 
with the object of crushing the Dauphin and his Orleanist adherents. 
He drove the Dauphin south of the Loire ; and then undertook the 
reduction of the few strongholds which still held out ; but the strain 
and hardship of the winter were too much for his already overtaxed 
strength. In July he was obliged to take to his bed and died 
31 August, 1422. Before his death he made arrangements for carry- 
ing on the government during the minority of his infant son, born 
to him 6 December, 142 1. He appointed his brother, John of Bed- 
ford, Regent of France, and Humphrey of Gloucester, his younger 
brother, Regent of England. These arrangements proved no more 



THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER IN THE ASCENDANT 167 

stable than his conquest of France. The glamour of his military 
achievements must not blind us to the fact that Henry V had plunged 
his country into a war in which permanent success was hopeless, and 
which was largely responsible for the disorders and confusion in which 
his royal line went down to destruction. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 
See Chapter XVI below. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. HENRY VI (1422-1461) 

The Council and the Parliament Set Aside the Will of Henry V. — 

There was the greatest difference imaginable between the two brothers 
to whom Henry V had intrusted the government of England and 
France. Bedford was a high-minded man, devoted to public duty, 
while Gloucester, clever and cultivated, the patron of scholars, and at 
the same time master of the arts which please the people, was self-seek- 
ing and unprincipled, constantly stirring up dissension at home and 
abroad. Distrusting him from the start, the Council and Parliament 
set aside the will of the late King and declared Bedford Protector of 
the Realm, though they allowed Humphrey to act in that capacity 
during his elder brother's absence. As a matter of fact, however, 
the real powers of government were exercised by the Council, which 
was nominated by Parliament. 

Two Kings of France. — On 21 October, 1422, the poor mad King 
Charles VI followed Henry V to the grave. The party of the Dauphin 
at once proclaimed him King as Charles VII, while the English party 
proclaimed little Henry. France was exhausted and demoralized, 
and Charles, weak and pleasure loving, the tool of worthless and 
ruffianly councilors, seemed totally unequal to the great task imposed 
upon him. Slowly, however, national sentiment was gathering 
against the foreign conquerors who had brought so much misery 
upon the land. 

The Siege of Orleans (1428-1429). Jeanne d'Arc. — In the late 
summer of 1428 Bedford sent an army against Orleans, the chief 
stronghold which acknowledged Charles VII. Having failed to take 
the town by assault, the English determined to reduce it by famine, 
and a siege began which lasted from October, 1428, to April, 1429. 
For the French the outlook was of the gloomiest ; their armies had 
been driven off the field and a complete triumph for the English 
seemed assured. Suddenly, 6 March, 1429, a simple maid, barely 
turned seventeen, appeared before the French King at Chinon, in- 
spired, she told the doubting and astonished Court, by a divine com- 

168 



THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER 169 

mission to relieve the sorely pressed Orleans and to lead her royal 
master to Rheims to be crowned. Jeanne d'Arc was a peasant girl 
of Domremy, who, always devout and imaginative, had begun about 
her thirteenth year to see visions of saints and angels, and to hear 
mysterious voices which at length directed her to go forth and save 
France. Securing the 'half-willing support of the commander of a 
neighboring garrison, she put on a man's doublet and hose, mounted 
a horse, and- rode straight to Chinon, where she easily singled out the 
King from a group of courtiers, and, in a secret interview, told him 
things that made him trust her mission. Clad in armor and girt 
with a " miraculous, holy sword," the " Maid of God " went forth 
to raise the siege of Orleans. Inspired by her advent, the garrison 
put the besiegers to flight, and defeated the forces sent to support 
them. To the French she was a God-given deliverer, to Bedford 
" a disciple and limb of the fiend . . . that used false enchantments 
and sorcery." 

Two Coronations (1429). — Having raised the siege of Orleans, 
Jeanne d'Arc led Charles to Rheims, and his coronation, 17 July, 1429, 
marked the height of her meteoric achievement. From now on voices 
ceased to guide her, and she devoutly wished that the Lord " would 
take her back to her father's sheep " ; nevertheless, she advised an 
immediate advance on Paris and demanded that Burgundy make 
peace with his King. The Duke refused to comply, a belated and 
ill-considered attack on the city was repulsed, and the self-seeking 
courtiers were able to recover their ascendancy over the feeble-minded 
Charles. As a reply to the coronation at Rheims, little Henry, al- 
though not eight years old, was crowned at Westminster, 8 November, 
and, during the ceremony, " beheld the people all about sadly and 
wisely," and behaved with " great humility and devotion." 

The Burning of Jeanne d'Arc (1431). — In May, 1430, Jeanne 
d'Arc was captured by the Burgundians. Sold to the English, she 
was taken to Rouen and tried in February of the following year. In 
vain she protested that " she had done nothing save by the command 
of God." For three months she was bullied and ill-treated by judges 
and jailers, to whom her simple courage and transparent honesty 
made no appeal, until finally, worn out by suffering, she was forced 
to declare that " her voices were delusions and that she had sinned in 
putting on men's clothes and going to war." She was burned in 
the market place at Rouen, 29 May, 143 1. Yet, thanks to her in- 
spired leadership, France was startled from her lethargy, and the 
" Maid of God " had been in her grave scarcely more than twenty 
years before her countrymen had driven the English from the land. 



170 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Turn of the Tide in France. Death of Bedford (1435)- — For the 
moment Bedford seemed triumphant. In December, 143 1, Henry 
was taken to Paris and crowned ; but one reverse after another fol- 
lowed, far from balanced by occasional gains. Bedford, whose last 
years were plagued by efforts to hold Burgundy to the English alliance 
and to quiet strife stirred up by his uneasy brother Humphrey in 
England, died in 1435, worn out by his arduous duties. Although 
stout and experienced generals survived him and young leaders of 
promise were coming to the front, his death was an irreparable loss 
to the English. Burgundy now finally went over to the French side, 
while the English, fighting with stubborn courage and persistency, 
steadily lost ground, until, in November, 1437, the French King once 
more entered Paris which his forces had recovered the previous year. 
Humphrey of Gloucester, free from his brother's restraint, led the 
English war party, while his uncle, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, led 
those who favored peace ; but, in 1441, the waning influence of the 
latter abruptly ceased when his wife, Eleanor, was arrested, together 
with an astrologer and a woman, known as the Witch of Eye, on 
charges of reading the stars to determine the life of the young King, 
and then of endeavoring to destroy him by melting over a slow fire 
a waxen image made in his likeness. Her accomplices were put to 
death and the Duchess Eleanor was made to do penance by walking 
for three days about the City robed in a sheet and bearing a candle in 
her hand, and also sentenced to imprisonment for life. Absurd as 
these charges now seem, she was doubtless guilty of aiming to secure 
the succession of her husband, who was Henry's next heir in the 
Lancastrian line. Gloucester, who lacked courage to take any part 
in the affair, had to yield to the Beaufort faction, and, aside from 
obstructing them whenever he could, spent most of the remaining 
six years of his life collecting books and posing as a patron of 
learning. 

Henry's Marriage to Margaret of Anjou (1444). — As Cardinal 
Beaufort was growing old, the conduct of affairs fell more and more 
into the hands of his nephew Edmund, Duke of Somerset, and of the 
Duke of Suffolk, the latter of whom, in 1444, at the cost of a secret 
truce ceding Maine and Anjou, negotiated a marriage between 
Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, niece of Charles VII. This fiery 
young woman, an absolute contrast to her pious, kindly, and weak 
consort, joined the Beaufort-Suffolk faction, and accumulated a host 
of enemies, almost from the moment of arrival in England. 

Richard, Duke of York. His Claim to the Throne. — Richard, 
Duke of York, who came to the front about this time as the leader 



THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER 171 

of the party opposed to the Queen, derived his dukedom through 
his father, from one of the younger sons of Edward III. From his 
mother he inherited a title to the Crown better than that of King 
Henry, since he was descended from Lionel, Duke Clarence, an elder 
brother of John of Gaunt. 1 Parliament, however, had declared for 
the younger line which had the further advantage of unbroken descent 
through males. In spite of his political activity, it was some years 
before Richard asserted his claims to the throne ; indeed, he might 
never have done so, but for Henry's inability and misfortunes. 

The Impeachment of Suffolk (1450). — As soon as the news of the 
cession of Maine and Anjou became known, a storm of abuse de- 
scended on the head of Suffolk, and when Somerset, sent over as 
Commander in 1448, was forced within two years to yield the whole 
of Normandy, the opposing faction in England, who attributed his 
continued ill success to treason, vented their fury by impeaching 
Suffolk. He threw himself on the King's mercy, and Henry ordered 
him to leave the kingdom for five years. On his way abroad his ship 
was intercepted and he was murdered by persons unknown. 

Jack Cade's Rebellion (1450). — Popular discontent was mani- 
fested in " Jack Cade's Rebellion," which broke out in Kent and 
Sussex in May and lasted for six weeks. The grievances complained 
of were mainly political, the losses in France, the miscarriage of jus- 
tice, and the wasting of the King's treasure. One social grievance 
alone was mentioned, the Statute of Laborers, and this was probably to 
secure the lower classes. The insurgents, who, having taken possession 
of London, put some of the officials to death and sacked the houses 
of the leading citizens, were soon driven from the City and induced 
to disband by false promises of pardon. Cade, their leader, was 
killed in struggling against arrest ; many of those who had risen with 
him were executed, and various scattered revolts were crushed. 

Richard of York and the War of the Roses. — Richard became a 
popular champion in consequence of his opposition to the unpopular 
Somerset, whom Henry had made Constable on his return from his 
disastrous campaign in France, and a proposal to declare him heir 
to the throne, which resulted in a speedy dissolution of Parliament 
by royal command, was the first intimation of the dynastic struggle 
between the Lancastrians and the Yorkists, known as the War of 
the Roses. 2 Yet some time elapsed before Richard himself asserted 

1 See table, introd. 

2 The name is not strictly correct, however, for while the white rose was the 
symbol of the Yorkists, the red rose was not a Lancastrian symbol. It was first 
used by Henry Tudor at Bosworth, in 1485. 



172 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

his claims, and the actual war did not break out till 1455. Although 
the question of the succession came to be the most prominent issue, 
other causes contributed to bring it forward and to determine the 
final result : Henry's incapacity ; the masterful intriguing character 
of his wife ; the ill success of the war ; the acute financial situation ; 
the discontent and disorder throughout the land ; and the jealousies 
cf the great nobles who ranged themselves on the side cf Somerset 
and Yorkist families respectively. 

The Critical Year (1453). End of the Hundred Years' War.— The 
year 1453 witnessed events of the greatest consequence. Turning 
their armies south from Normandy, the French — although the 
English fought valiantly and were loyally supported by the Gascons 
— conquered Guyenne, and the Hundred Years' War was over. The 
impossible task of conquering France, begun by Edward III, and 
revived so brilliantly by Henry V, was at length abandoned, and 
England retired from the contest retaining only Calais of her former 
broad territories across the Channel. In August, King Henry was 
suddenly bereft of his faculties, and for sixteen months he con- 
tinued in a helpless state. Although Richard's prospects of succes- 
sion were dashed by the news that Margaret, 13 October, had given 
birth to a son, he managed to get control of the government ; for 
Parliament, which met attended by armed retainers of the rival 
factions, declared him " Protector and Defender of the Realm," 
with all the powers of Regent. 

The Battle of St. Alban's and the Beginning of the War of the 
Roses (1455). — When all seemed going well, the King's recovery of 
his reason, on Christmas Day, 1454, reopened the eld strife. Richard 
and his supporters were removed from office and Somerset gained 
the ascendancy. The Yorkists submitted to all this and retired 
quietly to their estates ; but, when a Council was summoned to 
provide " for the safety of the King's person against his enemies," 
Richard gathered a following and marched toward London. Pro- 
fessing their loyalty, they demanded an audience with their Sovereign 
and the arrest of certain councilors of the opposite party, but they were 
refused a hearing, and 21 May, 1455, Somerset marched from the 
City with the King and a great following of lords. The two armies 
met in the ancient monastic town of St. Albans. The encounter 
which followed was little more than a street fight, but it was big in 
consequence, for it opened the War of the Roses. The Duke of 
Somerset was killed, and the Queen now came forward as the head of 
the royal party. The civil war, thus begun, waged intermittently for 
fifteen years. 




S H 



C H * 



4 We3t 3 Longitude 2 



Greenwich East 1 



BQRMAY & C3.,£NiS'S,Mjt, 



THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER 173 

The Yorkists in Exile. — The " ill-day of St. Albans," however, was 
followed by more than four years of comparative peace, though 
hatreds were bitter, private feuds were waged unsuppressed, and the 
Queen was busily courting the aid of the Scots and the French. By 
the summer of 1459, both parties were again arrayed in arms; but, 
for the time being, the royalist forces were too strong for the Yorkists, 
most of whom either disbanded or deserted to the enemy. Richard 
fled to Ireland, while his son Edward, Earl of March, together with 
a faithful supporter, the Earl of Warwick, risked a wild ride through 
a hostile country and crossed over to Calais. However, the govern- 
ment of the triumphant Lancastrians, with the poor King dominated 
by Margaret and a " covetous Council," proved weak and ineffective, 
and more and more in the face of poverty, disorder, and selfish faction, 
the hearts of the people were turned to the leaders in exile who might 
bring them relief. 

Return of the Yorkists. Richard's Death at Wakefield (1463).— 
In June, 1460, Warwick and the Earl of March landed in Kent. 
Having issued a manifesto in which they set forth their grievances 
and the distempers of the realm, they proceeded to London, 2 July, 
whence, reenforced by musters streaming in from every side, they 
passed north and, at Northampton, defeated Henry VI and made 
him prisoner. Making no effort to crush Margaret, engaged in 
rousing the northern lords, they returned to London. Here they 
were joined by Richard, who had returned from Ireland in royal state, 
and who formally in Parliament claimed the crown as " heir of 
Richard II." Since this claim to succeed forthwith proved unac- 
ceptable even to his champion, Warwick, a compromise was arranged 
by which Henry was to remain King for life and Richard was to be 
recognized as his heir. Meanwhile, Margaret, after distressing hard- 
ships and harrowing adventures, had mustered a strong force in the 
north. Richard, underestimating her strength, marched against her 
with a small army and was defeated and slain at the battle of Wake- 
field, 29 December, 1460. 

Warwick, the Kingmaker. — On the death of Richard of York, 
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, became the leader of the Yorkists, 
for the Duke's son, Edward, Earl of March, a youth of eighteen, was 
as yet distinguished for nothing save his strength, his beauty, and 
his great bravery. Warwick, though by no means preeminent as a 
general or as a statesman, was a skilled diplomatist and politician ; 
moreover, he was first cousin to Edward, he was the greatest land- 
owner in England, and dispensed lavish hospitality. Regarded as 
the leader of the party cf reform and good government, he has, how- 



174 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ever, been very appropriately styled " the last of the barons " ; for 
he was the last representative of a great noble family to exercise 
almost royal powers and powerfully to influence English history with 
hordes of armed retainers. Nor was he above the ambitions of his 
class, and the cry of reform which he raised and the movement which 
he led was really to secure more power for himself and his house. 
For that reason he ingratiated himself with the people by fair promises, 
and for that reason he now made, and strove later to unmake, a King. 
Edward Becomes King of England (4 March, 1461). — After 
Richard's defeat and death, Margaret marched south to release her 
husband. While Edward was occupied with the Lancastrians in the 
west, she inflicted an overwhelming defeat on Warwick at the second 
battle of St. Albans, 17 February, 146 1. Henry was rescued from 
his enemies ; but, owing to his persuasions — for he was anxious to 
avoid more pillaging and bloodshed — Margaret did not march at 
once on London. While she was negotiating for its capitulation, 
Warwick and Edward, who had at length joined forces, pressed into 
the City and seized the fruits of her victory. Edward was declared 
King by a mass meeting of the citizens and the Yorkist lords. Though 
he was not legally elected, he took his seat on the throne at West- 
minster, 4 March, 1461, with the crown on his head and the scepter 
in his hand and received the homage of the magnates. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

(Chapters XV and XVI) 

Mainly narrative. Sir James H. Ramsay, Lancaster and York (2 vols., 
1892), pays particular attention to military and financial history; Oman, 
Vickers, and Stubbs, Constitutional History, previously cited. J. H. Wylie, 
History of England under Henry IV (4 vols., 1884-1898) is a scholarly ex- 
haustive study. C. L. Kingsford's Henry V (1901) is a good brief biography. 
Kriehn, The English Rising of 1450 (1892) throws new light on Cade's 
rebellion. K. H. Vickers, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1907) is a full and 
scholarly account. 

An authoritative work on an important aspect of constitutional develop- 
ment is J. F. Baldwin, The King's Council in England during the Middle 
Ages (1913)- 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 104-128. 



- CHAPTER XVII 

THE YORKIST KINGS AND THE END OF THE WARS OF THE 
ROSES. EDWARD IV (1461-1483) ; EDWARD V (1483) ; RICHARD 
III (1483-1485) 

The New King, Edward IV. — Margaret's army was so embittered 
and so discouraged that she was obliged to retreat northward. Edward 
and Warwick started in pursuit, and near Towton, on the high road 
to York, they overtook and defeated the Lancastrian forces in a bloody 
battle, 29 March, 146 1. Henry and the Queen fled across the Scotch 
border, while Edward returned to London where he was formally 
crowned, 28 June. The Yorkist line had at length displaced its rival, 
and with its baronial supporters — whatever their motives as a self- 
styled party of reform — had overthrown a regime incompetent and 
corrupt enough in all conscience. The people, weary of disorder at 
home and disgusted at the losses in France, eagerly accepted a change 
in hopes of better things. Poor Henry had to give way to a stronger 
and more spirited ruler. Edward Plantagenet was described as the 
handsomest prince in Europe. He was jovial, hearty, and familiar 
with all sorts and conditions of people. Fond of pleasure and naturally 
indolent he was prone to trust to others. On the other hand, he had 
a streak of thrift which led him to keep his coffers filled by heavy exac- 
tions and profitable private trading, and likewise to foster the commerce 
and general prosperity of the country. At crises, too, he could rouse 
himself and act with great decision and vigor. As time went on, his 
worst qualities became more pronounced ; his love of pleasure turned 
to viciousness and dissipation ; he became cruel, bloodthirsty, and 
extortionate, and died at forty, worn out by self-indulgence. 

Edward's Estrangement from Warwick (1464). — It was not till 
1464 that Edward was fully master of England. In that same year 
he married Elizabeth, a widowed daughter of Richard Woodville. 
This step estranged the King's chief supporter, Warwick, for the Wood- 
villes were of the Lancastrian connection, and Edward, under the in- 
fluence of his beautiful, ambitious wife, began to heap favors on her 
relatives at the expense of the Nevilles and other families who had 

175 



176 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

set the House of York on the throne. Moreover, Edward's unexpected 
action frustrated a plan which Warwick had had all but completed 
for marrying the English Monarch to the sister of Louis XI, who had 
succeeded Charles VII, in 146 1. For the moment, however, the Earl 
swallowed his wrath. 

King Henry Again a Prisoner (1465). — Meantime, the Scots had 
concluded a truce with England, and poor Henry, deprived of this 
asylum, had been lurking in one after another of the Lancastrian 
strongholds in the wild hill country between Yorkshire and Lancashire. 
In July of 1465 he was betrayed by one of his entertainers and taken 
to London. For five years he was kept a prisoner in the Tower, where, 
although neglected he was not really abused ; for Edward was anxious 
to keep him alive as a hostage. 

Edward Driven out of England. — Relations between Edward and 
Warwick — still further strained from the fact that, while the Earl 
adhered to Louis XI, the English King allied himself with Louis's arch- 
enemy Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, to whom he gave his 
sister in marriage — reached a breaking point in 1469. Then a recon- 
ciliation took place which lasted less than a year. In 1470 a Lan- 
castrian rising in Lincolnshire gave the King a chance to raise 
a great levy, to rout the insurgents, and to proclaim Warwick a traitor. 
Whether he was leagued with the insurgents is uncertain; but he 
had certainly promoted a revolt in Yorkshire the previous year, he 
resented Edward's refusal to follow his counsels, and may have nour- 
ished designs to seat the King's brother, the Duke of Clarence, on the 
throne. Hotly pursued he took refuge in France, where Louis XI 
succeeded in reconciling him to Margaret of Anjou, the Earl marrying 
his daughter Ann to Margaret's son, Prince Edward. Supported by 
the French King, Warwick landed on the south coast of England ; the 
Nevilles rose in the north, and, deserted by the bulk of his forces, King 
Edward fled to Holland in October. Warwick marched to London 
and released Henry VI from the Tower. Bewildered, the half -de- 
mented King meekly assented to all that the Earl was pleased to do. 
While the people, as a rule, looked on with apathy, the majority ac- 
cepted Warwick, though London resisted, under the lead of the mer- 
chants who were attached to Edward because he owed them money 
and because of their interest in the Flemish trade. 

The Return of Edward and His Victory at Tewkesbury (1471). — A 
combination between Warwick and Louis XI against Burgundy forced 
Charles to equip Edward for an expedition to recover his throne. 
Landing on the east coast he hurried to London, secured the City, 
made Henry a prisoner again, and marched forth to attack Warwick 



THE YORKIST KINGS 1 77 

in a battle fought at Barnet, eleven miles north of London, 14 April, 
147 1, where the Earl's forces were defeated and he was slain as he 
attempted to flee. Forthwith Edward hastened west to intercept 
Margaret and her son, who, recently landed in Dorset, were marching 
up the Severn Valley gathering recruits. At Tewkesbury the Lancas- 
trians were overwhelmingly crushed, 4 May, Margaret was taken 
prisoner, 1 and the Prince was either killed as he sought to escape or 
brought before the King and slain by his orders. On 21 May, Edward 
reached London in triumph, and shortly after, it was reported that 
Henry had died " of pure displeasure and melancholy," but there is 
little doubt that he was murdered in accordance with the royal will. 
Lacking in resolution and knowledge of human nature, he was ever 
the puppet of stronger natures, including his wife who contributed to 
his undoing, and his mind, always weak, broke down under the strain 
of the disorders of his kingdom that he was unable to avert. Pure, 
honest, merciful, and wholly deserving a more happy fate, he was long 
worshiped in the north country as a saint and martyr. 

Edward's Rule after Tewkesbury and His Expedition to France. — 
Edward's restoration, due largely to his own remarkable generalship, 
was marred by extortion and cruelty : " the rich were hanged by the 
purse and the poor by the neck," while none dared oppose him. After 
having spent a large part of the confiscations wrung from his van- 
quished enemies, Edward called a Parliament. To secure grants 
he declared his intention of renewing war on France, and, in addition, 
exacted " benevolences," supposed to be voluntary, but usually forced 
from the unwilling subject. Although extravagant, he was careful 
enough not to exceed his revenues, and politic enough to pay his bills. 
After concluding a treaty of alliance with Charles of Burgundy, with 
the avowed object of recovering his " rightful inheritance " from the 
" usurper Louis " he led an army to France of nearly 15,000 men. 
On landing at Calais he found that Charles was not able to render him 
any assistance. However, Louis was willing to treat, and the two 
Kings met on the bridge of Pecquiny, near Amiens, separated from one 
another by a grating of trellis work. Louis agreed to pay down to 
Edward 75,000 gold crowns together with an annual pension of 50,000, 
also, a truce of seven years was arranged and a league of amity during 
life, each King binding himself to assist the other against his rebellious 
subjects. 

Attainder and Execution of Clarence (1478). — Edward's brother, 
the Duke of Clarence, who had married a daughter of Warwick and 

1 She was later released on payment of a ransom by France and died in 
1482. 



178 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

had been the latter's tool from 1469 to ,1471, when he finally deserted 
the Earl's cause, was constantly involved in quarrels with the King 
and with his other brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Edward 
had never trusted him after his attempted treachery, and, as the years 
went on, various causes of friction developed. In 1478 he was seized 
and thrown into the Tower and an act of attainder was passed, in a 
subservient Parliament, acccusing him of spreading scandalous tales 
about the King, of compassing his death by necromancy, and of plotting 
an armed rebellion. Sentence was passed on him by a court of Peers. 
Worthless and false as Clarence was, the proceeding was a mere travesty 
on justice. Shortly after his condemnation he perished in the Tower, 
no one knows how, but the common story is that he was drowned in 
a butt of Malmsey wine. Although it rid him of a troublesome rival, 
the tragic fate of Clarence seems to have embittered the remainder of 
Edward's life. 

Edward's Last Years. — After his profitable peace with France 
the King gave himself over more and more to his ease and pleasure, 
though he still kept a sharp eye on his revenues and was rigorous 
in the execution of justice. His confiscations, his French pension, 
his private trading ventures, particularly in wool, made him prac- 
tically independent of Parliament. Alien merchants were obliged 
to invest their gains from imports in English commodities, and in- 
formers were encouraged by dividing among them the proceeds of 
fines. The severe administration of the laws, though employed as 
a means of swelling the revenues, was necessary after the weakness 
and disorder which had prevailed so long. Edward was too wise, 
however, to damage his popularity by systematic oppression^, and to 
the last he was a favorite with the people of London and the other 
great towns. The foreign relations of his later years may be dis- 
missed very briefly. Charles the Bold, who had proved a broken 
reed in 1475, perished two years later in a rash war against the 
Swiss ; but though the Duchy was ruled by his widow Margaret, a 
■ sister of Edward, he had little further connection with Burgundy, ex- 
cept to negotiate a commercial treaty, providing for unrestricted 
trade, on payment of " ancient dues and customs." As to Louis XI 
he repudiated an agreement which he had made to marry the Dauphin 
to Edward's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, and Edward's rage at this 
treachery was a fatal shock to his constitution already undermined by 
debauchery. He was making great preparations for revenge when 
death put an end to his plans, 9 April, 1483. 

Nominal Reign of Edward V (9 April to 25 June, 1483). — Edward 
left two little sons, the eldest of whom was not yet thirteen years old. 



THE YORKIST KINGS 1 79 

The few short weeks during which this unhappy boy Edward was 
nominally King were merely a scramble for supremacy between the 
relatives of his Queen Mother and his uncle Richard who had been 
intrusted with the care of the King and kingdom. Richard forcibly 
secured possession of his young charge, and, 4 May, 1483, was formally 
proclaimed Protector by the Council, while Edward was lodged in the 
royal apartments in the Tower. Queen Elizabeth, who had been 
scheming to make herself Regent, at once took sanctuary in West- 
minster Abbey with her daughter and her other son Richard, Duke 
of York. 

Richard of Gloucester, His Character and Policy. — Gloucester, 
while pretending to secure his position as Protector, was really aiming 
to make himself King. Truly he had grown up in troublous times ; 
his father had been killed before he was nine years old ; he had shared 
his brother's brief exile, in 1470, and had fought valiantly at Barnet 
and Tewkesbury. Whether justly or not, he was suspected of the 
murder of Henry's son, of Henry himself, and of procuring the death 
of his own brother Clarence ; yet, if these charges be true, he had acted 
primarily as the agent of the King in revenging enemies of the Crown. 
He was sober and industrious, and Edward trusted him and rewarded 
him liberally for his faithful service. The designs of the Queen's 
family stirred him to action ; but, when he saw a chance to make him- 
self King, he was unable to resist the temptation and hesitated at no 
fraud or bloodshed to attain his end. Doubtless, however, he intended, 
once he got to power, to rule as a strong just Monarch. 

Richard Proclaimed King (26 June, 1483). — Bribing all the sup- 
porters he could, he set out to dispose of all persons of influence whom 
he could not win over. On 13 June, 1483, he appeared at the Tower 
with an armed force and, with pretended rage, accused the Queen and 
her party of working spells upon him. Three days later, he terrified 
the Queen into sending Richard to join his brother in the Tower. An 
assembly which met in place of the Parliament summoned in the name 
of Edward IV, offered the crown to Richard, 25 June, and, in a strange 
petition, exalted his princely virtues, praying that " after great clouds 
. . . the sun of justice and grace may shine upon us." Accepting 
with a show of reluctance, Richard was proclaimed King the next day 
and crowned, 6 July. 

Richard's Crimes Undo His Attempts to Win His Subjects. — Once 
on the throne, Richard sought by various means to make himself 
popular. He went on a progress soon after his coronation, he helped 
the poor, he issued proclamations to suppress immorality, he .ordered 
the judges to judge justly, and he even refused gifts from London and 



180 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

other towns saying he would rather have the hearts of his subjects 
than their money. But he undid any possible effects of his good works 
by ruthless bloodshed. Several of his opponents were put to death 
after the barest pretense of a trial or without being tried at all, while, 
shortly after his coronation, Richard sent a trusted henchman, with 
orders to kill the two innocent little princes in the Tower, and it is 
probable that they were smothered while they slept. The alleged de- 
struction of these harmless lads caused all right-thinking men to turn 
from Richard with loathing, while it gave others a handle to turn 
against him when the fitting time came. Yet he continued his vain 
efforts to win the hearts of his subjects, striving to do away with extor- 
tion, to reform justice, and to promote trade. In 1484 he abolished the 
hated benevolences of which his brother had made such use ; but the 
necessities of military preparation forced him to counteract this meas- 
ure by levying large loans. Nobody resisted him, but he could trust 
no one, he lived in constant disquiet and alarm, and in vain, when the 
hour of danger came, did he appeal to his subjects " like good and true 
Englishmen." 

The Landing of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (1485) . — Meantime, 
Henry Tudor, the nearest male representative of the Lancastrians, 1 
who had escaped to France after Tewkesbury, having secured supplies 
of men and money, issued a manifesto to his English supporters against 
the " unnatural tyrant who bore rule over them." Then he crossed 
the Channel, landed at Milford Haven, 7 August, 1485, and calling 
on all true subjects to support him as he went, marched eastward to 
the Severn. Richard, advancing westward from Northampton, which 
he had chosen as a central point whence he could march readily in any 
direction, met the invaders at Bosworth near Leicester. Supporters 
had been flocking enthusiastically to join Richmond; the forces of 
Richard, on the other hand, were lukewarm and suspected of treason. 

The Battle of Bosworth (22 August, 1485). — While he trusted in 
his valor, Richard, haunted by dismal forebodings, passed a sleepless 
night. Yet on the morning of the fray, he addressed his captains in a 
fiery speech : he would triumph, he declared, " by glorious victory or 
suffer death for immortal fame." Henry's speech was equally stirring : 
he came, he said, to vindicate justice and avenge murder against a 
tyrant whose forces served him from fear rather than love, and who 
at the test would prove friends rather than adversaries. And so the 
event proved, for many went over to Henry's side, and more with- 
drew from the combat. Richard fought manfully, and sought to en- 
gage Henry himself in a hand to hand encounter. Wearing his crown 

1 See table, introd. 



THE YORKIST KINGS l8l 

on his head, he cried, " I will die King of England," and deserted and 
surrounded by his enemies, he struggled shouting " treason ! treason ! " 
until he fell pierced by deadly wounds, while the victorious troops of 
the Tudor leader hailed him as Henry VII. 

Reasons for the Failure of the Lancastrian and Yorkist Dynasties. — 
Richard's usurpation merely hastened a crisis that seemed inevitable. 
The situation under Henry VI had proved that England was not ready 
for the liberties fostered by his father and grandfather. On the other 
hand, the rule of Edward and Richard had shown that the country 
had outgrown the age when it would submit to violence and despotism. 
The first two Lancastrian Henrys had done much for England ; they 
had nurtured parliamentary government, and for a time at least re- 
vived English prestige abroad. But wars, famine, pestilence, and 
chief est of all, want of governance, administrative feebleness, de- 
stroyed the last of the line. The Crown and the treasury were con- 
stantly in need of money ; individual life and property were never 
secure ; robbery, riot, and factional strife kept the country in continual 
turmoil. The remedies sought — more power to Parliament, remodel- 
ing the Council , and reforming statutes — proved of no avail. A strong 
hand was necessary ; that was why Henry VI was set aside, otherwise 
his adversaries would never have established their title, nearer in 
descent though they were. The Yorkists' rule, though stronger, failed 
to remedy the evils, to secure peace, or to inspire national confidence. 
The perversion of justice, robbery, violence, and factional struggles 
were still rife. A new man and a new policy were needed. As Henry 
VII united the dynastic claims of the two Houses, so he combined their 
policies. Observing the' forms of constitutional liberty accepted by 
the Lancastrians, he ruled with a strong hand like the Yorkists. What 
the country wanted most was peace and prosperity under rulers who 
could keep order. The line of Henry VII gave them that. It erected 
a new absolutism, but an absolutism based on popularity. This new 
absolutism prevailed until the country had recovered from exhaustion, 
emancipated itself from the bonds of the Middle Ages, and was pre- 
pared to make use of the liberty which it had at an earlier time pre- 
maturely acquired. It has been said that the result of the struggle 
between Lancaster and York was to arrest the progress of English 
freedom for more than a century. At its beginning, Parliament had 
established freedom from arbitrary taxation, legislation, and imprison- 
ment, and the responsibility of even the highest servants of the Crown 
to itself and the law. From the time of Edward IV parliamentary life 
was checked, suspended, or turned into a mere form. The legislative 
powers were usurped by the royal Council, parliamentary taxation gave 



182 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

way to forced loans and benevolences, personal liberty was encroached 
on by a searching spy system and arbitrary imprisonment, justice 
was degraded by bills of attainder, by the extension of the powers of 
the Council, by the subservience of judges and the coercion of juries. 
It required a revolution in the seventeenth century to recover from 
the Crown what had been recognized and observed in the early part of 
the fifteenth. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Ramsay ; Vickers ; Oman ; and Stubbs all deal in more or less detail with 
the period covered by this chapter. The Paston Letters, 1422-1509 (6 vols., 
1904) throw a flood of light on the public life of the fifteenth century, and 
the introduction by the editor, James Gairdner, is a valuable commentary. 
C. R. Markham in "Richard III : A Doubtful Verdict Reviewed," English 
Historical Review, VI, 250-283, 806-813, took the ground that Henry VII,, 
rather than Richard III, was the murderer of the sons of Edward IV ; but 
his contention was effectually answered by James Gairdner, "Did Henry VII 
Murder the Princes?" English Historical Review, VI, 444-464, 813-815. 
Gairdner's Life and Reign of Richard III (1898) is the best account of that 
reign. 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 129-133. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDOR ABSOLUTISM. HENRY VH 

(1485-1509) 

The New Absolutism. — The victory of Henry Tudor brought 
England peace and a strong settled government which endured for 
over a century, while the growth of parliamentary power was checked. 
Revival of absolutism was due to two causes — to the personal char- 
acter of the Tudor sovereigns, and to the situation of the country. 
The three notable rulers of this line, Henry VII, Henry VIII, and 
Elizabeth, were alike in many ways ; possessed of unbounded courage, 
physical and moral, they were also keen politicians in discerning the 
needs and temper of the people. Usually able to get things done as 
they wished, when they saw that a measure was going to be resisted 
they drew back, but their wishes and those of their subjects were in 
most respects the same. So they were absolute, not because they 
had a standing army, or any other of the common props of despotism, 
but because they were popular, they were needed. Henry VII, 
founder of the line, though extortionate, was frugal and politic. He 
fostered trade and industry ; he maintained peace abroad and order 
at home, and kept the country out of debt. Consequently he left a 
strong central government, a large treasure, and a people attached 
to the Crown. However, the revival of monarchial power was not 
due solely to the personal qualities of the Tudors. Much was due to 
conditions which had affected seriously the three political classes of 
the realm, the Nobles, the Clergy, and the Commons. The Nobles 
were no longer, in a position seriously to menace the Crown. Since 
the introduction of the longbow, and more particularly of gunpowder, 
their armor had ceased to be invulnerable, while their castles were 
not impregnable against cannon. Moreover, the strain of the Hundred 
Years' War and the Wars of the Roses 1 had reduced their numbers 
and wealth, while, at the same time, they had discredited themselves 
by their turbulence, extravagance, and self-seeking. The Church, 

1 It is no longer believed that the bulk of the nobility were killed off in the Wars 
of the Roses. 

183 



1 84 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

too, was losing the assured position it had once held. It had indeed 
survived the attacks of Wiclif and the Lollards; but its influence 
had been threatened, and covetous eyes had been more than once 
cast on its vast wealth, and although it still retained a strong hold on 
the lesser folk, they counted for little, and it had to look to the Mon- 
archy for support. The Commons, the middle classes in town and 
country, busy in accumulating material resources, wanted peace and 
protection rather than liberty. 1 As the Nobility and the Church 
were unable, so the Commons were unwilling to oppose the new Tudor 
absolutism in which they saw a friend and protector. 

Henry's Problems. — Henry VII, therefore, found himself in a 
situation most favorable to the reestablishment of the royal power 
on a secure basis. He was confronted by many problems and he 
dealt with them prudently and skillfully : he had to establish his 
title, to dispose of rival claimants, to suppress disorder, to come 
to terms with Scotland, to settle conditions in Ireland, and to secure 
England's position abroad. Each of these problems must be con- 
sidered in turn. 

Henry's Means of Securing His Title. — Henry's first need was to 
secure his title. If he based his claim solely on right of conquest, 
he might have to yield to any one strong enough to drive him out ; 
furthermore, even though he was the nearest male representative 
of the Lancastrians, the legitimacy of title of his line of descent could 
be contested on various grounds. So, quite wisely, he secured from 
Parliament, in 1485, an Act vesting the royal inheritance in him and 
his heirs without stating any reasons. This done, he married, in i486, 
Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, thus uniting the claims 
of the two rival Houses. His next step was to secure from the Pope, 
in the same year, a bull recognizing his title. Finally, he made Parlia- 
ment pass an Act, in 1495, that it was no treason to obey a de facto king. 

Royal Pretenders. Lambert Simnel (1487) ; Perkin Warbeck 
(1492-1499). — There were, however, male representatives of the 
Yorkist line still living, and many doubted whether the young sons 
of Edward IV were actually dead, and naturally the enemies of 
Henry VII were glad to make use of such opportunities to rise against 
him. In 1487 they put forward one Lambert Simnel, son of an Ox- 
ford organ maker, as the Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence, 
although the real Earl 2 was a prisoner in the Tower. Crowned in 

1 In Shakespeare's King John, produced in the reign of Elizabeth, Magna Carta 
is not even mentioned. 

2 He was subsequently drawn into a plot, which furnished a pretext for putting 
him to death. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDOR ABSOLUTISM 185 

Ireland, where the sentiment was strongly Yorkist, Simnel invaded 
England, at the head of a body of supporters which included some 
of the English nobility and a force of German mercenaries sent over 
by Margaret of Burgundy. However, the invaders were received 
with scant favor, and were easily routed by Henry's troops. The 
Yorkist nobles were mostly killed or disappeared, and the mock king 
was made a turnspit in the royal kitchen, and later a royal falconer. 
Another pretender bothered King Henry for nearly eight years. 
This was Perkin Warbeck, son of a Flemish boatman, put forward 
as Richard, Duke of York. Receiving support in Ireland, Flanders, 
and Scotland, he finally landed, August, 1497, in southwest England, 
after two previous unsuccessful attempts at invasion. The King's 
army, however, was too much for him, and giving himself up, he was 
finally hanged, November, 1499. 

Henry's Exactions. — Henry VII turned most of the plots and 
risings against him to his own advantage. Refraining so far as 
possible from shedding blood, he contented himself with the safer 
and more profitable method of levying fines on those implicated. 
Another of his many devices to fill his coffers is known as " Morton's 
Fork," because its invention was attributed to his Chancellor, Thomas 
Morton. Persons who lived in great magnificence were forced to 
yield large sums on the ground of their manifest wealth, while those 
who lived plainly were subjected to equal burdens on the ground of their 
supposed savings. The royal extortion increased as the years went on. 

The Court of Star Chamber (1487). — Neither the Lancastrians nor 
the Yorkists had been able to suppress disorder, and statutes of 
" livery and maintenance " x had been directed in vain against law- 
less nobles and their retainers. In 1487 Henry VII devised a new 
expedient. Selecting certain great officers of State from the Privy 
Council, together with two judges, he gave them a special juris- 
diction, not only over livery and maintenance, but over misconduct 
of sheriffs, over riots and unlawful assemblies. They constituted a 
court, known as the Star Chamber probably from the room where 
the meetings were held, which, since it sat in London and had very 
summary jurisdiction, was able to act more effectively than any of 
the existing tribunals. 2 

Poynings's Law (1494). — Ireland was a serious problem. The 
only place where the English possessed a shadow of authority was 

1 See above, p. 142. 

2 Later, more and more members were added till it came to be a judicial session 
of the whole Privy Council plus two judges. Subsequently used as an engine of 
oppression, political and ecclesiastical, it was suppressed in 1641. 



1 86 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

in the Pale, and attempts to prevent the Anglo-Irish lords from identi- 
fying themselves with the natives had proven futile. Moreover, many 
of them were Yorkists. So, in 1494, Henry sent over Sir Edward 
Poynings and a body of English officials with the object of establishing 
and extending English rule. The new Lord Deputy secured the 
passage of " Poynings 's Law " providing that no Parliament should 
meet or pass any act without the consent of the King in Council, 
and that all English statutes should be in force in Ireland. Although 
these enactments put a check on Irish legislation they had the merit 
of protecting the colonists against the arbitrariness of the English 
officials. 

The Scotch and Spanish Marriage Alliances. — In accordance with 
his economical and peace-loving character, Henry VII preferred to 
avoid war and to secure his relations with other countries by treaties 
and marriage alliances. Two of the latter were fraught with conse- 
quences. 

James IV, King of Scotland since 1488, had caused much trouble 
by taking up the cause of Perkin Warbeck, so Henry sought to meet 
danger from this quarter by marrying James to his daughter Margaret. 
On 7 August, 1502, the wedding took place at Edinburgh, the gayest 
and most splendid the poor northern capital had ever witnessed. In 
years to come, many wars and rumors of wars followed ; but within a 
century a descendant of this marriage became King of England. Mean- 
time, 15 November, 1501, Henry had married his eldest son Arthur to 
Catharine, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, 
those celebrated monarchs who sent Columbus on his voyages of 
discovery to our western world. Arthur, however, died less than six 
months after his marriage, and eventually — by virtue of a papal 
dispensation, since it was against the law of the Church for a man to 
marry his deceased brother's widow — Catharine became, in 1509, 
the bride of Henry's second son, the future Henry VIII. 

The Transition from the Medieval to the Modern World. — 
During the reign of the thrifty and sagacious Henry VII, England 
was in a period of transition from the medieval to the modern world. 
New tendencies were in the making, but the eld had not been al- 
together discarded. Diverse characteristics are manifest both in 
the King and his age. Henry, businesslike and unheroic, absorbed 
in amassing treasure and avoiding war, was the direct contrast of the 
medieval knight, but, on the other hand, he chose Churchmen for 
councilors and founded religious houses with true medieval piety ; he 
gave John Cabot a patent to search for a northwest passage, but he 
contributed to a papal crusade against the Turks ; he negotiated free 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDOR ABSOLUTISM 187 

trade treaties, but he also enacted a law against usury. 1 While English 
ships began to make their way to the western world, England was not 
yet a recognized sea power ; the New Learning was being introduced 
from Italy, though its effects were still unforeseen ; the old fighting 
nobility had been crushed, but the new nobility of wealth had not yet 
risen. In international affairs a new policy — balance of power — was 
just emerging, but it had not yet developed into a fixed principle. 

State of the Country. Agriculture. — Agriculture was in a back- 
ward state. No improved methods had been introduced since the 
Peasant Revolt ; the soil was exhausted, for draining and fertilizing 
were little practiced and artificial grass and clover were unknown ; 
cattle could not be kept over the winter to any extent, for turnips, 
later used for fodder, had not yet been introduced ; oxen were still 
used as draught animals, since they were cheaper than horses to feed 
and their flesh could be eaten when killed. Many things contributed 
to retard the progress of agriculture. Owing to the Black Death 
and other plagues, the supply of labor had been greatly reduced. 
Then the wars, foreign and civil, had further drained the population 
and discouraged and unsettled the surviving cultivators. Also, the 
monasteries, which had once taken the lead in clearing the wastes, 
building roads, and improving farming, had fallen off in wealth and 
energy. The increasing bareness of the soil, the scarcity of labor, 
and the growing demand for wool turned a steadily increasing number 
to sheep raising. Both common pastures and tenant holdings were 
enclosed for grazing lands, and, as sheep raising became more and 
more profitable, more and more farms were taken, which caused much 
hardship as the population began to recover again, for lands that 
furnished sustenance and employment to many tenants and laborers 
required only a few shepherds. Great outcry was made and laws 
were passed to check the practice, but without avail, and a chaplain 
of Henry VIII complained that " where hath been many houses and 
churches to the honour of God, now you shall find nothing but shepe- 
cotes and stables to the ruin of man." Nor did enactments to en- 
courage the exportation of corn, to raise the price, and to prevent 
import until the cost was so high as to cause hardship, materially help 
the situation. It was not until decades later, after the laborers 
driven from the soil had found a new occupation in manufacturing 
and a new demand arose for food to supply them, that agricultural 
prosperity revived. 

1 In the third year of his reign he declared "usurious bargains" (i.e. all lending 
at interest) null and void, provided that the lender should be heavily fined, and 
further punished for his soul's good by the church authorities. 



1 88 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Condition of the Agricultural Laborer. — The condition of the 
lower classes would seem insupportable now. Their homes were 
mere hovels with walls of clay and reeds, with floors of mud strewn 
with rushes, and fires were built in a cleared space in the middle of 
the floor, the smoke escaping through the door or a hole in the roof 
after half choking the occupants. It is small wonder that even 
women left these " dark, cheerless, and unhealthy dwellings " to seek 
company and diversion in the neighboring ale-house. Tea, coffee, 
and wheaten bread were luxuries yet undreamed of, though meat, 
beer, house rent, and fuel were cheap. Foreigners were struck by 
the quantities of meat consumed by the English ; but they saw only 
the tables of the gentry, the city folk, and the inns. The remote 
rural classes seem to have lived largely on peas, beans, and suchlike 
food in summer, while the salt meat and fish consumed in winter, 
together with bad air, lack of drainage, and stagnant water were 
fruitful sources of all manner of ills, such as scurvy and typhoid. 
The lot of the poorer classes in towns was just as bad. Infant mor- 
tality was appalling, and, what with the continuing ravages of the 
plague, it has been estimated that "as large a number of persons 
now live to seventy years as lived to forty " in the year 1500. Each 
little community still lived, for the most part, isolated and self- 
sufficing, making its own clothes and providing its own food. Roads 
were foul and miry during a greater part of the year, and infested by 
thieves, bridges were few and badly kept, and those who controlled 
river commerce were opposed to their increase. This lack of means 
of communication accounts for many of the famines, and was another 
cause for retarding the progress of agriculture, since no one cared to 
raise a surplus which could not easily be transported for sale. Yet 
there are some rays of light in the prevailing darkness. Even the 
lower classes were better off than they had been in the previous cen- 
tury and better off than their neighbors in France. The monks were 
easy landlords who seldom pressed for their rent from poor tenants 
and sometimes even remitted it in the hard seasons, and a number 
of the lay landlords seem to have followed the monastic example. 
The small farmers or yeomen were reasonably prosperous. Moreover, 
there was a chance for peasants to rise from their lowly station not 
only through the Church but by other avenues as well. Still the 
laborer's lot was, on the whole, a hard one ; he might have a piece 
of ground to till and a share in a common pasture, but, what with 
irregular work, poor food, unhealthy homes, wars, riot, famine, 
and pestilence he was ever so much worse off than he would be 
to-day. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDOR ABSOLUTISM 189 

The Nobles. — The nobility lived in rude magnificence with huge 
bands of household men : the Earl of Warwick, for example, had six 
hundred liveried servants in his train; the flesh of six entire oxen 
was sometimes consumed at a single meal, while visitors, always 
welcome, often carried off meat from the table. When a nobleman 
passed through a parish, bells were rung, caps were doffed in rever- 
ences, indeed, even in great towns burghers and journeymen flocked 
to see them as they stalked or rode along the streets. Yet most of 
them had been living from hand to mouth for a long time on the 
produce of -their estates and their plunder from war. Since their 
silks, satins, furs, jewels, and plate represented unproductive capital, 
they were often hard put to it for ready money and borrowed in all 
directions. When they could no longer carry their debts, their fine 
things were scattered and sold. The Tudors cut down their retinues 
and excluded them from their councilors, but the advent of peace 
and new conditions made their decline inevitable. Living isolated 
on their country estates they rarely possessed sufficient knowledge 
or training to participate in public business; consequently, with no 
wars to occupy them any longer, they devoted themselves to dress, 
cards, and dice, and steadily declined not only in wealth, but in 
character and physical vigor. 

The Middle Class. — As a result of increasing industrial develop- 
ment the middle classes were growing steadily better off, and many 
a yeoman and merchant became a landed gentleman. A new aris- 
tocracy arose — of energy and skill, of material prosperity — ulti- 
mately to be a power in politics and society. Possessed of lands and 
fine raiment, the new men were hard to distinguish from the old whom 
in a measure they were supplanting. The rich merchant princes 
kept houses of great magnificence. There was, however, more pomp 
and show than real comfort. Great houses had rarely more than two 
or three beds, and bare benches and window seats generally did duty 
for chairs. 

Distribution of Population and Industry. — The total population 
of England at the end of the fifteenth century has been estimated at 
2,500,000, not much over a third of present-day London. In spite 
of a steady influx of laborers to the towns, London did not in all 
likelihood contain over 50,000 inhabitants, and there were probably 
not ten communities with more than 10,000. The poorest districts 
were in the north, though Yorkshire, as a wool-producing district, was 
forging ahead. 

The Decline of the Gilds. The Domestic System. — England's 
chief industry was the raising of wool and its manufacture into cloth 



I go SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

— the latter still mainly in the hands of the gilds, who continued to 
enjoy a practical monopoly of trade and industry, though various 
indications show that they were on the decline. They became 
entangled in frequent and acute struggles with the municipal organi- 
zations where the two were not identical. They were accused by 
the journeymen of oppression, of extravagance in pageantry and 
feasting, and they stifled even healthy competition. A particular 
cause, however, for their downfall was the fact that their organization 
was too narrow and exclusive to meet the needs of the widening 
markets. So merchants began to send wool to farmers and villagers 
to be worked up into cloth. The " domestic system," as it was 
called, which began to be employed in the fifteenth century, had 
the twofold advantage of more adequately supplying the growing 
demand for cloth, and of opening a new field of occupation for the 
agricultural laborers and small farmers, suffering from the sub- 
stitution of sheep raising for tillage. 

Trade and Commerce. " Mercantilism." — Business, both com- 
mercial and financial, was, by the close of the reign of Henry VII, in 
the hands of Englishmen. While Edward I had expelled the Jews 
and Edward III had ruined his Lombard and Tuscan creditors, foreign 
trade, nevertheless, remained chiefly in the hands of Continental 
merchants all through the Yorkist period. Under Henry VII, how- 
ever, natives largely superseded foreigners, while even aliens, who 
had once been welcomed to teach Continental handicrafts, were 
jealously excluded. The fifteenth-century sovereigns continued to 
regulate commerce, though with an object quite different from that 
of their predecessors. A new policy, while it did not originate with 
him, was most effectively and extensively carried out by Henry VII. 
The aim of Edward III had been, in general, to encourage the foreigner 
in the interests of the consumer at the expense of native producers 
and merchants. Under Richard II the policy was initiated of build- 
ing up native trade and industry, of developing English shipping, 
and of accumulating treasure in the realm by excess of exports over 
imports, although this often meant higher prices to the consumer. If 
concessions were from time to time made to foreigners, it was only 
to secure some reciprocal advantage. The new policy — money is 
wealth, sell more than you buy to preserve a " balance of trade " 
and so bring treasure into the realm, develop resources at the ex- 
pense of cheapness, aim at power rather than plenty — was called 
" mercantilism," and resembles the modern doctrine of protection. 

Measures to Encourage English Shipping, and to Protect English 
Manufactures. — At the opening of the reign of Henry VII there 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDOR ABSOLUTISM 191 

was great complaint of the decay of English shipping and the lack 
of employment of English mariners. In consequence, the King 
established bounties for large ships, he prohibited foreigners exporting 
wool to the Netherlands, and, in 1489, passed an Act that wines and 
woad from Gascony must be imported in English ships, manned by 
English sailors. Following a protective policy begun by Edward IV, 
Henry VII strove to encourage the manufacture of wool and to develop 
English capital by discouraging the importation of luxuries and the 
export of gold. Parliament was directed to set the people on " works 
and handicrafts " in order that " the realm might subsist of itself " 
and so stop the draining of. " our treasure for manufacturers." And 
in the nineteenth year of the reign, an Act was passed prohibiting the 
import of silks wrought in forms that the English were beginning to 
manufacture. As the sixteenth century advanced, English artisans 
made cloth in increasing quantities so that the export of wool de- 
clined while that of cloth took its place. While efforts were thus 
made to encourage English shipping and manufactures, commercial 
treaties were made with various foreign countries. The most im- 
portant of them all was concluded with the Netherlands, in 1496. 
By the " Great Intercourse," or Interciirsus Magnus, the merchants 
of the respective countries were to have the unrestricted right of 
buying and selling at rates of duty which had prevailed when inter- 
course was freest, and, ten years later, Henry secured large concessions 
for the sale of English woolens in those dominions. 

England and the New World. The Cabots. — An outstanding 
result of the discovery of America and the new ocean routes was the 
supremacy of the Atlantic seaboard states over the Italian cities of 
the Mediterranean. England, which emerged supreme over the 
others as a sea power, only slowly secured her position. None of 
the medieval explorers were Englishmen. Norsemen, Spaniards, 
Portuguese, all won distinction before England entered the field. 
The first momentous step was taken when Henry, 5 March, 1495, 
issued a patent to John Cabot and his sons, Venetians residing in 
Bristol, to sail forth in search of a northwest passage and for the 
discovery and annexation of heathen lands. In May, 1497, they 
started on their first voyage. Sailing north so far that they found 
" monstrous great lumps of ice swimming in the sea and continual 
daylight," they reached what was probably the coast of Labrador, 
and brought home " three islanders in skins," whom they presented 
to the King. They made two or three subsequent voyages, ex- 
ploring the coast southward, possibly as far as Florida. Such 
were the beginnings of England's share in the discovery of the 



192 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

north continent of America, a continent which they were after- 
wards to dominate. 

The Literature of the Fifteenth Century and the Introduction of 
Printing into England. — The transitional character of the age is 
manifest in the literature and learning. The foreign wars, the do- 
mestic turmoil, and the absorption of the best minds in material 
pursuits were unfavorable to literary or scholarly productiveness. 
The " one great oasis " in this period so barren of literary creation 
is Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d' Arthur, finished in 1470. Relating 
in simple but graphic language the stirring adventures of King Arthur 
and his Knights of the Round Table, scholars value it as one of the 
earliest examples of English prose, while the stories which it preserves 
have been a source of delight for those who prize beautiful lessons of 
knightly courtesy and daring. In this period, too, the English lan- 
guage and literature are immeasurably indebted to William Caxton, 
who, by introducing the art of printing into England, in 1476, first 
brought books within the reach of the common man. For two cen- 
turies, already, a primitive form of printing had been in use : letters 
were cut on a block of wood, inked, and stamped on paper ; but it 
was only with the invention of movable type that the real revolution 
began. The inventor was probably John Gutenberg (1400-1481) of 
Mainz. Caxton learned the art at Cologne, practiced it at Bruges, 
and brought it thence to his native land. Not only did he print 
existing English poetry of value, as well as chronicles and tales, all 
with careful revision,. but he also rendered selected classical works 
into English. Building on Chaucer in his revisions and translations, 
he made the dialect of London the literary language of all England, 
and, by reducing it to print, gave it not only extent of circulation, 
but also permanence. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. H. A. L. Fisher, Political History of England, 148 5-1 547 
(1906), a scholarly work brilliantly written. A. D. Innes, England under 
the Tudor s (1905). Cambridge Modern History (vol. I, 1903), a coopera- 
tive work in 14 vols, containing a number of chapters on England ; extensive 
lists of authorities, without comments, are to be found at the end of 
each volume. 

Legal and Constitutional. In addition to the general works already 
cited, Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance (1901), reprinted in 
Essays in Anglo-American Legal History (3 vols., 1907-1909). Henry 
Hallam, English Constitutional History (3 vols., 1855), dry and to some de- 
gree out of date, but still indispensable for the period from 1485 to '1760. 



THE BEGINNING OF THE TUDOR ABSOLUTISM 193 

Biography. Francis Bacon, History of the Reign of Henry VII (162 1, 
in Spedding and Ellis' edition of Bacon's works, vol. VI, 1861). James 
Gairdner. Henry VII (1889) and Gladys Temperley, Henry VII (191 5) are 
good brief accounts. 

Conditions, social, industrial, and intellectual. In addition to the 
works already cited: W. Denton, Life in the Fifteenth Century (1888); 
Alice S. Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century (2 vols., 1894) ; A. Abram, 
English Life and Manners in the Middle Ages (1913) ; Fisher, ch. VI, "The 
Dawn of the English Renaissance"; Innes, ch. IV; Vickers, Humphrey, 
Duke of Gloucester, chs. IX, X, "The Italian Renaissance in England" 
and "The Revolution in English Scholarship"; Creighton, "The Early 
Renaissance in England" in Historical Lectures, pp. 188-212 ; F. A. Gasquet, 
The Eve of the Reformation in England (1899) from the Roman Catholic 
standpoint ; Stubbs, Lectures on Mediaeval and Modern History, two schol- 
arly and brilliant lectures, XV, XVI, on "The Reign of Henry VII"; F. 
Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers, 1877. 

Selections from the sources, Adams and Stephens, nos. 134-140. 



CHAPTER XIX 

THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII (1509-1529). THE EVE OF 
THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 

The New Reign and the Young Henry VIII. — Henry, eighth of 
the name, became King, 22 April, 1509. The new reign began with 
the happiest prospects. Crabbed age had made way to youthful 
ardor and enthusiasm ; for the new ruler was barely eighteen. Enter- 
ing into the reward of the labors of the " Solomon of England," his 
sagacious and thrifty father, he soon exhausted the treasure which 
he inherited ; but without an independent revenue, without a standing 
army, and without openly violating constitutional forms, he was able 
to work his will, to wrench the Church of England free from the juris- 
diction of the Pope, and to end his days as an absolute King. How- 
ever, many years were to elapse before Henry's subjects were to 
realize what a masterful man he was. The young Henry was de- 
scribed as the handsomest prince in Europe ; tall and well propor- 
tioned, with a fair, ruddy complexion, he was in his youth a striking 
contrast to the huge, bloated figure of mature manhood. While he 
excelled in strength and athletic skill and was a tireless hunter, he 
was also, like most of his family, both accomplished and learned. 
Not only was he an accomplished musician and linguist, but he gave 
much attention to theology as well, and his Defense of the Seven 
Sacraments, published against Luther in 1521 — a work in which, 
perhaps, he was not unassisted — earned for English Sovereigns the 
title "Defender of the Faith," which they still bear. Contempo- 
raries were loud in their praise of his beauty and talents, and in their 
hopefulness of what he was to achieve ; yet while the heavens might 
" laugh," the " earth exult," and " all things be full of mirth at his 
coming," more and more the mailed fist was to appear from under the 
velvet glove. Three or four summary executions early in the reign 
only faintly foreshadow his later ruthlessness. Until his passions 
and his political ambitions called forth his strength, Henry occupied 
himself mainly with masks and revels, tine clothes, dancing and 

194 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII 195 

music, hunting and birding, and the excitement of war and diplo- 
macy. , 

Henry's Plunge into Foreign Struggles (1511-1514). — The leading 
Continental Sovereigns with whom Henry VIII had to cope at the 
beginning of the reign were all men of years and experience. He 
made his appearance in European politics by joining, in 15 11, the 
Holy League, formed by Pope Julius II for the purpose of expelling 
the French King from Italy, where he had obtained a dangerous 
ascendancy. Ferdinand of Spain, the astutest of the papal allies, 
determined to use the high-spirited Henry for his own designs. So, 
when an English force was sent, in May, 15 12, to cooperate with a 
Spanish force in an attack on Guyenne, he contributed no contin- 
gents, but, instead, profited by the diversion against the French to 
conquer the little kingdom of Navarre, which he had long coveted. 
Thus deserted, the English expedition, in spite of gallant work on 
the part of the fleet, accomplished nothing. Then, anxious to restore 
the English prestige, Henry led in person a large army across to Calais, 
in 1 5 13. Proceeding with all the pomp and magnificence of a royal 
progress, he overcame the French forces, 16 August, at Guinegate in 
the " Battle of the Spurs," so called from the panic of the enemies , 
horsemen, and followed up his victory by the capture of two fortified 
towns. Meanwhile, taking advantage of Henry's absence, the 
Scotch King, James IV, yielded to the entreaties of Louis XII and 
led an army across the Border in August. Queen Catharine promptly 
hurried levies to the threatened district and placed the Earl of Surrey 
in command, who, 9 September, 15 13, overcame the invaders at 
Flodden, where James fell, " riddled with arrows and gashed with 
bows and bills." Before his return, in October, 1513, Henry con- 
cluded a treaty with Ferdinand and Maximilian, Emperor of the 
Germans, for a joint invasion of France the following year. Dis- 
covering, however, that, all the while, they were treacherously making 
their own terms with their professed enemy Louis, he declared that 
he saw no faith in the world, and, in August, 15 14, made a treaty of 
his own with France. 

The Rise of Thomas Wolsey. — Such success as Henry's arms and 
diplomacy achieved at this time was due chiefly to one remarkable 
man, Thomas Wolsey, who was destined, for over a decade, to shape 
England's policy abroad, and to be the leading figure in Church and 
State at home. Educated for the Church, he entered the royal 
service in 1506, forging rapidly to the front. The work of equipping 
the expeditions of 15 12-15 13 an d the negotiation of the French 
peace of 15 14 fell to him. All sorts of offices and honors were showered 



196 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

upon him. In 15 14 he was made Archbishop of York, in 1515, Car- 
dinal and Lord Chancellor, and, in 15 18, Papal Legate, though these 
were only the most important of the many positions, ecclesiastical 
and secular, which he held. His income was enormous and came 
from manifold sources; he received, for example, revenues from 
France, Spain, and the Emperor, all of whom sought his favor. The 
" proudest prelate that ever breathed," he lived in magnificent state, 
with a household of five hundred men, keeping a bountiful table for 
rich and poor alike, and also dispensing charity at his gates. During 
the period of his ascendancy Henry gave him a free hand in all matters 
domestic and foreign ; and he was so " lofty and sour " to those who 
withstood his will that ambassadors preferred to neglect the King 
rather than risk the Cardinal's resentment. Very generally feared 
or envied, there were few who loved him. Although he did some- 
thing to reform the Church by suppressing a few of the smaller monas- 
teries, his aim was primarily to get money for his educational founda- 
tions — Cardinal's College (later Christ Church) at Oxford, and a 
projected grammar school at Ipswich, his native town. Indeed, his 
life was quite opposite to that of a truly spiritual pastor ; he was lax 
in visiting his dioceses, he did not preach, he rarely said mass, and 
he was a pluralist to an extent unusual even for those times. Yet, 
in spite of his faults, his great qualities were preeminent: he was 
thoroughly devoted to his master's interests; he was just, except 
where his personal enemies were concerned, and a good friend to the 
poor. While his abilities were vast and his industry prodigious, he 
devoted them to administration and particularly to diplomacy, 
aspiring to be arbitrator of Christendom. 

The Struggle for the Imperial Crown (1519). — Louis XII was 
succeeded, in 151 5, by Francis I. In January of the following year 
the veteran intriguer Ferdinand died, and the crown of Spain passed 
to his grandson Charles, ruler of the Netherlands and prospective 
heir to the Hapsburg dominions. After three years of negotiations, 
Wolsey succeeded, 15 18, in including England, France, Spain, the 
Empire, and the Papacy in a treaty of universal peace, which was 
scarcely completed when an event occurred which set the three great 
Powers by the ears. On 19 January, 15 19, the gay, needy, and 
erratic old adventurer, Emperor Maximilian, died. Francis set him- 
self up as a candidate and showered gold upon the electors, and 
Henry, too, made his bid. The prize, however, went to Charles of 
Spain, who was elected 28 June, 1519. This youth of nineteen — at 
once irresolute and obstinate, and the champion of the Church — 
was already possessed of vast territories, including Spain, the Austrian 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII x 197 

dominions, and the Netherlands, the heritage of a succession of 
notable marriages, 1 while his recent election placed him at the head 
of the mass of states which made up the German Empire and gave 
him a claim on Milan, as a fief of that Empire. 

The Alliance of Henry and Wolsey with the Emperor (1520). — 
For over a quarter of a century Charles V and Francis I struggled 
for the balance of power in western Europe. At first, various reasons 
inclined England to support the Emperor. As ruler of the Nether- 
lands he controlled the chief market for English wool, he was the 
nephew of Catharine, consort of Henry VIII, and, finally, because, 
as Emperor, he had a voice in swaying papal elections. Wclsey was 
anxious to be Pope, possibly as a means of reforming the existing 
Church system, but more especially to strengthen the hands of him- 
self and his master in foreign affairs. In order to attach Henry 
more closely to France, Francis I met him, 7 June, 1520, in a valley 
not far from Calais, the celebrated Field of Cloth of Gold, where for 
nearly three weeks the two Monarchs and their wives held interviews, 
feasts, jousts, and attended solemn masses. But no substantial 
result followed this belated outburst of medieval splendor. Before 
crossing the Channel, Henry had received a visit from Charles V, 
and the two Sovereigns had arranged a treaty of alliance which was 
concluded in later interviews after the magnificent fooling at the 
Field of Cloth of Gold was over. When the inevitable war broke out 
between Francis and Charles, England was on the side of the Emperor. 
Wolsey 's idea was to crush France, but did he not foresee that an all- 
powerful Emperor would be as dangerous to the balance of power as 
an all-powerful King of France? Moreover, when, in 1521, Leo X 
died, the Cardinals, contrary to promises which the Emperor had 
made, chose, not Wolsey, but Charles's old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht. 
Nevertheless, in consequence of another Imperial visit, June, 1522, 
Henry sent a new expedition to ravage the French coast, the only 
result of which was a further drain on English men and money and 
increased loss and suffering for the French peasantry. 

The Triumph of the Emperor. English Resistance to Taxation. — 
Need of supply forced Henry, for the first time in eight years, to call 
a Parliament, which met 15 April, 1523, with Sir Thomas More as 

1 In 1477 his grandfather Maximilian, then heir to the Austrian possessions, had 
married Mary, daughter of Charles the Bold, from whom she inherited the Nether- 
lands and a claim on Burgundy. Philip the Fair, son of Maximilian and Mary, 
married the mad Joanna of Castile, heiress to the Spanish lands of Ferdinand and 
Isabella and to claims on Naples and Sicily. Charles was born of the marriage 
of Philip and Joanna. 



198 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Speaker of the Commons, and reluctantly granted about half the 
subsidies which Wolsey ardently demanded. With this partial grant 
supplemented by a tax from the clergy, Henry and the Cardinal 
undertook to carry out a scheme arranged with the Emperor and the 
Duke of Bourbon for the dismemberment of the French kingdom of 
Francis. An English expedition, sent out under the Duke of Suffolk 
in the late summer of 1523, was unable to accomplish anything, be- 
cause the Emperor, opposing Henry's plan of campaign, failed to 
furnish the requisite support. Moreover, on the death of Adrian VI, 
14 September, Charles again played Wolsey false by throwing the 
weight of his influence to elect a reserved, irresolute Italian whom 
he thought would do his bidding. However, the new Pope, Clem- 
ent VII, formed a league with Francis I, with Venice and other 
Italian states, to drive the Emperor, who had recently recovered 
Milan, out of northern Italy. When the Imperial army, defeating 
the French, 24 February, 1525, had taken Francis prisoner, 
Henry VIII, in spite of recent rebuffs, at once prepared to join 
Charles V in dismembering the realms of the vanquished. To supply 
the necessary funds, Wolsey devised the " amicable loan " of a sixth 
from lay and a fourth from ecclesiastical property, which was in 
reality a tax, for it was assessed by royal commissioners, and men 
were to be forced to pay. Resistance was stubborn and widespread. 
In Suffolk an armed revolt was only narrowly averted, while in London, 
where a benevolence was demanded in place of the loan, the Lord 
Mayor declared that it would cost him his life if he agreed to such a 
grant, In the face of such manifestations, Henry gave way, and 
Wolsey, who had only acted by his master's command, bore the brunt 
of the unpopularity. In August a truce was arranged with France 
and it was nearly twenty years before another English army crossed 
the Channel. Francis, having gained his freedom by agreeing to 
terms, which he forthwith repudiated, Clement VII formed with 
him, and various of the Italian states, a new Holy League ; Charles's 
response was to send, May, 1527, an Imperial army into Italy, which 
seized and sacked Rome and besieged the Pope in the Castle of St. 
Angelo. 

The Preparation for the Separation from Rome. — Such was the 
situation at the moment when Henry had come to the point of seek- 
ing papal aid in nullifying his marriage with Catharine. Since she 
was the aunt of Charles V, the timid, shifty Clement VII was in no 
position, even had he wished, to grant Henry's request. As a result, 
Henry, after futile negotiations, threw off the papal authority and 
made himself head of the English Church. This he was strong 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII 1 99 

enough to do because of the weakness of the nobles and clergy, and 
because of the support of the middle classes, whose material interests 
were dependent on royal favor. Moreover, many forces were work- 
ing against the old ecclesiastical order : a new intellectual spirit was 
making its way into the country, bound to shake the bases of authori- 
tative tradition ; also, there was much in the existing Church system 
open to attack — its vast possessions, burdensome taxation, and 
extensive jurisdiction. Even though the mass of the common people 
were still under the authority of their priests, and had shown no open 
hostility to ancient beliefs and practices, nevertheless, the Lollard 
tradition had not wholly died out, while their social and industrial 
condition filled them with a real if vague discontent. So they were 
ready to welcome any change that promised relief. 

The New Learning, or Renascence. — Already that wonderful 
intellectual and spiritual movement known as the " Renascence " 
had penetrated into England. Meaning literally " re -birth,"" the 
term is applied to the revival of classical learning which began in 
Italy in the fourteenth century. All through the Middle Ages clerks 
had studied certain Latin authors 1 simply as a means of training in 
language and argumentation, not for any human or literary interest ; 
but the men of the Renascence began to study them for their own 
sake, and the Greek authors as well. Receiving a great impetus from 
the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, which resulted 
in driving Greek scholars westward, chiefly to Italy, bringing their 
manuscripts with them and spreading their learning, there arose a 
new spirit, a new attitude toward life. The medieval man, at least 
in ideal, was mainly concerned with God and his Church and the 
hereafter. The prevailing principle was received authority, and the 
individual was absorbed into one or more great systems, outside of 
which his thoughts and actions had no play : his theology and philos- 
ophy were fettered by the traditions of the Schoolmen ; his religious 
life was comprehended in the universal Church under the Pope; if 
a monk, he was bound by the rules of his order ; if he tilled the soil, 
he was enchained by the feudal system ; if an artisan, his industrial 
activity was cramped by the gild organization ; and the dominant 
art — church building — was a collective, not an individual art. 
With the Renascence came a revival of interest in this life, with all 
its joy and beauty, for itself alone. A new ideal, fitly called " hu- 
manism," arose. The humanists shook themselves free from medieval 
received authority and the once accepted systems ; they were impelled 
by a novel spirit of curiosity, by an irresistible impulse to assert their 

1 And Aristotle in Latin translations. 



200 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

individualism. As time went, on this humanism, this curiosity, this 
individualism manifested itself in all fields in literature, in art, in 
science, in religion. 

Its Manifestations and Achievements. — Boccaccio, Chaucer, and 
those who followed told tales of real men and women. Painters and 
sculptors arose who drew and fashioned beautiful human forms. 
Columbus, Cabot, and Vasco da Gama sought new trade routes to 
enrich the world, and discovered and explored unknown seas and 
unknown lands. The Prussian Copernicus 'overthrew the old Ptole- 
maic astronomy, and made it known that the earth was not the center 
of the universe but only a member of a vast planetary system that 
revolved about the sun. Finally, the New Learning furnished Mar- 
tin Luther with the means by which he could put the papal claims to 
the test of Scripture and the practices of the primitive Church, though 
in Italy the attitude of the New Learning to the Church was generally 
contemptuous and indifferent rather than hostile; for the Italian 
humanists were pagans, unreligious rather than irreligious, and more- 
over, their hands were stayed from attacking the existing system 
because most of them drew their living from ecclesiastical revenues. 

England and the Oxford Reformers. — As in most northern lands, 
English interest in the New Learning was primarily religious. Far 
removed from the center of things, torn by wars, and occupied mainly 
with material progress, Englishmen paid scanty attention to the 
Italian Renascence before the advent of the Tudors. Chaucer had 
visited Italy manifesting the result in much of his later work; a 
few of the fifteenth-century nobles were patrons of the new learning, 
chief among them Humphrey of Gloucester; also, some lesser men 
went to Italy and an occasional Italian came to England ; but the 
real influence began with the Oxford Reformers, who took up the 
study of Greek mainly as a means of becoming more closely acquainted 
with the origins of the Church and the sources of the Christian faith. 
William Selling, who went to Italy and brought back Greek manu- 
cripts, was the pioneer, while Greek lectures at Oxford were initiated 
by William Grocyn (1446-15 19). An outstanding figure among the 
Oxford group was John Colet (1466-15 19), who later became Dean of 
St. Paul's. Applying himself to study for the purpose of under- 
standing the Bible better, he devoted the whole force of his fervid 
personality to raising the standards of scholarship and life of his time, 
and was unsparing in his denunciation of the worldliness and greed 
of the Church and clergy. 

Erasmus (1465-1536). — Erasmus, who visited England for the 
first time in 1498-1499, was unstinted in his praises of these men. 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII 201 

This alert little Dutchman, rebelling from the bleak and narrow 
monastic training of his youth, turned into a wandering scholar, 
became the most learned man of his time, and labored for the reforma- 
tion of society, religious, moral and intellectual. He attacked the 
monks and he attacked the scholastic theologians, whom he measured 
by the standards of the Bible and of rational thinking and learning ; 
he fought for the abolition of glaring abuses and superstitious observ- 
ances, for the limitation of papal power by general councils, and, 
above all, he worked for the wider diffusion of education. His Praise 
of Folly, 15 1 1, is a famous satire in which he scored the men and tend- 
encies of the age ; yet Erasmus was no mere scolder. He wrote a 
stirring devotional manual and he prepared an edition of the New 
Testament in Greek with a Latin translation which was used as a 
source for later English and German renderings of the Gospel. A 
curious combination of boldness in speech and of timidity in action, 
he aimed rather at abuses in the administration of the Church than 
at the system, thus forging weapons for more uncompromising fighters ; 
in other words : " He laid the egg of the Reformation and Luther 
hatched it." 

Thomas More (1478-1535) and His Utopia. — Doubtless the most 
charming of the Oxford set was Thomas More, whose piety was 
brightened by his warm affections and his cheerful wit. The pupil of 
Grocyn and the friend of Colet and Erasmus, he thought of studying 
for the priesthood, but finally chose the law and public life, and, while 
he always courageously opposed absolutism, was for many years a 
trusted and intimate associate of his Sovereign. In many respects a 
lofty-minded reformer, Protestantism and extreme anti-papal meas- 
ures appalled him ; he became a persecutor of heretics, and finally 
lost his life for opposing Henry's will. More's greatest work is his 
Utopia 1 which appeared in Latin, in 1516. In the form of a satire, 
it exposes the evils of contemporary England with an unsparing hand, 
contrasting conditions with those in an ideal community, Utopia, 
where all goods were in common, where every one was obliged to work, 
and where the welfare of the community was supreme over that of the 
individual. A public system of education was provided for all, work 
being limited to six hours a day to leave time for study. Crime was 
punished for prevention and reformation rather than for retribution, 
there were to be no wars except for self-defense, and the Utopian 
sovereign was " removable on mere suspicion of a design to enslave 
his people." Toleration was provided for every form of belief and 
worship; there was a common public worship in which all partici- 
1 Meaning, literally, "no place." 



202 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

pated, though each family was allowed to have its own private form 
as well — an ideal combination of religious unity and liberty of 
conscience, which proved impossible for a man of More's intense 
nature in the unsettled times which followed. 

Patrons of the New Learning. Its Early Conservatism. — Chief 
among the patrons of the New Learning in high places was the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, whose house was freely open to scholars and 
his purse to the needy among them. Wolsey, so far as his absorbing 
administrative duties would permit, was interested in the movement, 
while Henry showed his zeal for scholarship by assembling many of 
the Oxford set about him, employing his intervals of leisure in reading 
and scholastic disputation, which latter, according to Erasmus, he 
conducted " with remarkable courtesy and unruffled temper." As 
yet, however, the New Learning was confined to a small circle. The 
attitude of the nobility was doubtless voiced by one of its members 
who declared : " By the body of God I would sooner have my son 
hanged than a bookworm. It is a gentleman's calling to be able to 
blow the horn to hunt and to hawk. He should leave learning to the 
clod-hoppers." Moreover, the Oxford Reformers were essentially 
religious, and, however vigorously they might tilt against its abuses, 
they were all sincerely attached to the Church, which they desired 
to restore to its primitive purity ; nevertheless, the studies which they 
fostered were bound to lead to a probing of the foundations on which 
the old established order rested. In 15 17 Martin Luther struck the 
first mortal blow at the dominant system by denying the papal power 
to remit sin for money payments. Very soon he developed his revolu- 
tionary view of justification by faith, according to which the salva- 
tion of the individual depends upon his own attitude to God and not 
on works prescribed by the Church, and began for the German people 
his remarkable translation of the Bible into their native tongue. Swit- 
zerland, too, had a reformer in the person of Zwingli. Lutheran and 
Zwinglian tracts were launched into England, though for a long time 
their effect was slight. Henry himself was the soul of orthodoxy, and, 
until his purposes were crossed, a stanch supporter of the Papacy. 

The Origin of the "Divorce." 1 — In 1527 the question of Henry's 
" divorce " began to be openly discussed. Over twenty years 
previously when Julius II issued the dispensation authorizing the 
Prince's marriage with the widow of his deceased brother Arthur, 
some doubt was expressed as to whether the Pope was not exceeding 
his powers. Nevertheless, the young King married Catharine ; and 

1 Although ordinarily referred to as a divorce, what was really sought was a 
ruling that the marriage had been invalid from the beginning. 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY Vin 203 

apparently they lived happily together for some years. Although 
there was a rumor that Henry, some years earlier, intended to break 
with Catharine and marry again, apparently he did not take up the 
project seriously till after 1520. Of their several children, only one, 
the Princess Mary, survived, and the time had come when there was 
little hope that Catharine would bear any more. However, even yet 
the crisis was slow in developing. 

Reasons for the "Divorce." — The triumph of the Imperial arms 
in Italy, in 1527, convinced France and England that they could not 
be too closely united. So negotiations were undertaken to marry the 
Princess Mary to a French prince, during which queries were raised 
as to his daughter's legitimacy that, according to Henry, strengthened 
doubts he himself had long entertained as to the validity of his marriage. 
Most likely it was the need for a male heir which really set the King's 
thoughts working in this direction. One pretext for excluding the 
Yorkists had been the fact of their descent through the female line, 
while the efforts of Matilda, daughter of Henry I, the only woman since 
the Conquest to claim the Crown, had desolated England with nine- 
teen years of anarchy. It is barely possible, too, that Henry may 
have persuaded himself that Providence, in withholding the male 
heir so essential to the dynasty and the State, was pointing a warning 
against the sinfulness of his uncanonical marriage. Before long he 
fell violently in love with Anne Boleyn, a bright-eyed girl, who came 
to court in 1522. Just when he determined to marry her is uncertain, 
though it is most likely that it was after he determined to break with 
Catharine and that his passion for Anne rather strengthened his de- 
termination than caused it. 

The Opening of the Proceedings (1527), and the Trial of Queen 
Catharine (1529). — At any rate, in May, 1527, Wolsey, after an under- 
standing with the King, summoned him to appear before his legatine 
court to answer to a charge of living in pretended marriage with his 
late brother's wife. Divining from Catharine's stiff and obstinate 
attitude that she would most certainly lodge an appeal, the Cardinal 
speedily referred to the Pope for authority, thinking it better to act 
with papal sanction forthwith. And, realizing that his very existence 
was at stake, he strove with might and main to secure the divorce, 
though his plan was that Henry should marry, not Anne, but a daugh- 
ter of Louis XII. Henry himself, without consulting Wolsey, sent an 
agent cf his own to procure from the Holy See a nullification of his 
marriage and a dispensation to marry Anne. After he was granted 
a document which proved to be worthless he turned again to the Car- 
dinal, and in February, 1528, they sent new agents to Rome, who in- 



204 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

duced the Pope to intrust Wolsey and Cardinal Campeggio with lega- 
tine powers to try the case in England. But, fearing the Emperor 
and having no inclination to declare invalid the act of a predecessor, 
he instructed Campeggio to try to divert the King from his purpose, 
and, failing in that, to urge the Queen to enter a nunnery. Only as 
a last resort was he to allow the trial to proceed. At the same time 
Clement sent assurances to Charles V that nothing would be done to 
the detriment of Catharine and that the whole case would finally be re- 
ferred to Rome. Campeggio traveled so slowly that he only arrived 
in England in October, 1528. A winter of negotiations and wrangling 
only proved that neither Henry nor Catharine would give way an inch, 
consequently Campeggio had to consent to a trial. The court was 
opened 31 May, 1529, though the King and Queen were not cited to 
appear till 18 June. Whatever the royal motives or State necessities 
may have been, Catharine's situation was pitiful, and she showed the 
courage of a noble and injured woman. Denying her feeling protests 
against the competence of the Court, the Legates continued the case 
without her ; but, on 23 July, after a series of fruitless sessions, Cam- 
peggio, using as a pretext the custom of the Roman Curia, which did 
not sit during the hot Italian summer, adjourned the hearings till 
1 October. By that time Clement VII had called the case to Rome, 
and all hope of securing his sanction was passed. 

The Fall of Wolsey (1529). — Henry now saw that the only way to 
gain his end was to settle the matter in his own courts. Moreover, 
he determined to assume control of the State himself. So Wolsey, 
who had ruled as more than King and who had advised the futile appeal 
to the Pope, was sacrificed to the royal wrath and to the new royal 
policy. He fell amidst the rejoicings of all classes. The courtiers 
were jealous of the man whom the King had delighted to honor ; the 
monks were embittered by his attacks on their establishments ; while 
the secular clergy and the laity grudged the taxes which his public 
policy involved, and the trading classes were soured by his recent 
French alliance which threatened their trade in the Netherlands. 

His Death (1530). — Early in October, 1529, the Cardinal was charged 
with praemunire, under the old Statutes of 1353 and 1393, on the 
ground that he had exercised legatine powers contrary to law, quite 
regardless of the fact that he had done this not only with the King's 
knowledge and consent, but in attempt to further the royal interests. 
The Great Seal was taken from him and given to Sir Thomas More, 
while Wolsey himself was ordered to retire to a manor belonging to 
Winchester, one of his various bishoprics. Offices, lands, practically 
everything that had once been his own were taken from him. Subse- 



THE FIRST YEARS OF HENRY VIII 205 

quently, however, the Archbishopric of York, together with a small 
sum of money, was restored and he was ordered to his archdiocese to 
get him out of the way. Early in November, 1530, doubtless because 
of his growing popularity, he was arrested on a charge of treasonable 
correspondence with the French ambassador, though he had merely 
sought the latter' s aid in trying to get Francis I to intercede for him 
with Henry. On his way to London, Wolsey, much broken in health 
since his disgrace, was taken with his final illness, and had to stop at 
Leicester Abbey. " I am come to leave my bones among you," he 
said to the Abbot, and there he died on St. Andrew's Eve, 29 November. 
With a small army and navy, mainly by his diplomatic skill, he had 
gained for England a leading place in the councils of Europe. It may 
be questioned whether the country was the gainer; for it took re- 
sources and energy which might better have been devoted to pressing 
problems at home ; moreover, the Emperor made use of the English 
hostility to France to establish his own supremacy on the Continent, 
though, sometime before that happened, Wolsey had seen the wisdom 
of shifting over to the side of France, and was prevented by Henry 
from breaking off the Imperial alliance until it was too late. What- 
ever his achievements, in all that he undertook, Wolsey's devotion to 
Henry's interests can scarcely be questioned. " If I had served my 
God," he said as he lay dying, " as diligently as I have done the King, 
He would not have given me over in my gray hairs." 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Fisher ; Innes ; and Cambridge Modern History, II. John 
Lingard, History of England (1st ed., 1819-1830, reprint of 1902, 10 vols.), 
the general authority on the Reformation from the moderate Roman 
Catholic point of view. J. S. Brewer, The Reign of Henry VIII (2 vols., 
1884) reprinted from his introductions to the Letters and Papers of the Reign 
of Henry VIII. Creighton, Cardinal Wolsey (1888), is a good brief account 
of this part of the reign, but overfavorable to Wolsey. G. Cavendish's 
Life (written in 1557, first published in 181 5 and available in many editions), 
is a beautiful tribute by a faithful follower. E. L. Taunton, Thomas Wolsey, 
Legate and Reformer (1902), is an estimate mainly of Wolsey's ecclesiastical 
work from the Roman Catholic standpoint. A. F. Pollard, Henry VIII 
(1905), is the most recent and scholarly biography, rather favorable to 
Henry. 



CHAPTER XX 
HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME (1529-1547) 

Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) and Thomas Cromwell (1485-1540). 

— Although Henry appointed More Chancellor he made use of two 
other men as his chief councilors. Thomas Cranmer was a young 
Cambridge divine who gained the royal ear by his suggestion that the 
question of the validity of the marriage might be submitted to the 
learned men of the universities of Europe, and that, if they decided 
against it, the case might be settled in the King's own courts. To 
Cranmer, who was taken into the royal service and rose to be Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, we owe the lofty and beautiful language of the 
Book of Common Prayer, and he had a large share in shaping the 
articles of faith for the Church of England, though he was too gentle a 
soul to fill the duties of his high office with vigor and independence, 
especially under a master so self-willed as Henry VIII. Thomas 
Cromwell, who for ten years acted as Henry's right-hand man, sug- 
gested most of the fertile expedients for increasing the royal power and 
swelling the royal revenue. After spending his early years as a soldier 
and trader in Italy and Flanders, he returned to his native land where 
he set up as a scrivener 1 and merchant. Wolsey, recognizing his abil- 
ity, made him his secretary and chief agent, where he showed himself so 
devoted and capable that Henry shrewdly concluded he would be in- 
valuable in the royal service. Cromwell advised the King to settle the 
divorce in his own courts by another means than that advocated by 
Cranmer, namely, by discarding the authority of the Pope and declaring 
himself supreme head of the Church of England. Rising steadily until 
finally he became Vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs, Cromwell possessed 
remarkable qualities ; he had a wide knowledge of men, extraordinary 
business skill, and was thoroughly unscrupulous. While he took the 
extreme Protestant side, he apparently had no real religious feeling ; 
for he died professing himself a true Catholic. Indispensable as he 
was to the King, he maintained his position only by extreme servility 

1 A combination of lawyer and money lender. 
206 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 207 

and patience under insult, and even knocks on the pate from the royal 
knuckles. 

The Reformation Parliament (1529-1536). — When Clement VII 
revoked the divorce suit to Rome, Henry appealed to English national 
sentiment by calling a Parliament to meet, 3 November, 1529. Com- 
bining force and management, he carried through a series of measures 
which, beginning with a design of forcing the Pope's hand, culminated 
in annihilating his authority in England. The manipulation consisted 
in bringing to expression sentiments against clerical privileges and 
exactions which, hitherto, had not been widely or openly voiced. The 
work of the " Reformation Parliament," extending over seven years, 
is most significant. Beside putting Henry in place of the Pope as head 
of the English Church, it increased vastly the royal powers : it decreed 
the dissolution of the monasteries, which not only greatly augmented 
the royal revenue, but provided resources to bind a large class to the 
royal policy ; it deprived the clergy of independent powers of legisla- 
tion in Convocation, and broke the power of the bishops by making 
them practically nominees of the Crown. Nor was Parliament as 
subservient as it seems at first sight. It indorsed the royal will in 
legislation against the Church and clergy because it suited the interest 
and inclination of the majority ; in more than one case, however, es- 
pecially those touching the pocket of the subject, it stood out against 
the royal dictation. The work of Henry in this Parliament was in- 
directly productive of results far beyond anything he may have con- 
templated; by breaking the spell of the ancient traditional Church 
he started forces of opposition, which, not content with mere separation 
from Rome, came to assert successfully the principle that the Reforma- 
tion should be moral and religious as well as political, and that extremer 
forms of Protestantism than that provided in the Church established 
by law should receive recognition. 

Parliament Storms the Outworks (1529). — In the very first session, 
as the result of an understanding by which the King and Cromwell 
agreed to help the laity against the clergy in return for parliamentary 
aid against the Pope, bills were passed restricting excessive fees and 
curtailing the secular pursuits of priests and monks. The clerical 
outworks were thus successfully stormed. Yet Henry continued to 
pose as the orthodox Defender of the Faith. Heretics were compelled 
to abjure, while those who refused were burned, or hanged in chains. 

The Universities and Convocation. Following Cranmer's sugges- 
tion, the " King's matter " was referred to the universities. The 
opinions returned had little to do with the merits of the case ; it re- 
quired manipulation to secure a scant majority at Oxford and Cam- 



2o8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

bridge, while, on the Continent, decisions were determined by the 
influence which Henry and Francis or Charles V and the Pope 
were able to exert. At the meeting of Convocation, in 1531, -Henry 
threatened the whole body of the clergy with the penalties of prae- 
munire for having submitted to Wolsey's legatine jurisdiction, so, 
as the price for pardon from forfeiture and imprisonment, they were 
obliged to grant him £118,000 and to acknowledge him as their Su- 
preme Head, " so far as the law of Christ allows." In 1532 Convoca- 
tion was forced a step further, and, by the " submission of the clergy " 
agreed to make no laws without royal consent, and to submit the exist- 
ing ecclesiastical laws to a committee of clergy and laity for revision. 
This was too much for Sir Thomas More, who resigned the Chancellor- 
ship the next day. 

Anti-Papal Legislation and the "Divorce" of Catharine (1533). — 
On 25 January, 1533, Henry was secretly married to Anne Boleyn, and, 
in February, he appointed Cranmer to the Archbishopric of Canter- 
bury — recently fallen vacant — with the aim of employing the new 
Primate to declare against the validity of his first marriage and for the 
legality of his second. This done, he strengthened his hand by various 
high-handed enactments. By the Act of Appeals, Parliament pro- 
vided that all spiritual cases should be finally determined within the 
King's jurisdiction and not elsewhere, while Convocation was forced 
to declare that Henry's marriage with Catharine was against divine 
law. Thus fortified, Cranmer, in a court held in Dunstable, at which 
Catharine refused to appear, pronounced the final sentence which de- 
prived her of her position as Queen, 23 April, 1533. Her rival Anne 
was crowned 1 June ; in September a child was born, though, to the 
infinite disappointment of the King, it proved to be a girl. The Pope's 
reply to the new marriage was to draw up a bull of excommunication 
against the royal couple, 1 and to issue a formal decision that Catharine 
was Henry's lawful wife and that he should take her back. But, some- 
time before, Henry had declared that if the Pope launched ten thousand 
excommunications, he would not care a straw for them. 

The Memorable Sessions of 1534. — In the year 1534 Parliament 
held two sessions and passed a series of Acts by which the authority 
of the Pope in England was completely abolished and that of the King 
set up in its place. During the first session, ending 30 March, an Act 
providing that henceforth no more annates, or first fruits, should be 
paid to the Pope, originally passed in 1532, was confirmed and extended, 
and all other payments to Rome, including Peter's Pence, were for- 

1 The excommunication was drawn up 11 July, 1533, but was not published 
till December, 1538. A bull of deposition drawn up in 1535 was never published. 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 209 

bidden. Also, an Act of Succession settled the succession, to the throne 
on the heirs of Henry by Anne Boleyn ; moreover, it was declared high 
treason to slander their marriage, " by writing, print, deed, or act " 
and an oath was imposed on all subjects to observe the whole contents 
of the Statute upon pain of misprision of treason. 1 

Prosecutions and Persecutions in 1534. — During the summer, 
commissioners went about administering the Oath of Succession, and 
many who withstood the royal will paid dearly, even with their lives. 
Some, however, were put to death on other grounds. The first to 
suffer was " the Nun of Kent," a poor hysterical servant girl, who pre- 
tended to foretell the future, and in an evil moment was led to declare 
against Henry's treatment of Catharine, and to prophesy his speedy 
death. A confession of fraud was extorted from her, a Bill of Attain- 
der was drawn up, and 20 April, 1534, she and five companions were 
put to death at Tyburn. Among those who stood out against the 
Oath of Succession were More and Fisher, the saintly Bishop of Roch- 
ester, the latter of whom had already been fined £300 for accepting 
the " Nun's " revelations. Although they were willing to accept the 
line of succession as regulated in the Act, they refused the oath, be- 
cause it repudiated the primacy of the Pope and involved an acknowl- 
edgment that the marriage of Henry and Catharine had been unlaw- 
ful from the first and that the Princess Mary was illegitimate. For 
their refusal both were sent to the Tower. The royal commissioners 
for imposing the oath also busied themselves silencing preachers, both 
papal and Lutheran. While the King's orders were generally obeyed 
by the secular clergy and some of the regular, the friars resisted unan- 
imously, and 17 June, two cartloads were driven to the Tower. The 
refusal of two communities of Observants " offered an excuse for sup- 
pressing the Order throughout England. Their houses were seized 
and such of their members as had not already been imprisoned were 
distributed among various monasteries, loaded in chains, and subjected 
to other harsh treatment. 

Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England (i534-i535)- — 
On 3 November, the Parliament of 1534 reassembled for its second 
session, during which an Act was passed declaring Henry " Supreme 
Head of the Church of England " ; a new Treason Act imposed the 
death penalty on any one who called the King a " heretic, schismatic, 
tyrant, infidel, or usurper " ; and an Act of Attainder was drawn up 
against More and Fisher. Henry, who formally assumed the title 

1 Complicity involving penalties less severe than those visited on the main 
offenders. 

2 They were the Franciscans of the stricter branch. 

p 



210 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of Supreme Head, 15 January, 1535, was now absolute ruler over 
Church as well as State in his own land. 

The Executions of More and Fisher (1535). — The Prior of Charter- 
house, a community of London Carthusians, noted for their sanctity and 
self-denial, had reluctantly accepted the Oath of Succession, but, refus- 
ing a new oath tendered him after the passage of the Act of Supreme 
Head, was ruthlessly executed, 4 May, together with three others. More, 
confronted with the Act of Supreme Head, declined to accept or deny 
it ; for, he declared, it was like a two-edged sword, " if he said it were 
good, he would imperil his soul, if he said contrary to the Statute, it 
was death to the body." Yet he professed himself a faithful subject. 
Although Fisher was old and broken in health the case against him 
was clearer. He had fought Catharine's cause valiantly in the lega- 
tine court ; he would not accept the Act of Supreme Head ; and to 
crown all, the Pope created him a cardinal. Fisher was beheaded, 
22 June, declaring that he died contentedly for the honor of God and 
the Holy See. More, having in a final examination denounced the 
Act of Supreme Head as contrary to the laws of God and the Holy 
Church, and a violation of Magna Carta, perished 6 July. More 
and Fisher died martyrs to their faith, though, in Henry's opin- 
ion, they merited death because they defied his authority, thereby 
threatening the stability of the system he had set up and the unity 
of his Kingdom. The executions which sent a shock through Catholic 
Europe put an end to the last hope of a settlement with the Pope. 

Death of Catharine (8 January, 1536). — Poor Queen Catharine, 
who, since her unmerited disgrace had been living in retirement, was 
finally released by death, 8 January, 1536. It is now believed that 
she died from cancer of the heart, but the event was so welcome to 
Henry that many have suspected that she was poisoned. " God be 
praised ! " cried the King when he heard the news, and the next day 
he appeared at a ball with a white feather in his hat and clad from 
head to foot in festive yellow. 

The Monasteries on the Eve of Their Dissolution. — Having made 
himself supreme head of Church as well as State, Henry's next step 
was to secure resources to maintain his absolutism and to guard against 
a return to the old order by a judicious distribution of bribes. A way 
was discovered in the dissolution of the monasteries, which offered 
the further attraction of crushing a class which contained many op- 
ponents to the royal policy. These were the real reasons for the step, 
suggested, no doubt, by the resourceful' Cromwell, who, 21 January, 
1535, received a commission as Vicar-General and Vicegerent, to hold 
a general ecclesiastical visitation. The King and his supporters rep- 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 211 

resented to Parliament that they were proceeding against the mon- 
asteries because of the " slothful and ungodly lives " led by the in- 
mates. This was largely a pretext, and the charges brought forward to 
support it were doubtless greatly exaggerated. Moreover, the manner 
in which the work was carried out cannot be justified. On the other 
hand, the condition of the monasteries was such as to lend at least a 
color of justice to the movement against them. Formerly they had 
been the pioneers in husbandry and sheep raising, they had served 
as inns for travelers, they had cared for the poor, and had fostered 
learning and education. But they no longer filled the place which 
they had in the past. Their agricultural methods were lax and anti- 
quated, their promiscuous almsgiving tended to nourish poverty 
rather than to check it, and their scholastic and educational system 
was antagonistic to the New Learning. For some time their numbers 
had been steadily falling off, while, as their influence declined, the mer- 
chant and agricultural classes began more and more to hunger after 
their vast wealth, 1 and they had been subjected to intermittent at- 
tacks culminating in Wolsey's suppression of some of the smaller 
monasteries. 

Cromwell's Monastic Visitors (1535-1536). — In July, 1535, visi- 
tors appointed by Cromwell began their rounds. Armed with articles 
of inquiry, they hurried from house to house asking all sorts of ques- 
tions about revenues and debts, about relics, pilgrimages, supersti- 
tions, and immoralities. They were a greedy and unscrupulous set, 
chiefly bent on securing information that would suit their purpose. 
The reports or " comperts " which they sent to the Vicegerent seem 
to have been based upon the scantiest as well as the most partial in- 
vestigation, for they moved with furious haste to prevent the monks 
from disposing of their plate and jewels. Besides the articles of in- 
quiry they carried with them a series of injunctions which they were 
authorized to impose upon the monasteries which they visited. Some 
provided for salutary reforms, while others were obviously designed 
to destroy the communities against which they should be enforced : 
monks were not only to accept, but to teach royal supremacy and re- 
pudiation of papal claims, and they were ordered to spy on and report 
their disobedient superiors, thus subverting all discipline. 

The Act Suppressing the Smaller Monasteries (1536). — When Par- 
liament met, 4 February, 1536, popular feeling in the City was in- 
flamed by means of sermons, caricatures, and pamphlets, while Cran- 

1 The extent of the monastic wealth was doubtless exaggerated. According 
to some accounts it amounted to at least a quarter of that of the realm, but 
more sober and reliable estimates put it at about one tenth. 



212 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

mer proclaimed at Paul's Cross that the destruction of the monasteries 
would relieve the people of a great burden of taxation. After the 
reports of the enormities had been read in Parliament an Act was 
carried suppressing all monastic houses with an income under £200 
a year or with less than twelve inmates. Henry is said to have pressed 
the measure by summoning the Commons and announcing that he 
would have its passage or some of their heads. Not a few of the 
monasteries bore a good repute, yet all too many sorely needed re- 
form ; moreover, there were good economic reasons for suppressing 
or consolidating the smaller and poorer communities, but it seems very 
strange to have drawn the line between virtue and vice at £200 a year 
or at groups of twelve. All together, nearly four hundred monasteries 
were dissolved, some cf their inmates going into larger houses, or re- 
ceiving scanty pensions. 

Execution of Anne Eoleyn (1536). — On 14 April, 1536, the Reforma- 
tion Parliament, after nearly seven years of epoch-making legislation, 
was dissolved. Within a month that " principal nurse of all heresies," 
Anne Boleyn, about which so many of its measures centered, had ceased 
to live. Monstrous charges of infidelity were brought against her, 
which, because of her growing unpopularity and her failure to bring 
forth a male heir, Henry was all too ready to believe. After con- 
demnation by a body of peers summoned by the King, her marriage 
was dissolved by an ecclesiastical court presided over by the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury. She was beheaded 19 May, and on the 30th 
of the same month Henry married Jane Seymour. A week later a 
new Parliament, packed in the King's interest, met, declared Anne's 
daughter illegitimate, and settled the succession upon Henry's issue 
by his new marriage. 

Need for a Doctrinal Settlement. — Religious belief was in a state 

o 

of ferment. An extreme Protestant wing was forming, favored by 
leaders like Cranmer and Bishop Latimer, the greatest preacher of 
his day. Extremists were giving vent to the most extravagant views. 
One said that goods should be in common, another that priests and 
churches were unnecessary, another that the singing the service was 
but, " roaring, howling, whining, juggling," while still another de- 
clared that it was of no more use to pray to the saints than to hurl a 
stone against the wind. On the other hand, the Catholics were raising 
their heads once more. In June a book against the King, entitled 
Liber de Unitatc Ecclesiae, arrived in England, written by Reginald 
Pole — a grandson of the Yorkist Duke of Clarence — who from his re- 
treat in Italy was busy striving to unite the Catholic powers against 
his former Sovereign. 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 213 

The Ten Articles "for Establishing Christian Quietness" (1536). — 
Convocation met 9 June, 1536, where, with a view to establishing 
order, Henry caused a body of articles to be introduced, adopted, and 
imposed on the whole country. Five dealt with matters of faith, 
which, it was stated, were ordained of God, and hence necessary to 
salvation; live dealt with matters instituted by the Church, which 
were to be observed, though not essential to salvation. In the first 
group were all the things contained in the Bible and the Three Creeds 1 ; 
together with three of the seven sacraments : baptism, penance, and 
the Holy Eucharist. 2 Luther's doctrine of justification by faith was 
also included in this first group. Passing to the second group, prayers 
to saints were permitted, though they were not to receive the honor 
due to God ; prayers for departed souls were also retained as a good 
and charitable custom, though the claim of the Church of Rome to 
deliver souls from purgatory was rejected. As a supplement to the 
articles, royal injunctions were issued which suppressed pilgrimages, 
curtailed the excessive number of holy days, and forbade the worship 
of images and relics. Many of the latter were destroyed, partly to 
weaken the hold of the ancient Church over superstitious minds, and 
partly to swell the Crown revenues. However, Henry still aimed to 
preserve the Catholic faith, merely purged of what he regarded as 
glaring immoralities. 3 

The Pilgrimage of Grace and Its Causes (1536). — The recent changes 
produced a serious revolt in the North Country. There the people, 
much under the influence of the priests and nobles, clung to the old 
forms, and their natural hostility to innovations was fanned into flame 
by the dispossessed monks, who wandered about pouring complaints 
into their willing ears. The primary cause of the " Pilgrimage of 
Grace " was religious, but political and social factors contributed to 
make the rising a complex and general manifestation of discontent. 
All classes had grievances. The nobles were jealous of the preference 
given to " base born councilors " like Cromwell. The country gentry 
were especially aggrieved at the dispossession of the monks, to whom 
they were indebted for jovial hospitality and for the education of their 

1 The three fundamental creeds of the Christian Church were the Apostles', 
the Nicene, and the Athanasian. 

2 A sacrament was denned as an outward and visible sign of an inward and 
spiritual grace. The seven which the Roman Catholic Church had adopted were : 
baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, ordination, marriage, and extreme 
unction. 

3 Yet it should be borne in mind that certain superstitions, such as worship 
of images and pilgrimages to shrines, had long been discontinued by many devout 
and orthodox men. 



214 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

children. 1 Many, too, were put to much inconvenience and expense 
by a recent enactment which removed to Westminster certain cases 
which had been formerly tried in the Northern courts. The sparks 
which kindled the name were three commissions sent out to collect a 
subsidy, to supervise the dissolution of the monasteries, and to inquire 
into the character and competence of the parish clergy. All sorts of 
rumors were afloat ; for example, that Cromwell, who was planning an 
excellent system of parish registers, was to impose a tax on baptisms, 
weddings, and funerals. 

The Risings in Lincolnshire and the Northern Counties. — The first 
outbreak occurred at Louth in Lincolnshire, i October, 1536. Thence 
the revolt spread rapidly, many being forced to join by threats of 
hanging, though there was astonishingly little violence. In a petition 
to the King the insurgents demanded that : religious houses be re- 
stored; the subsidy be remitted; the Statute of Uses be repealed; 
and villein blood be removed from the Council. Within a week 40,000 
men had flocked to Lincoln, where they received a reply from the King, 
scornfully repudiating their demands ; and shire levies together with 
a royal army soon dispersed the ill-organized rebel forces. Meanwhile, 
under one Robert Aske, the rising spread through Yorkshire, Cumber- 
land, and Westmoreland, drawing most of the great Northern families 
in its toils. The Duke of Norfolk, sent against the rebels, finding 
himself outnumbered four to one, promised a pardon for all and a free 
Parliament if they would disband. However, Henry found a pretext 
for a bloody reprisal in the unauthorized outbreak of certain rash 
spirits. Aske and the other leaders, in spite of their efforts in subduing 
the new rising, were convicted of treason. Aske was hanged in chains 
at York, and many more were hanged or beheaded. 

The Dissolution of the Larger Monasteries (1536-1539). — A num- 
ber of abbots in the disturbed districts were attainted of treason, and 
their houses were suppressed. The remaining larger monasteries, not 
involved in the rebellion and which the Act of 1536 had spared, Henry 
proceeded to dispose of by exacting what was pleasantly called " vol- 
untary surrenders." Those heads who consented to yield were prom- 
ised pensions and other rewards, while such benefits were withheld 
from those who proved "willful and obstinate." Thus, chiefly during 

1 Another grievance which the gentry felt with particular keenness was the 
Statute of Uses, just passed. In those days the law did not permit the devising 
of lands by will, and it had been the custom to evade this restriction by leaving 
them to the use of another. The Statute of 1536 — aimed against this practice — 
worked a great hardship to the landowner, for it prevented him from providing for 
his younger sons or from raising money by mortgages hitherto secured by the use 
of their lands. 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 215 

the years 1538 and 1539, some hundred and fifty monasteries and fifty 
convents of women were surrendered into the royal hands. Also, 
the various orders of friars, who had thus far escaped the fate of the 
Observants, were now suppressed. Parliament, in 1539, dealt the 
final blow by passing an Act vesting in Henry and his heirs all the mon- 
asteries which had already surrendered or should surrender for the 
future — victims mainly to the royal rapacity and the irresistible 
assertion of supremacy, though the pretext that their inmates led 
" slothful and ungodly lives " was still insisted on. 

The War on Ecclesiastical Frauds and Shrines. — In order to make 
the proceedings acceptable to the people that did not share in the 
spoils, efforts were made to reach out and expose frauds and deceptions. 
A famous opportunity was found in the " Rood of Grace " at Boxley 
in Kent — a figure on a cross which had amazed and edified thousands 
by moving its eyes and lips. It was discovered that the miraculous 
effects were produced by concealed wires, whereupon, although its 
use had apparently been discontinued for some time, the rood was 
taken up to London and exhibited to the populace. During this same 
year, 1538, the papal world was shocked in proportion to the swelling 
of the royal coffers by the spoliation of the shrine of St. Thomas Becket 
at Canterbury, whence wagonloads of gold, silver, and precious stones 
and richly embroidered vestments were carried off, while the bones and 
relics of the Saint were contemptuously burned. 

Results of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. — It has been esti- 
mated that at least 8000 monks and friars were dispossessed, while about 
ten times that number of dependents were affected. Of their property 
the King retained not more than a third. From the balance a very 
small proportion was given in pensions to the dispossessed monks ; 
some was devoted to the erection of new bishoprics, and some was 
applied to coast defenses. The greater part, however, was given or 
sold to certain favored nobles and gentry, whereby some of the best 
known of the present English families started on their upward road. 
The purpose and effect of the King's seeming generosity was to insure 
the permanence of the separation from Rome ; for men gorged with 
Church plunder would never return to the fold. Another result of 
the dissolution was to weaken the spiritual power of the House of 
Lords, since the bishops were no longer reenforced by abbots and priors. 
Finally, the economic and social situation was profoundly affected, 
since a further impulse to enclosures was given, and the State was 
forced to devote immediate attention to education and poor relief. 
Although the monasteries had outlived their usefulness and had 
ceased to make the best use of their resources, the method employed 



2l6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

by Henry and his agents to suppress them was marked by great 
cruelty and injustice and caused much innocent suffering. 

The Translation of the Bible, and the King's Primer. — In spite of 
Henry's attachment to old forms, something was done with his sanction 
toward putting the Bible and portions of the service into English. 
The version of the Scriptures due to Wiclif was not reprinted, for it 
was antiquated in language, it savored of Lollardy, and it was based 
on the Vulgate. William Tyndale of Cambridge was the first to take 
up the work anew. He began with the New Testament, basing his 
translation on the Greek text of Erasmus. Obliged, owing to his 
extreme Protestant views, to leave the country, he finally brought 
his translation to Worms, in 1525 ; whence copies were secretly in- 
troduced into England; but while at work, in the Netherlands, on 
the Old Testament, Tyndale was seized and burned as a heretic. 
After one or two attempts to produce a satisfactory edition, the 
so-called Great Bible, based on a revision of so much of Tyndale's 
translation as had already appeared, was published about 1538, and 
remained the standard work for some years. From the fact that 
Cranmer wrote the prefaces to some of the editions, it frequently bears 
his name. The placing of the Bible before the people in their own 
tongue had a profound effect : it opened to them a wonderful litera- 
ture expressed in language of unequaled beauty and strength, and 
first enabled them to compare the religion founded by Christ and his 
Apostles with that of their own day. The English Book of Common 
Prayer dates from the next reign, though portions of the service were 
translated into English in the time of Henry VIII, notably a manual 
of devotion known as the King's Primer, printed in 1545. 

The Six Articles (1539). — Nevertheless, not only was Henry too 
orthodox and conservative to permit any decided departures toward 
Protestantism, but the extravagance of the extremists served to 
strengthen his antipathy to innovation. This explains the passage, 
in 1539, of an Act for " abolishing diversity of opinion in certain 
articles concerning Christian religion," commonly known as " The 
Six Articles," or " The Whip with Six Strings," which affirmed, among 
other things, that: after consecration of the elements in the Holy 
Eucharist, the bread and wine disappeared and the body and blood 
of Christ entered in their place ; communion in both kinds was not 
essential to salvation ; by the law of God priests could not marry ; and 
monastic vows must be observed. The penalty for denying the first 
article, i.e. the doctrine of transubstantiation, was death by burn- 
ing, with forfeiture of goods. In the case of the others, the penalty 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 217 

for the first offense was forfeiture and imprisonment, for the second 
offense, death as a felon. 

The Fall of Cromwell (1540). — In October, 1537, a male heir, the 
future Edward VI, had been born to Henry, while Jane Seymour's 
death, a few weeks later, left the King free to marry a new wife. His 
position at this time was menaced by plots from within and invasion 
from without. First, he sought to avert the latter danger, which 
came from a combination of Francis I and the Emperor Charles V, 
by negotiating with each Power in turn for a matrimonial alliance ; 
but his failure in each case induced him to listen to Cromwell, who 
advocated a Protestant marriage and a league with the Protestant 
princes. The bride selected was Anne, daughter of the Duke of 
Cleves, and Holbein, dispatched to paint her portrait, at a hint from 
Cromwell, it is said, produced most flattering results. Moreover, the 
Vicegerent and the courtiers sent to arrange the match were lavish in 
praising her charms. Unhappily for all concerned, Henry committed 
himself on these representations and the marriage treaty was signed, 
6 October, 1539. Directly he beheld her — a plain, ungainly 
creature — "he became very sorrowful and amazed," and turned 
away " very sad and pensive." Yet he saw nothing for it except 
to go on with the marriage, and to make matters worse, nothing came 
of the projected alliance. Cromwell, who had already served his 
turn, paid the penalty with his head. He was arrested 10 June, 1540, 
and a Bill of Attainder was framed against him, charging him with 
favoring Protestants, obtaining money by bribery and extortion, 
and usurping royal powers. No doubt all this was true ; but, as 
in the case of Wolsey, his main fault was that, by miscarriage of his 
policy, he had incurred the royal displeasure. He was executed 
28 July. 

Henry's Designs on Scotland. — In June, 1542, Francis I, ambitious 
to recover the French ascendancy in Italy, declared war on the 
Emperor, and Henry seized the opportunity which he had long 
coveted, to undertake to extend his sway over Scotland. The death 
of James IV at Flodden, in 15 13, had left the country a prey to another 
of those long minorities which had been its bane for a century. In 
1528, however, James V, at the age of sixteen, made himself master 
of the distracted Kingdom and sought to restore peace ; to that end 
he put down the Highland chiefs and the Lowland earls, and, as a 
counterpoise to these turbulent elements, sought alliance with the 
Church and strengthened the clergy with increased powers and 
privileges. This and the fact that he clung to the French alliance, 
marrying two French wives in succession, kept him at swords points 



2l8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

with his uncle, Henry VIII, to whom he attributed designs of fostering 
disorders along the Border and broils among the nobility. Fearing 
to be kidnaped, he twice refused Henry's proposal to meet for a 
conference, he harbored refugees from the Pilgrimage of Grace, and 
intrigued both with Charles V and Francis I. Such was the situation 
when, in October, 1542, Henry sent an invasion into Scotland, which 
after some harrying and burning returned home. The Scotch King 
retaliated by throwing a force across the Western border. Through 
the bungling of its leaders it was defeated at Solway Moss, 24 Novem- 
ber, 1542, with a heavy loss, and James V, heartbroken at the news, 
died less than a month afterwards, leaving, as his heir, a week old 
baby, later known as Mary, Queen of Scots. Henry now asserted 
the English sovereignty over Scotland in stronger terms than ever, 
and proposed to bind the two countries by marrying Edward and 
Mary when they came of age. A treaty was arranged; but, ere 
long, the party attached to France secured the little Princess, crowned 
her Queen, and assembled a Parliament which annulled the marriage 
treaty. 

War with France (1 543-1 546). — To forestall aid from across the 
Channel to this Catholic party, Henry concluded a treaty with 
Charles V, plunged into war with France, and, in July, 1544, crossed 
over to Calais with the design of joining forces with the Emperor for 
a march on Paris. Since, however, the two rulers could not work in 
harmony, Charles, contrary to agreement, concluded a separate peace 
with Francis. Freed from their enemy in the rear, the French sent 
a fleet to attack the English coast, but twice repulsed and much 
thinned by plague it was obliged to turnback, August, 1545. Hert- 
ford l averted the danger from the Border by leading two destructive 
but inconclusive expeditions into Scotland. At length, in June, 
1546, Henry and Francis made peace, in which Scotland was not 
included. 

Relations with Ireland. — Henry's Irish policy proved in the long run 
to be no more successful. The. petty chiefs outside the Pale fought 
constantly among themselves, but were united in their hostility to 
English rule. Since it would have been well-nigh impossible to 
conquer and hold down such wild folk in a country of impenetrable 
forests and trackless bogs, Henry, who had few troops, preferred 
a drifting policy of " politic drifts and amiable persuasion." How- 
ever, the Earl of Kildare — head of the powerful Fitzgerald family — 
who became Lord Deputy in 15 13, used his power chiefly to fight his 
personal enemies, and grew so shaky in his loyalty that, in 1534, he 
1 Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, brother of Henry's third wife. 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 219 

was seized, taken to England, and thrown in the Tower. On a rumoi 
of his death, his son broke out in revolt. After hard fighting he was 
reduced to submission, and, in 1534, was hanged, together with five 
uncles, leaving only a small child to represent the line. Then Henry 
attempted to resume his policy of conciliation; in 1541 he sub- 
stituted the title of King for that of Lord of Ireland; and, one by 
one, the chiefs agreed to acknowledge his supremacy in Church and 
State, to hold their lands of him for an annual rent, to renounce all 
illegal exactions, and to serve in his army. Yet the fair hopes of 
peace proved delusive. Though the new rebellion did not come in 
Henry's time he was in no small degree to blame. His fatal mistake 
was that he thought in conciliating the chiefs to bind the clans, 
whereas he really antagonized the latter bodies by enriching their 
leaders with lands claimed by the tribes as a whole. So, in his re- 
ligious arrangements, he might bribe the chiefs to abjure the Pope 
and consent to dissolution of the monasteries by handing them a 
share of the spoils ; but the lesser folk who saw the shrines and relics 
demolished, the pilgrimages suppressed, the sacred buildings defaced, 
and the familiar Latin replaced by the alien English service were- 
bound to nourish sullen resentment. Thus Henry ruthlessly trampled 
upon the superstitions and sentiments of Irishmen. Moreover, the 
leaders of the Anglican Church in Ireland aimed rather at establishing 
English ascendancy and accumulating wealth and power than at 
advancing' the cause of religion. 

Henry's Closing Years. — After the passing of Cromwell Henry 
acted as his own chief Minister. In spite of increasing bulk, and of 
an ulcer on his leg causing intense pain, he was constantly occupied 
and watchful. While he insisted that the doctrine and Church 
system which he defined and organized should be strictly obeyed, 
the penalties attached to the Six Articles served mainly as a ferocious 
warning and were only fitfully enforced, largely owing to the moderat- 
ing influence of Cranmer and of Henry's sixth wife, 1 Catharine Parr, 
whom he married in 1543. The religious unrest was so great as to 
draw from Henry at his last appearance in Parliament, December, 
1545, an eloquent and characteristic reproof: "lam very sorry to 
know and hear how irreverently that precious jewel, the word of God, 
is disputed and rhymed, sung and jangled in every alehouse and 
tavern. ... Of this I am sure, that charity was never so faint 
among you, and God himself among Christians was never less rever- 

1 In 1540 the compliant Convocation had annulled the marriage with Anne on 
the pretext that she had been precontracted to another. Catharine Howard, whom 
Henry next married, was executed, in 1542, on charges of grave misconduct. 



2 20 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER' BRITAIN 

enced, honored, and served." Protestantism was spreading and 
Cranmer and the Queen favored it; yet the old faith was gaining 
ground again. The King had " destroyed the Pope, but not Popery." 
Henry's Stormy and Wrathful Exit (1547). — -At the close of Henry's 
life, the heir of the greatest conservative family in England brought 
the progress of the Catholic party to an abrupt check. On 12 Decem- 
ber, 1546, the Duke of Norfolk, and his son the Earl of Surrey, were 
rudely thrown into the Tower. Surrey was a gifted poet, but he was 
headstrong, aspiring, and indiscreet. On the discovery that he had 
quartered the royal arms with his own on an escutcheon in his private 
chamber, and had boasted that his father would one day be Regent, 
he was tried before a special commission, and was beheaded, 19 Janu- 
ary, 1547. A Bill of Attainder was passed against Norfolk, who con- 
fessed to concealing his son's acts, and received the royal assent, but 
before it could be carried out Henry was dead. He had of late be- 
come so unwieldy that he could neither walk nor stand, and, 28 Janu- 
ary, 1547, he passed away, masterful against opposition to the last. 
A selfish, ruthless despot, he had accomplished a momentous work. 
He had transformed the whole ecclesiastical system without a civil 
war, he had established a National Church free from the dominion 
of the Pope ; he had given his subjects the Scriptures in their native 
tongue; he had secured for England a recognized position among 
foreign Powers ; he worked his will unopposed ; and he died in his 
bed stanchly supported by the majority of his subjects. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Fisher ; Innes ; Cambridge Modern History, II ; Lingard ; 
and Pollard, Henry VIII. J. A. Froude, History of England from the Death 
of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada (12 vols., 1870-1872) is the 
most complete work on the period and a masterpiece of style, but strongly 
biased, especially in favor of Henry VIII. 

Biography. P. Friedmann, Anne Boleyne (2 vols., 1884). R. B. Mcrri- 
man, Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (2 vols., 1902) is the standard 
biography. W. Roper, Biography of Sir Thomas More (first printed in 
1626, many later editions) is a classic ; Roper was More's son-in-law. A. F. 
Pollard, Life of Cranmer (1904) is perhaps the most scholarly life of the 
Archbishop. A. D. Innes, Ten Tudor Statesmen (1906) and M. A. S. Hume, 
The Wives of Henry VIII (1905) are both useful. Dom Bede Camm, 
Lives of the English Martyrs (1904) is from the Romanist standpoint. 

Ecclesiastical. F. A. Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries 
(1902), the most exhaustive work on the subject, manifestly sympathetic 
with the monasteries. James Gairdner, History of the Church of England 



HENRY VIII AND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME 221 

(1904) is a brief treatment by an acknowledged authority on the period. 
R. W. Dixon, History of the Church of England (6 vols., 1 878-1902) covers 
the period 1 529-1 570, thorough and scholarly — from the High Church 
standpoint. B. F. Westcott, History of the English Bible (1868). 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 141-158, for 
the whole reign. 



CHAPTER XXI 
THE HENRICIAN REGIME (1509-1547) 

Distinctive Features of Henry's Absolutism. — While Henry 
owed much to his father, he succeeded in carrying royal absolutism 
far beyond the point which it had reached at his succession. The 
Church was reduced by his measures to a mere creature of the Crown. 
The old nobility were pushed further along the road to ruin by the 
extravagance of Henry's Court, while his hostile watchfulness pre- 
vented their leaders from recovering their old position in public 
affairs. Several who aspired to raise their heads were ruthlessly put 
to death. Almost invariably he chose new men to sit in his councils 
and carry out his policy ; to them he gave offices, revenues, and lands ; 
and he had an eye for picking competent Ministers from the ranks 
of obscurity. Wolsey and Cromwell are merely the best known of 
many. By such agents, by the spoils of the monasteries, by checking 
glaring abuses, and by the maintenance of stable government, the 
middle class, already closely attached to the father, were bound still 
more closely to the son. 

Henry's Management of Parliament. — Henry's adroit manipu- 
lation of Parliament was another means by which he strengthened 
his absolutism. During the first part of the reign, before he had 
exhausted the inherited royal treasure and before he embarked on 
his peculiar policy, he followed Wolsey 's advice and rarely called a 
Parliament; from 1529, however, he made use of frequent Parlia- 
ments to give a color of popular sanction to his measures. While 
there are evidences of coercion and corruption, of interference with 
elections, bribery, creation of new boroughs, and pressure on mem- 
bers, the amount has been exaggerated, and it was mainly employed 
by Cromwell to maintain his own ascendancy. Such methods were 
scarcely necessary in the royal behalf ; for the representation was 
mainly in the hands of the landed gentry and the prosperous com- 
mercial classes, whose interests in general were identical with Henry's, 
though on the rare occasions when these interests clashed, Parliament 



THE HENRICIAN REGIME 223 

did not hesitate to resist stoutly. Henry professed to be a champion 
of parliamentary privilege, but he employed blandishments, bargain- 
ing, or even trickery as need arose ; when important measures were 
being discussed he generally visited both Houses in person, and, if 
the terror of his presence was not enough, even resorted to dire threats 
to secure their passage. As a means of blocking legislation which 
he opposed he could always resort to the veto, though, as a matter 
of fact, most of the legislation was initiated by Henry or his Ministers. 

Summary of Henry's Methods. — Altogether Henry's power was 
acquired, not so much by juggling with the representation * as by the 
identity of interest between him and the dominant classes, by his 
force of will, and by his dextrous politics. He had the tact and 
foresight to draw back when he saw that he was going too far. More- 
over, he had the unscrupulous cunning to intrust great powers to his 
principal agents, and to make them the scapegoats for his unpopular 
policies. Finally, he had the wisdom not to demand excessive- taxes. 
He called upon Parliament primarily to sanction grants which he had 
extorted from some other quarters ; forced loans, for instance, which 
were remitted by Statute, in 1529 and 1543, forfeitures, papal fees, 
and the spoils from monasteries and shrines. He borrowed and 
extorted so long as he could, and only applied to Parliament when it 
was absolutely necessary. 

The Royal Extravagance. — Henry dissipated his father's savings 
with lavish hand. Much went for costly raiment ; more was consumed 
in revels, feasts, tournaments, and other ornate displays. When he 
took the field, in 15 13, he had an enormous train of hundreds of wagons 
and thousands of horses to carry his tents, his wardrobe, his cooks, 
his confectioners, and, most amazing of all, the choir of his chapel 
royal, consisting of 115 chaplains and singers. The splendors of the 
later meeting at the Field of Cloth of Gold were the wonder of the 
age and of generations to come. The sumptuousness of Henry and 
his courtiers stimulated trade, furnished employment for many, and 
opened up many new industries ; yet in the long run, the effect was 
injurious, since the example was ruinous to the lesser folk, and it 
raised the prices out of all proportion to the increase of wages — the 
cost of agricultural products nearly doubled from 1495 to 1533, while 
wages rose only 25 per cent. Moreover, the King was in constant 
need of money to support such extravagances, and taxes were only 
kept within the normal limits by loans, confiscations, and other irreg- 

1 The chief changes in the composition came from the exclusion of abbots and 
priors from the Lords, and granting representation to Wales, Chester, and Calais 
in the Commons. 



224 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ular methods. One of the most baneful means employed was the 
debasement of the coinage, a process which Henry began as early as 
1526, and which went on until, in 1551, a silver coin contained only 
a seventh of the pure metal of one issued twenty-five years before. 
During the two previous centuries there had been several such de- 
basements, but with less injurious effects; because of the constant 
drain of money to the Orient for the purchase of goods and to Rome 
for the payment of papal dues, causing a scarcity of specie which 
lowered prices and thus counteracted the upward trend due to debase- 
ment. In Henry's time trade was more evenly balanced and papal 
dues ceased, 1 therefore, since debased coins circulated at their face 
value, good coin was hoarded or exported, and prices went on soaring 
without a check. 

The Laboring Classes in Town and Country. — While the pro- 
ducers, the manufacturers, and the exporters of wool and cloth were 
waxing fat, the condition of the mass of the small farmers and agri- 
cultural laborers was growing steadily worse. Enclosing went on 
increasing, and not only leaseholders but copyholders and even free- 
holders were evicted from their tenements. The process received 
a fresh impulse from the dissolution of the monasteries, which trans- 
ferred great estates from the easy-going monks to the hands of keen, 
greedy capitalists. Multitudes were thrown out of work, the land 
was overrun with beggars, and disorder multiplied to a degree that 
taxed even the iron rule of Henry. In order to check enclosures, 
measures were enacted limiting the number of sheep that a single 
owner could hold, and ordering a return to tillage under penalty of 
forfeiture till the law was obeyed. But since profits from wool were 
tempting and since the King needed the support of the class against 
which the measures were framed, the legislation proved futile. Similar 
disturbing conditions prevailed in the towns, the rich were growing 
richer and the poor poorer. The restrictive policy of the gilds was 
only slowly breaking down and remained a great clog on trade. Labor 
and capital withdrew from the old towns where the system was 
intrenched and poured into the smaller places, which grew as their 
ancient rivals declined, though the competition of those displaced 
from agricultural pursuits and the increase of population 2 largely 
offset the benefits which the proletariat gained from their migration. 

1 Although money was growing steadily more plentiful, owing to the treasure 
brought by the Spanish from the New World, England was little affected during 
Henry's reign. 

2 It is estimated that the population increased from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 during 
the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. 



THE HENRICIAN REGIME 225 

Public Health and Sanitation. — The plague, which continued a 
frequent and destructive visitor, was not an unmixed evil ; flourishing 
chiefly in the miserable and crowded centers, it checked the natural 
increase of population among the poorer classes, and thus worked in 
favor of a higher standard of well-being. In London various steps 
were taken to prevent the spread of the epidemic. Enactments were 
passed requiring that infected houses be marked with wisps of straw 
and that exposed persons carry a white rod in their hands. Grad- 
ually, rules for isolating plague-stricken houses became more rigid, 
searchers were appointed to give notice of the presence of the disease, 
and severe penalties were imposed for concealment. Measures for 
disposing of the refuse of shambles, against stray dogs and cats, and 
for cleansing filthy streets are not unheard of, though they were 
apparently not enforced till Elizabeth's time. 

Poor Relief. — Among the most interesting measures of Henry's 
reign were those taken to relieve the deserving poor and to put a 
check on the idle and disorderly beggars. During the Middle Ages 
the care of the destitute was left to private persons and institu- 
tions — to voluntary alms, to hospitals * and gilds, and, most of all, 
to monasteries. This medieval system was very inadequate. The 
monks, in particular, gave in pursuance of the divine command to 
clothe the naked and to feed the hungry : since they did not inquire 
sharply into the needs of applicants they were often imposed upon 
by the unscrupulous; and, by their indiscriminate almsgiving, 
tended to foster poverty beyond the point where they could deal with 
it. Already, some time before the Reformation and the consequent 
destruction of ecclesiastical foundations, certain Continental munici- 
palities had taken up the problem and devised measures of public 
relief. In England, too, new methods would soon have been neces- 
sary in any event. The dissolution of the monasteries made them 
immediately imperative. Great numbers of needy persons were 
suddenly thrown upon the country, and at the same time the chief 
means of providing for them, ineffective as it had been, was cut off. 
The year in which the first attack on the monasteries was opened 
marked the beginning of a new policy, quite at variance with that 
initiated by the Statute of Laborers and succeeding measures, provid- 
ing that sturdy beggars should be put to work at a fixed wage and 
the impotent should be licensed to beg. By an Act of 1536 the dis- 
pensing of private alms was forbidden. In each parish a fund for the 

1 A hospital was originally a place for the aged and destitute as well as the sick. 
A few parishes had poor funds, and so had some of the towns by the fifteenth 
century, but these were rare exceptions. 
Q 



226 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

relief of the poor was to be collected on Sundays and festival days 
by the churchwardens and other parish officials, and the clergy were 
enjoined to stir up the congregation to give freely, but no means of 
compulsion was provided for. Also, sturdy beggars were to be set 
to work, though the law did not state how. This Act, while the 
principles were not yet worked out in detail, foreshadows the prin- 
ciples of the more famous laws of Elizabeth which remained in force 
down to the nineteenth century — the responsibility of the parish 
for the relief of those unable to work and for the employment of the 
able-bodied. 

The Navy. — Henry VII had fostered the navy, directly, to some 
extent, by building ships of war, and indirectly by developing the 
merchant marine, but it was Henry VIII who marked a real ad- 
vance. Up to his reign there had been only a few ships owned by 
the Sovereign, which in time of peace were either used for police 
purposes or let out to merchants. At his death there was a royal 
fleet of 71 vessels; moreover he organized the navy into a standing 
force and placed it under a separate Government Department. A 
portion of the spoils of the monasteries was devoted to ship- 
building and coast defense ; the southeastern shore was studded 
with castles provided with permanent garrisons, reenforced by 
local levies in time of need ; the King did much, too, for making 
rivers navigable, and harbors safer and more accessible ; he founded 
dockyards on the Thames, and organized the pilots into the cor- 
poration of Trinity House. Although exploration was still largely 
a monopoly of the Spanish and Portuguese, a few Western voy- 
ages were undertaken. Trade to the Levant flourished lustily, and 
tall ships carried English cloths and hides to the ports of the 
Mediterranean and brought back the wines, oils, carpets, and 
spices of the East to English markets. 

Learning and Education. — Scholars of Henry's day were turning 
their backs on the old learning and pursuing the new, they were 
devising more rational systems of education to replace the worn-out 
medieval methods, and the King encouraged them by his enlightened 
zeal, by his studious pursuits, and by the training of his children. 
Colet's foundation, St. Paul's, was a model of what a boys' school 
should be ; Wolsey's school at Ipswich perished with him, but before 
the close of the reign some fifty others were founded, including five 
attached to Henry's new bishoprics. Yet it was in the theory of 
education that the real strides of progress were taken. Erasmus left 
England for the last time in 15 14, but his later writings must have 
penetrated and influenced the circle in which he had lived and worked, 



THE HENRICIAN REGIME 



227 



particularly his First Liberal Education for Boys (1529) which, with 
its sage precepts and recommendations, marks a shining contrast to 
the prevailing mechanical methods in which flogging was employed 
as the chief incentive. Best known among the men of recognized 
capacity selected as tutors for the royal children was Roger Ascham. 
His famous treatise The Scholemaster was not printed till 1570, but 
already,ini545,hewas putting in practice the broad and liberal views 
therein advocated. Although this book, on account of its learning, 
kindly humor, appreciation of boy nature, and rational views has 
deservedly become an English classic, its methods involved too much 
pains and patience on the part of the teacher to make it acceptable 
at the time. 

Nevertheless, while Henry's reign marks an epoch in the theory of 
education, and while the King deserves much credit for his encourage- 
ment of education and for the example which he himself set, he con- 
tributed little material aid in the way of money and endowment, 
especially in view of what he took from the monastic institutions. 
Their schools and those of the chantry priests 1 were inadequate and 
out of date, but their destruction was serious when Henry devoted 
a major part of their resources to rewarding his greedy supporters 
instead of establishing new schools. At Oxford and Cambridge, after 
scholasticism and its teachers had been expelled, provision was made 
for regular lectures on the ancient languages and the Scriptures, 
while, in 1540, a few Regius professorships were endowed, yet the 
total expenditure was small and Henry founded only one new college. 
Altogether, in education it was a time of great promise but scanty 
achievement. 

Literature. — So it was in literature. Few notable works were 
produced, but the reign marks the transition from a bygone period to 
the wonderful Elizabethan Age. Breaking away from the influence 
of the French medieval romance, the men of Henry's day began to 
study the classics, both directly, and indirectly through the Re- 
nascence writers, chiefly those of Italy. Much of the writing of the 
period can be passed by with a mere allusion. The disordered social 
conditions and the break from Rome produced a mass of controversial 
pamphlets which, valuable as they are to the historian, hardly rank 
as literature. Latimer's sermons are vivid and eloquent, but he was 
a preacher rather than an author. Cranmer was a master of the art 
of expression; but his greatest achievement, the English Book of 
Common Prayer, was the work of the next reign. Four men only 

1 A chantry was a place where a priest was appointed to sing masses for the souls 
of pious contributors. Often he acted as schoolmaster in addition. 



2 28 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

stand above their contemporaries, and herald the coming age — 
Roger Ascham, who did his earliest writing in Henry's reign, Sir 
Thomas More, the Earl of Surrey, and Sir Thomas Wyatt. More's 
most notable production was his Utopia, one of those rare books 
which, primarily written as a protest against existing abuses, has 
survived as a classic. An Elizabethan critic refers quaintly to Surrey 
and Wyatt as " two courtly makers, who having traveled into Italy 
and there tasted the sweet and stately measures of Italian poesy, 
greatly polished our rude and homely manner." It is unlikely that 
Surrey ever went to Italy, but Wyatt did. The two introduced the 
sonnet into English speech, and their joint production, Songs and 
Sonates, was published in 1557. Moreover, Surrey in his translation 
of two books of the JEneid marked an epoch by employing blank 
verse for the first time in English. So the Henrician era, if the 
writers were few and their product inconsiderable, was significant in 
literary development. 

The King and the Age. — The age, like many another, has its grim 
and unlovely and its gracious heroic sides. Henry and his officials 
were self-seeking, ruthless, regardless of human life and suffering. 
The merchants, the wool growers, and the cloth makers, intent on 
gain, were content to let the King have his will and joined in the op- 
pression of the lesser folk. Callousness to pain and lack of pity were 
all too general in those times ; every class flocked to a cockfight, to 
a bear baiting, or to witness a martyr burning at the stake with equal 
alacrity. On the other hand, there were strong earnest men and 
women who were content to suffer rather than to sacrifice their faith, 
were it Protestant or Roman Catholic. There were those who had 
prophetic visions of a new era in literature, in education, in religion, 
in industry, and did their part in pulling down the old medieval 
edifice. There was much hardship and misery while the new structure 
was a-building; but there was sound and vigorous health in the 
workers who were striving for better things. In the midst of this 
complex age^ Henry VIII stands out as the great commanding figure, 
embodying its most striking tendencies, good and bad. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Constitutional. Taylor; Hallam: and Taswell-Langmead. A. F. 
Pollard, Factors in Modem History (1907) on the "New Monarchy," the 
"Reformation" and the "Composition of Parliament." Stubbs, Lectures. 

General Conditions. Traill, and the other works cited in chs. V, XIII, 
etc. ; Froude, History of England, I, ch. I ; Innes, ch. XL Thomas More, 



• THE HENRICIAN REGIME 2 2Q 

Utopia (first published in Latin, 1516, later translated and often reprinted. 
R. H. Tawney, The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century (191 2). 
E. P. Cheney, Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century (1895)' 
D. Hannay, A Short History of the English Navy (1898) ; H. Oppenheim^ 
A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy (1897) ' W. L. Clowes' 
The Royal Navy (vol. 1, 1897). J. W. Fortescue, History of the British 
Army (vols. I-VII, 1899-1912), the standard work on the subject. 

Scotland and Ireland. P. H. Brown, Scotland, I, II; A. G. Richey, 
Short History of the Irish People (1887) ; R. Bagwell, Ireland under the 
Tudors (1885), I ; J. E. Morris, Great Britain and Ireland, 1485-1910 (1914), 
besides Joyce and Turner. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE PROTESTANT EXTREMISTS IN POWER. EDWARD VI 

(1547-1553) 

The Situation at Henry's Death. — Henry left as his successor a 
child not yet ten years old when the situation demanded a strong man 
of ripe wisdom and tried capacity. " Abroad Paul III was scheming 
to recover the schismatic realm ; the Emperor was slowly crushing 
England's national allies in Germany; France was watching her op- 
portunity . . . ; and England herself was committed to hazardous 
designs on Scotland. At home there was religious revolution half 
accomplished and a social revolution in ferment ; evicted tenants and 
ejected monks infested the land, centers of disorder and raw material 
for revolt ; the treasury was empty, the kingdom in debt, the coinage 
debased. In place of the old nobility of blood stood a new peerage 
raised on the ruins and debauched by the spoils of the Church, and 
created to be docile tools in the work of revolution." 

Hertford Becomes Lord Protector and Duke of Somerset. — Before 
his death, Henry had named sixteen executors as a Council of Regency 
during Edward's minority. This body was composed mainly of men 
of much ambition and little scruple, and under the influence of Hert- 
ford, whom they chose Governor and Protector of the Realm, they 
gave full rein to the policy of reform which the conservative Henry 
had held in check. At the same time, they did not neglect their own 
interests, one of their first acts being to secure for themselves a number 
of new peerages. Hertford the Protector, who became Duke of Somer- 
set, was already known as a dashing and successful general. While 
greedy of power, he meant to serve his country well ; in addition to 
carrying the Protestant Revolution to its extreme limits, he strove to 
unite England and Scotland, and labored to alleviate the wretchedness 
of the poor. But he was a dreamer rather than a practical ruler of 
men. He was unable to comprehend that the consent of the Scots 
was essential to any real union, and, by attempting to carry it at the 
point of the sword, he inflamed their already bitter opposition. In 
seeking to befriend the poor he excited hopes which he was unable to 

230 



THE PROTESTANT EXTREMISTS IN POWER 231 

satisfy, he alienated the landed interests and widened the breach be- 
tween the classes. He was arrogant, impatient of advice, and, un- 
fortunately, prejudiced his reputation for disinterestedness by his 
rapacity and display ; he enriched himself with the spoils of the Church, 
and applied the fabric of consecrated edifices to build a magnificent 
palace. 

The Protector's First Parliament (1 547-1 548) . — The first Parliament 
of the new reign passed a series of measures, all important and many of 
them praiseworthy. The bulk of the Treason Acts since the famous 25 
Edward III were done away with, and it was enacted that, henceforth, 
charges of treason should be preferred within thirty days after the 
offense and supported by two sufficient witnesses. Also the heresy 
laws of Henry V and the savage Six Articles were repealed. On the 
other hand, a bill, passed in 1545, granting to the Crown chantries 
and hospitals, was renewed and enforced, and the fruits of their sup- 
pression, together with the religious property of gilds, were turned over 
to the Council ; some was appropriated by those in control, and a very 
inadequate portion was later applied to the founding of schools. 

Protestant Excesses. — The greatest confusion, license, and profanity 
prevailed. Each parish became a law unto itself, and individuals like- 
wise threw off all restraint. Some were honest zealots, others made 
war on the ancient order solely for gain. Foreigners poured in : Lu- 
therans from Germany, Calvinists from Geneva, Zwinglians from 
Zurich, as well as " heretics of every hue," so that England was re- 
garded by horrified orthodoxy as " the harbor of all infidelity." l 
During the summer and autumn of 1547 agents were sent out by the 
Council, under color of royal authority, to enforce the use of English 
in the services ; the destruction of images, stained glass windows, 
paintings, and carvings; and the acknowledgment of the royal su- 
premacy. Various ceremonies were done away with, such as the creep- 
ing to the cross on Good Friday, the use of ashes, palms, candles, and 
holy water, while the clergy of the old faith were checked in their preach- 
ing activities. These measures were resisted so stoutly by Gardiner, 
Bishop of Winchester, and Bonner, Bishop of London, that they were 
imprisoned, and Bonner was soon deprived of his See. This was the 
farthest the Protector ever went in religious persecution. 

The First Act of Uniformity and the Book of Common Prayer (1549). 
— In January, 1549, Parliament passed an Act of Uniformity which 

1 Neither Lutheranism nor Zwinglianism exercised any abiding influence, nor 
was the Church organization of Calvin ever generally accepted; but his theology, 
especially his doctrine of predestination, and his political principles came to 
affect Englishmen profoundly. 



232 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

imposed on all subjects the form of service contained in a Book of Com- 
mon Prayer drawn up by a commission headed by Cranmer. This book 
was an English version, somewhat simplified, of the old Latin ritual. 
The Act of 1549 was mild compared with the later acts; for it was 
limited to the clergy, it insisted only upon uniformity of outward ob- 
servance, and no attempt was made to impose a doctrinal test. Prin- 
cess Mary, who refused to conform, was allowed by the Protector to 
hear mass in her own house. Yet the new arrangement satisfied nei- 
ther of the extreme parties. It still savored too much of Rome for 
the " hotgospellers," while the country folk, under the influence of 
the parish priests, resisted even the moderate changes which it in- 
troduced. However, the men of Devon and Cornwall, who arose in 
revolt in July, were suppressed before the end of August by a Govern- 
ment force assisted by mercenaries. 

Kett's Rebellion (1549). — While the mainspring of the revolt in the 
Southwest was religious, discontent existed throughout the country, 
due to agrarian distress, to the steady rise of prices resulting from the 
debased currency, and to the repressive vagrancy laws. Somerset 
caused remedial measures to be framed which were rejected by Parlia- 
ment. The result was a rising in the Eastern counties led by one 
Robert Kett. Though he set up a court before which offending land- 
lords were summoned, he kept his forces in good order, prohibited all 
bloodshed, had prayers morning and evening and frequent addresses 
from preachers. A petition was drawn up, very moderate in tone, 
begging that enclosures and other oppressive practices might be di- 
minished. " We pray," it plaintively declared, " that all bondmen 
be made free ; for God made all free with his precious blood-shedding." 
The insurgents having rejected a pardon on the ground that " Kings 
were wont to pardon wicked persons and not innocent and just men," 
were finally defeated by a force under John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 
made up partly of foreign mercenaries, while Kett was captured and 
later executed. Somerset had been obliged to employ force against 
the very class whose hopes he had raised, and Warwick saw the 
opportunity which he had long sought for overthrowing his rival. 
Many other things besides had contributed to discredit the Pro- 
tector. 

Failure of Somerset's Scotch and French Policy. — In May, 1546, 
a body of the anti-French, anti-Catholic nobles had murdered Cardinal 
Beaton and seized the castle of St. Andrew's. Somerset, failing either 
to make an alliance with the French King or to prevent him from send- 
ing assistance to the Government whereby the insurgents were over- 
come, lost a chance of building up a strong native Protestant party. 



THE PROTESTANT EXTREMISTS IN POWER 233 

He offered to give up the English claims to sovereignty and urged a 
union, but he insisted that the marriage treaty of 1 543 should be carried 
out : when the Scots refused, he crossed the border and inflicted a de- 
feat on them at Pinkie, 10 September, 1547. The infuriated Scots 
forthwith proposed a marriage between the Princess Mary and the 
Dauphin Francis. Mary was taken to France, and the marriage, con- 
cluded in course of time, drew still closer England's two most danger- 
ous enemies. 

The Fall of Somerset (1549). — Another handle against the Pro- 
tector was found in the summary execution, following a Bill of Attainder, 
of his brother Thomas, the Lord High Admiral, an unscrupulous man of 
boundless ambitions, who plotted to make himself the supreme power 
in the State. Although he richly deserved his fate, the Protector 
was blamed for thus arbitrarily disposing of his own flesh and blood. 
So Warwick and the other leaders of the Council, who nourished griev- 
ances or hoped for gain and power, had many charges to bring for- 
ward against the Protector : the strife engendered by his religious, 
social, and agrarian policy ; his mismanagement of foreign affairs ; his 
treatment of his brother; his arrogance and heedlessness of advice; 
and his profuseness and greed. After a vain effort, by means of in- 
flammatory pamphlets, to rouse the lesser folk to rise in his defense, 
Somerset fled from London, taking the young King with him. In- 
duced by fair promises to surrender, 10 October, he was nevertheless 
imprisoned in the Tower. 

Warwick Supreme in the Council. His Protestant Zeal. — The 
control of affairs now passed into the hands of Warwick, a brilliant 
soldier, a cunning diplomat, utterly unscrupulous, masking religious 
indifference under a pretended zeal for the Protestant cause. His 
first step was to secure from Parliament a series of Acts making it trea- 
son to assemble for the purpose of killing or imprisoning a member of 
the Privy Council, or to meet with a view for breaking down enclosures. 
Thus strengthened he proceeded to act his part of advanced Protestant 
reformer with fervid zeal. Not only did he keep Norfolk, Bonner, 
and Gardiner in prison, but he deprived the latter of his See, and 
imprisoned and deprived half a dozen more of the bishops as 
well. With the bishoprics thus acquired he rewarded the leaders of 
the reform party. The destruction of the altars, images, and painted 
windows went on merrily, and the ecclesiastical lawlessness increased, 
though for the sake of balance, one Anabaptist and another extremist 
were burned. Warwick's adherents were as greedy of pelf as ever 
Somerset had been : they gorged themselves with such church plate 
as remained unappropriated, and with proceeds from chantry lands 



234 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

reserved for the support of dispossessed priests, for the education of 
the youth, and the support of the poor. 

The " Judicial Murder " of Somerset (1552). — From 1550 to 1552, 
Warwick got on without a Parliament. He packed the Council with 
his own followers, he made himself its president, he had himself created 
Duke of Northumberland, but he did not venture to assume the title 
of Lord Protector. His old rival was released from the Tower, 6 Feb- 
ruary, 1550, and re-admitted to the Council in April. When he nat- 
urally sought to recover his lost power he was once more arrested, 
16 October, 1551, and tried by a court selected by Northumberland 
from his satellites, in which, after much stretching of evidence, he was 
finally convicted of felony for inciting an unlawful assembly. He was 
executed 22 January, 1552, by a royal order fraudulently obtained for 
the purpose. The popular indignation almost provoked a riot, while 
strong opposition manifested itself in Parliament, which met the fol- 
lowing day. 

The Second Act of the Uniformity (1552). — Yet, voicing the increas- 
ing Protestant sentiment, this same Parliament sanctioned a revised 
edition of the Book of Common Prayer, in which the priest was called 
a " minister " and the altar a " table." Though the Holy Communion 
was still to be received kneeling, it was declared that the posture meant 
" no adoration to any Real Presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood." 
A second Act of Uniformity enjoining the use of the Book thus revised 
also imposed penalties for non-observance upon the laity as well as the 
clergy. Any one neglecting to attend service on Sunday and holidays 
was liable to excommunication, and the penalty for attending any other 
form was six months' imprisonment for the first offense, a year for 
the second, and life for the third. Cranmer, who had been in charge 
of the work of revision, also drew up a series of forty- two articles de- 
fining the faith, which were sanctioned by a royal proclamation in June, 
1553, without being submitted to Parliament. 

Northumberland's Plot (1553) . — As his arbitrariness and self-seeking 
became increasingly evident, the Duke lost ground steadily ; even the 
preachers who had hailed him as a new Moses or a new Joshua, began 
to denounce him. Realizing that Edward's brief and sickly life was 
drawing to a close, he devised his last and most daring scheme, de- 
signed to secure a successor over whom he might exercise control. 
By promises and threats he got the Council and the judges to pass 
over the King's two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, who were the next 
heirs, and to vest the succession in a grandniece of Henry VIII — Lady 
Jane Grey — whom he married to his fourth son Guilford Dudley. 
This was in June, 1553. On 6 July, King Edward VI died in his six- 



THE PROTESTANT EXTREMISTS IN POWER 



235 



teenth year. The matter was kept secret as long as possible, and 
10 July, Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed in London. 

Edward's Characteristics. His Foundations. — Edward was a 
frail sedate youth, devoted to his books, who, as he grew older, began 
to exhibit more and more his father's masterful temper and regal 
dignity, and had he lived would probably ere long have shaken off 
the ascendancy which Northumberland managed to gain over him. 
To precocity of intellect he united an intense religious ardor; even 
when a lad of fourteen he was, we are told, " exerting all his powers 
for the restoration of God's kingdom," and his premature death from 
consumption was a sudden check on the course of the Reformation. 
In spite of the greedy adventurers who surrounded him, he was able 
to do something for learning and charity. From the sale of chapels, 
chantries, and other Church property he endowed, or re-endowed, 
upwards of thirty grammar schools. Christ's Hospital, founded for 
the sons of the poor, formerly the Grey Friars monastery, became the 
famous Bluecoat School. Funds were given to two hospitals for 
the medical treatment of the indigent, and one palace was turned into 
an institution of the same sort. The royal palace of Bridewell became 
a workhouse or a house of correction for " ramblers, dissolute and 
sturdy beggars." Inadequate as all this was, it was more than Henry 
VIII had attempted. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. A. F. Pollard, History of England, from the Accession of 
Edward VI to the Death of Elizabeth (1910), together with Innes, Lingard, 
Froude, and Cambridge Modern History. A. F. Pollard, England under 
Protector Somerset (1900), the standard work on the Protector, rather in 
the nature of an apology. 

Constitutional and ecclesiastical : the works already cited. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 159-162. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
THE ENGLISH COUNTER-REFORMATION. MARY (1553-1558) 

Defeat of the Northumberland Plot (1553). —When Mary learned 
of the events in London she took refuge in a fortified manor house in 
Suffolk. At once, loyal gentlemen and their retainers nocked to her 
support. On the other hand, London showed no enthusiasm for 
Lady Jane Grey, and the citizens, alienated by the religious excesses 
of the late reign and the attempt to deprive the rightful heir, pre- 
served an ominous silence as Northumberland led forth an army 
against the Marian forces. When, after his departure, Lady Jane's 
own father proclaimed Mary as Queen, 19 July, they responded 
joyously by ringing bells, lighting bonfires, and shouting applause. 
Northumberland's troops dropped away as he marched, so, 20 July, 
he declared for Mary himself, protesting tearfully that -he knew her 
to be a merciful woman. Ordered to disband his army, he was 
arrested and taken to London, and, 3 August, 1553, the new Queen, 
accompanied by a glittering escort, rode into the City. Her first 
act was to release Norfolk, Gardiner, and various other prisoners. 
Of those who had plotted against her accession seven were tried and 
condemned, though only three were executed ; even Lady Jane Grey 
was only imprisoned ; but Northumberland tried in vain to avert his 
richly deserved fate by professing himself a Catholic. 

Mary's Character and Policy. First Measures of the Reign. — 
In spite of contemporary accounts of her beauty, portraits of Queen 
Mary represent her. as prim and unprepossessing. Because of her 
unflinching loyalty to her mother and to the old religion, she had 
suffered much in her youth from the harshness of Henry VIII and 
his agents; yet she was highly educated, and not only her mental 
endowments but her accomplishments were uncommon, while, not- 
withstanding flurries of temper due to her joyless existence and 
constant ill-health, she was much loved by her servitors and ministers 
for her generosity and kindness. Her dearest wish was to restore 
England to the Catholic fold ; for that she had embittered her life 
and all but lost her birthright. Almost directly upon her accession 

236 



THE ENGLISH COUNTER-REFORMATION 237 

she issued a proclamation urging all men to return to the old faith, 
she ordered the restoration of much of the stolen church plate, and 
she gave warning to " busy meddlers in religion," though the formal 
settlement of the religious problem was reserved to Parliament. 

The System of Henry VIII Restored by Parliament (1553). — Par- 
liament, which met 5 October, 1553, went no farther than to pass an 
act repealing all laws of Edward's reign affecting religion and the 
Church and restoring the service as it was in the last year of Henry 
VIII. Most of the members had no desire to reverse Henry's policy 
and again to accept papal rule. There was a general desire to have 
the Queen marry and settle the succession, though a considerable 
majority opposed a plan to unite her with Philip, son of the Emperor 
Charles V and heir to his Spanish dominions, a plan designed to counter- 
act the Franco-Scot alliance and to restore the power of the Pope with 
Imperial aid. As a protest against the projected Spanish match, the 
Commons prepared an address praying the Queen to marry an English 
noble ; but Mary, who had determined on Philip, rebuked them 
sharply. In January, 1554, the marriage articles were arranged, and 
upon terms most favorable to England. If the Queen should die 
without issue her husband was to make no claim on the succession. 
On the other hand, any child born of the marriage would succeed 
both to the English Kingdom and to Philip's inheritance in the Low 
Countries. Also, Philip agreed not to engage England in his father's 
wars with France. 

Wyatt's Rebellion (1554). — Popular opposition was aroused to 
a pitch sufficient to give Mary's enemies a chance to plan a wide- 
spread rebellion, which, while professing to free her from her evil 
councilors and to prevent the Spanish marriage, really aimed, with 
French help, to depose the Queen and- to set up Lady Jane Grey or 
Elizabeth in her place. But the design leaked out prematurely and 
a complete confession was wrung from one of the leaders. Three 
separate outbreaks had been planned. One in Devon and one in the 
Midlands were easily suppressed, but the third, starting in Kent, 
under Sir Thomas Wyatt, 1 a young Catholic, was serious ; for he 
succeeded in marching his forces into the heart of London before he 
could be overcome. About sixty of the insurgent leaders, including 
Wyatt, were put to death, and Lady Jane Grey and her husband were 
now executed for their part in the old Northumberland plot. An 
effort to implicate Elizabeth failed from lack of evidence. 

The Arrival of Philip and the Return to Rome (1554). —Wyatt's 
rebellion was followed by more rigorous measures against Protestants. 

1 He was a son of the poet, v. p. 228. 



238 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Foreign congregations were ordered to quit the realm, married clergy 
were forced to give up their wives or to leave their benefices, and 
altars were erected in the village churches. On 20 July Philip landed 
in England. Mary met him at Winchester, where, on the 25th, they 
were married. After a month of festivities the royal pair journeyed to 
London with a stately train, including twenty-eight carts filled with 
bullion. But Philip was unable to overcome the general aversion 
with which he was regarded, and his attendants were hustled and 
beaten in the streets. Parliament met again, 12 November, 1554, 
the sheriffs had been ordered to return men of " a wise, grave, and 
Catholic sort," and, 29 November, in answer to their petition, Cardinal 
Pole, who had recently arrived as papal legate, solemnly received the 
realm " again into the unity of our own Mother the Holy Church." 
This reunion, however, even with a packed Parliament, would never 
have come to pass but for his assurance that the Pope had consented 
to waive the restoration of the Church lands. Parliament then 
completed the revival of the old order by repealing all measures 
" against the See Apostolic of Rome since the twentieth year of King 
Henry VIII," and restoring all the heresy laws. 

The Marian Persecutions (1555-1558). — Then began four horrible 
years of persecution which have stained indelibly the memory of the 
Queen and fastened upon her the name of " Bloody Mary." Up to 
this time comparatively lenient, the national opposition, which had 
manifested itself in armed rebellion, really marked the turning point 
in her reign. Other causes, however, contributed to change her 
policy. Philip, who had married her purely for reasons of State, 
grew colder and colder, and soon left the country, to return only once 
again when he wanted aid ; then Mary was denied what she most 
desired, an heir to perpetuate her name ; and, finally, her health, 
never robust, grew steadily worse. While these facts help to explain 
the cruelty of her methods, it must not be forgotten that Mary re- 
garded it as her supreme duty to extirpate heresy and restore the 
purity of the faith. Moreover, the reformers were violently abusive ; 
there was no idea of toleration in those days, for heresy was regarded 
as a loathsome disease to be stamped out at all costs ; thousands on 
the Continent suffered for their faith, and disregard of human life 
and suffering were everywhere a feature of the age. Mary was not 
alone in thinking that obstinate heretics should suffer death for " the 
great horror of their offense and the manifest example of other 
Christians " ; still, if her lot had been a happier one and her subjects 
had not risen against her, she might have softened her stern sense of 
duty by considerations of policy and humanity. 



THE ENGLISH COUNTER-REFORMATION 239 

Parliament shares the blame for the persecutions which followed. 
Gardiner, the Queen's chief Minister, advised the step ; but he hoped 
that a few examples would be sufficient, and he died less than a year 
after the persecutions had begun. Pole was too gentle a spirit to 
enter into heresy-hunting with any zeal ; although Mary forced him 
into line, he more than once admonished the bishops to moderation. 
Philip, keen scenter and torturer of heretics in his own dominions, for 
reasons of policy took no share in the proceedings in England. Bishop 
Bonne: has often been charged with exceptional activity and cruelty, 
but he seldom spoke at the examinations, while, after an accused 
person had been condemned, he often worked secretly to make him 
recant. Furthermore, the Queen frequently had to spur his lagging 
zeal. His reputation seems to have been due to the fact that there 
were more executions in his diocese than elsewhere, but it con- 
tained the bulk of the heretics ; and, when he felt duty bound to pro- 
ceed with energy, he was hot-tempered and treated prisoners roughly, 
but more likely to frighten them into recanting than because he was 
bloodthirsty. 

The Martyrs. — Mary's victims numbered nearly 300, a total 
greater than that in Henry VIII's reign of thirty-eight years or 
Elizabeth's of forty-five. At the stake many faithful ministers of 
devoted flocks, and humble artisans and tillers of the soil as well, 
showed unflinching courage and serene imperviousness to frightful 
torture. In the pages of Fox's Martyrs their names shine brightly 
with those of their fellow sufferers high in social or church rank. On 
16 October, 1555, Bishop Latimer, the matchless popular orator, and 
Bishop Ridley were burned at Oxford. At the stake he called to his 
weaker companion: " Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, we shall 
this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as, I trust, 
shall never be put out." He received the flame as if embracing it, 
crying vehemently in his own English tongue : " Father in Heaven, 
receive my soul." Cranmer, perplexed and fearful of suffering, 
signed at least six recantations before he was finally condemned. 
Yet his en^. was truly heroic. Confessing himself " a wretched 
caitiff and a miserable sinner," he thrust first into the flames the 
hand which had signed the recantation, crying: "This hand hath 
offended." He perished, 20 March, 1556. The effect upon the 
people was tremendous. The Primate of the National Church, the 
author of the beautiful Book of Common Prayer, had been martyred 
for an ecclesiastical system which an English King and an English 
Parliament had discarded. Plainly such examples encouraged rather 
than frightened the weaker. Even the most devoted Romanists 



240 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

recoiled, but the stern misguided Queen persisted in the useless 
butchery. 

War with France (1557). Loss of Calais (1558). — Everything, 
however, worked against her. A new Pope, Paul IV, insisted upon 
the restoration of the Church lands, thus alienating many of her 
Catholic supporters. In March, 1557, Philip, during the course of 
a three months' visit, succeeded in drawing the English into a war 
between Spain and France which had just broken out. An excuse 
was furnished by anti-Marian plots, supposed, in spite of his denial, 
to have been assisted by the French King; but the result of this 
violation of the marriage treaty was most humiliating and damning 
to Mary. On 6 January, 1558, Calais, the last English possession 
on French soil, was captured by the French. Three months later 
Mary, Queen of Scots, was married to the Dauphin. At home the 
English prospects were as dark and threatening as they were abroad. 
An ague fever raged through the land during the summer and autumn 
of 1557 and 1558, corn was dear, trade and agriculture languished, 
and heavy taxes were imposed to meet the cost of the unsuccessful 
and unpopular war. 

Death of Queen Mary (1558). — In the midst of sullen discontent 
engendered by persecution, foreign and papal intermeddling, financial 
stress, and national humiliation, Mary, long ailing in health and broken 
down by a cumulation of disappointments, succumbed to the prevail- 
ing epidemic. The loss of Calais was the crowning grief. " When 
I am dead and opened," she said in her last illness, " you will find 
Calais lying upon my heart." She died 17 November, 1558. Pole, 
who had succeeded Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, followed 
her to the grave within a few hours. In a prayer book, said to be hers, 
the pages which contain the prayers for the unity of the Holy Cath- 
olic Church are stained with tears and much handling. Her marriage 
to Philip was the greatest mistake of her life ; it outraged national 
sentiment and ruined what chance there was of making her religious 
policy prevail, while the oppositions which it excited, and its other 
unhappy consequences, accentuated her austere sense of duty into 
blind fanaticism. 

The Results of the Marian Exile. — The activity of the Marian 
exiles, who flooded the country with furious and inflammatory writ- 
ings, made the lot of those who remained behind much harder than 
it might otherwise have been. At the beginning of the reign all 
foreign exiles had been ordered to leave the realm within twenty-four 
days under pain of imprisonment and loss of goods. About 800 
migrated, together with 200 English disciples. During their sojourn 



THE ENGLISH COUNTER-REFORMATION 241 

abroad, Calvinism took a firm hold upon the Marian exiles, an earnest 
and thinking class. On their return under Elizabeth they brought 
back and spread their views among their countrymen, with marked 
effect upon England's future religion and politics. 

Calvinism. — Calvinism had two sides. The cornerstone of its 
doctrine was predestination, which came to be accepted even by many 
loyal members of the Church of England. Then there was its system 
of Church government, which substituted for the Episcopal hierarchy 
a series of representative assemblies. Each church had its " kirk 
session," consisting of the pastor or " presbyter " and a body of 
elders chosen by the congregation. These were grouped into " presby- 
teries, or classes," which, in their turn, were grouped into " synods." 
Finally there was the " general assembly," composed of represen- 
tatives from the smaller bodies, and exercising jurisdiction over 
the whole. This Calvinistic system ultimately came to be the form 
established in Scotland. In England, where it never received any 
official sanction, it was adopted by an aggressive and influential 
class and played an important part in public affairs for over a century. 

Up to the time of Calvin the principle of the Reformation had 
been cujus regio, ejus religio, meaning, the religion of the ruler shall 
be the religion of the land. That had been, and was to remain, the 
basis of settlement in Germany and in England. Calvinism, on the 
other hand, like Roman Catholicism, was opposed to national in- 
dependence and State control. Each claimed to be a universal 
Church superior to all rulers. The State was regarded as the servant, 
not the master of the Church. Yet there was one fundamental 
difference between the two. The Roman organization was monar- 
chical, while the Calvinistic was, in theory at least, republican. The 
pastors and elders were supposed to be the representatives, the chosen 
instruments of the congregation. As a matter of fact, wherever 
Calvinism got a foothold the presbyters sought to gain complete 
control in political as well as religious affairs. This is the chief 
reason why the mass of Englishmen ultimately rejected it ; not, how- 
ever, before it had accomplished a great work, in helping to make the 
Reformation something more than a transference of religious head- 
ship from Pope to King. 

The Scotch Reformation. John Knox. — The overthrow of the 
Church of Rome in Scotland is unique in that it was brought about, 
not under the leadership of, but in opposition to, the Sovereign. 
After the death of James V the control of the government was grad- 
ually secured by Cardinal Beaton and the Queen Dowager, who 
finally became Regent, in 1554. In her effort to maintain Roman 



242 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Catholic ascendancy under a French alliance there were three elements 
ranged against her : the Protestants, the anti-French party, and the 
nobles, poor and greedy, who coveted the riches of the Church. The 
burning of George Wishart, i March, 1546, occasioned the first rising, 
when a body of nobles banded together and murdered in his bed, 
29 May, Cardinal Beaton, the great and worldly Archbishop of St. 
Andrew's, author of Wishart's death. Seizing the Castle of St. 
Andrew's they were joined by many of the anti-Catholic, anti-French 
party. Among those who came was John Knox (1505-1572) who, 
more than any other man, was the author and organizer of the Scotch 
Reformation. Hard, narrow he was, but a born leader, eloquent and 
fearless. In July, 1547, when the castle surrendered to a combined 
force of French and Scots, he was taken prisoner, and served in the 
French galleys till February, 1549. Then he became a preacher in 
England, but, shortly after Mary's accession, fled to the Continent. 
There he met Calvin, whose views he adopted, and settled in Geneva 
as minister of the English congregation. In the autumn of 1555 he 
paid a brief visit to Scotland, during which he started an organization 
of the nobles that resulted, 3 December, 1557, in a bond or " covenant" 
to " establish the most blessed word of God." The signatories, or 
" Lords of the Congregation," as they were called, were actuated 
partly by political motives and hope of gain, but a petition, framed 
in 1558, shows that they demanded reform in the Church; " the 
right of public and private prayer in common speech, of explaining 
and expounding the Scriptures, and of communion in both kinds." 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Pollard, Innes, Lingard, Froude, and Cambridge Modern 
History. M. J. Stone, Mary I, Queen of England (1901) ; an apology for 
Mary. 

Constitutional and ecclesiastical as above. John Fox, Acts and Monu- 
ments, popularly known as the Book of Martyrs (first published in 1563, 
best edition Townshend's, 8 vols., 1 843-1 849) although marred by inaccu- 
racies and bias ; this is the classic contemporary account of the Marian 
Martyrs. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 163-166. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT AND THE EARLY 
YEARS OF THE REIGN (1558-1572) 

Elizabeth's Accession and Character. — When Elizabeth received 
the news that she was Queen of England she cried : " This is the 
Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." It was a great heritage 
and one which brought with it tremendous problems for a young woman 
of twenty-five. The new Queen, however, was endowed with rare 
qualities which had been sharpened by hard schooling in the world 
of men and books. Hers was a puzzling contradictory nature, though 
the gold glittered brightly through the dross. While vain, uncertain 
of temper, and unscrupulous, she united imperious dignity with pru- 
dence and tact, and was an adept in the art of concealing her meaning 
in well sounding words. Her physical vigor and endurance were re- 
markable, she could hunt all day, dance or watch masques and pageants 
all night, and when necessary apply herself unremittingly to business. 

Her Diplomatic Courtships. — Her youth had only been less hard 
than that of her sister Mary. Parental, brotherly, and sisterly affec- 
tion were all excluded from her life. Her first love affair was with 
Somerset's self-seeking brother, who aimed to use her as an instrument 
of his ambition, and, freeing herself only with difficulty from the charge 
of complicity in his plots, she ceased henceforth to trust any one. 
Thomas Seymour was the first of a long line of suitors, though her 
subsequent courtships were merely a part of the great diplomatic game 
which she played so successfully throughout her reign. While to gain 
political advantage she led men on, she was determined never to marry. 
This question, as well as that of the succession, she was bound that 
Parliament should not discuss, and members who presumed to disobey 
were overwhelmed with her wrath. Elizabeth was as lacking in reli- 
gious sense as she was in scruple and delicacy ; she had no sympathy 
with the advanced Protestantism of Edward's reign and still less with 
Mary's Roman Catholic restoration. 

Elizabeth's Favorites and Councilors. — Sure that they would not 
influence her judgment at crises, the Queen all through life indulged 

243 



244 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

her passion for the flattery of handsome, accomplished men and kept 
a large following of favorites. The chief of them all was Robert Dud- 
ley, Earl of Leicester, son of the notorious Northumberland; his 
step-son, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was " a pleasing and fruit- 
less object " whom Elizabeth took up in his old age ; Sir Walter Raleigh, 
with far greater abilities and merits than either, came to a tragic end 
in the next reign. For serious business Elizabeth chose good, wise 
Ministers. William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598), was her chief 
advisor for forty years ; though lacking the vision and ideals of the 
highest type of statesmanship, he was cautious, sane, methodical, and 
amazingly industrious. Francis Walsingham (1 530-1 590) , who served 
as Secretary of State from 1573 till his death, was a zealous Protes- 
tant, unrivaled for his skill in unraveling plots against the throne, 
and excellently versed in foreign affairs. In spite of their capacity 
and devotion Elizabeth was often at odds with her Ministers, largely 
because of their excessive Protestant zeal. Her outlook was doubtless 
broader than theirs, for while they were convinced that the only hope 
of safety lay in a rigid anti-Catholic regime, she saw. the wisdom of 
attaching moderates of both parties to her side, realizing that if she 
committed herself to the ultra-Protestant policy it would inevitably 
provoke civil and foreign war. 

Her Problems and Policy. — The exhausted country was deeply 
in debt. Two parties of religious extremists were striving for mastery. 
Mary had been dragged by her Spanish consort into a disastrous war 
with France, and the French King, with one foot on Calais and another 
in Scotland, loomed up doubly threatening. Foreign Powers and many 
of Elizabeth's own subjects held her to be a heretic and no true heir 
of her father, and Mary, Queen of Scots, the next orthodox heir, was 
united in marriage to the Dauphin. Spain, too, might conceivably 
compose her political differences with her northern neighbor and com- 
bine in a grand Catholic alliance to crush one of the few remaining 
outposts of Protestantism. It was the aim of Elizabeth to prevent 
this. But she sought to achieve her purpose by diplomacy, steering 
clear of wars and alliances, and contenting herself with occasional — 
so far as possible secret — aid to the Protestants in Scotland and the 
Netherlands and the Huguenots in France. There were three reasons : 
she desired to give her overburdened country a chance to rest and to 
develop its resources ; moreover, she hoped by preserving neutrality 
to unite all classes of subjects irrespective of party ; finally, she was 
proud of her diplomatic gifts, though her diplomacy was frequently 
nothing but deceit. Yet, with all her pettiness, Elizabeth had a true 
love for her people, and in times of stress could rise to the noblest 



THE ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT 245 

heights. In general, her hesitating policy was best, since it enabled 
her to play off conflicting forces one against another, thereby gaining 
time, the healing properties of which she understood so well. The 
result was that she left Protestantism established on a secure founda- 
tion, she insured a peaceful succession which led to ultimate union 
with Scotland, she found poverty and strife and left prosperity and 
national unity. 

Peace with France (1559). ■ — One of the new Queen's first steps was 
to refuse an offer of marriage from Philip II and to declare to Parlia- 
ment her intention to remain single, which meant that with the help of 
her people she was to solve her problems independently, not as a prov- 
ince of Spain. In April, 1559, she made peace with France by yield- 
ing Calais, a concession which relieved the country of great expense 
and helped in the withdrawal from foreign complications. 

The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity (1559). — While extricating 
the State from foreign entanglements Elizabeth also had turned her 
attention to the religious settlement. By steering a middle course 
she sought to unite the moderates of both parties against the extrem- 
ists ; moreover, " new-fangledness " repelled her because it stood 
for popular or clerical control, while Romanism meant subordination 
to the Pope. Parliament, after a hard struggle, carried in April, 1559, 
two Acts embodying the Elizabethan Settlement, which, save for a 
few later modifications, is practically that of the Church of England 
to-day. By the first of these Acts — popularly known as the " Act of 
Supremacy " — the reactionary legislation of Mary was repealed and 
most of the anti-papal laws of Henry VIII were restored. A few of 
Henry's claims were not revived; for example, in place of the title 
of " Supreme Head," Elizabeth assumed that of " Supreme Governor " 
of the Church, thus avoiding offense to the Catholics who recognized 
only the Pope, and to the Puritans who accepted Christ alone as Head. 
Obedience to the Act was secured by an oath imposed upon all clergy- 
men and holders of civil office, while those who maintained the author- 
ity of any foreign prince or prelate were subject to severe penalties. 
The second measure, the " Act of Uniformity of Common Prayer," 
enforced the form of service of a newly revised Prayer Book and pro- 
hibited all others. Ministers who disobeyed were punished, and every 
one refusing to go to church had to pay a fine. Submission to the 
Established Church was regarded as a test of loyalty to the State ; 
and, in those troublous times, disobedience was regarded as the blackest 
of crimes. For the time being, the Elizabethan Settlement apparently 
satisfied all but a few extremists among the rank and file, though the 
bishops, all but one of whom opposed it, either fled abroad or were de- 



246 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

prived and imprisoned.. Matthew Parker (1504-1575) was conse- 
crated Archbishop of Canterbury in place of Pole. Wise and moderate 
as well as learned, he desired ever to conciliate, though he was later 
forced into sharp opposition against the Puritans. 

The Triumph of the Scotch Protestants (1 559-1 560). — No sooner 
had Elizabeth brought English affairs into some degree of order than 
she was drawn into the struggle across the Border. John Knox re- 
turned to Scotland in 1559 and at once took the lead against the Regent. 
An attempt to suppress the Protestant preachers furnished the im- 
mediate occasion, but back of it was a growing feeling against French 
influence. The Lords of the Congregation, who furnished Knox's 
fighting force, applied to Elizabeth for aid. Fearing to go too far lest 
she might set a precedent for foreign Powers to combine with her 
Catholic subjects to drive her from her throne, she agreed to assist the 
Scots in expelling the French, provided they continued to acknowledge 
their Queen, Mary, wife of Francis II of France. 1 Since the French 
were fully occupied by internal troubles, and since the masterful Regent 
died, in June, 1560, the Lords of the Congregation, with such help as 
they got from the cautious Elizabeth, were able to overcome the France- 
Catholic party. In August, 1560, they called a meeting of the Estates, 
which renounced the authority of the Pope, and forbade the saying 
or hearing mass under penalties culminating in death for the third 
offense. 

Mary's Return to Scotland (1561).- — In December, 1560, Francis II 
died, and in August of the following year Mary returned to Scotland. 
Her guiding aim was to secure the succession to the English throne. 
Her accomplishments, added to her personal charm, made her well- 
nigh irresistible, and she was daring, persistent, and unscrupulous as 
well. In her struggle with Elizabeth, however, she was handicapped 
by various disadvantages besides inferior resources. Her loves and 
hates frequently prevailed over her State policy, whereas Elizabeth, 
equally fearless and unscrupulous, always kept her feelings under con- 
trol ; Elizabeth's interests, too, were generally identical with those of 
the English people, while Mary looked on the Scotch solely as a means 
of furthering her own ambitions. In spite of herself, Mary advanced 
the cause of the Reformation. Her claims to the English throne 
forced Elizabeth to seek the support of her Protestant subjects and 
drew patriotic Catholics to her side ; it also insured to Protestant Eng- 
land the friendship of Philip II as a counterpoise to Franco-Scotch 
ascendancy, while a similar fear led Elizabeth to lend effective, if 
grudging, aid to the Protestant lords. 

1 He succeeded his father, Henry II, July, 1559. 



THE ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT 247 

Mary's Marriage to Darnley (1565). — In the course of a few years, 
partly owing to her winning graces, partly to the repellent austerity 
of Knox and his ministers, Mary had gained great strength, when sud- 
denly, 29 July, 1565, she married her cousin Lord Darnley. Thus she 
broke away from her half brother Lord James Stewart, 1 leader of the 
dominant Protestants, and put herself at the head of the Catholic 
party in Scotland and England. Her motives in this marriage were 
political, not romantic; for Darnley was next to herself in the succes- 
sion and cf her own faith. The Catholic cause seemed triumphant. 
Moray and the Protestant lords, after an unsuccessful appeal to arms 
fled to England, and Mary set to work to induce the French and Span- 
ish to sink their political jealousies in a common war for the destruc- 
tion of Protestantism. She was destined to bitter disappointment. 

Darnley's Breach with Mary. His Murder (1567). — Darnley 
proved weak, dissipated, and presuming. His excesses disgusted 
the Queen, while he, infuriated at his exclusion from all authority, 
laid the blame on Mary's secretary David Rizzio. So he was easily 
persuaded to enter into a bond with the exiled lords to bring them back 
and dispose cf his rival. On 9 March, 1566, he burst into the Queen's 
chamber in Iiclyrood Palace, followed by a body of armed men who 
tore Rizzio from her skirts where he clung for protection, dragged him 
to the door, stabbed him, and flung his body down the stairs. Mary 
met the situation with promptness and decision. Feigning reconcili- 
ation with her ineffectual Consort, she drew him from his fellow con- 
spirators, and restored to favor such of the Protestant lords as had 
not been involved in the crime. However, her natural aversion to 
Darnley was rendered complete by a passionate attachment which she 
formed for the Earl of Bothwell, a reckless, aspiring noble, who, although 
a Protestant, was the declared enemy of Moray. It was at this junc- 
ture that, 9 February, 1567, Kirk O'Field, the house in which Darnley, 
just recovering from a serious illness, was lodged, was blown up and 
his dead body was found in the adjoining garden. Mary, who brought 
him to the house, had left him, only a few hours before the explosion. 

Mary's Flight to England. Her Captivity (1560-1587). — Though 
Bothwell was accused with one voice, no one dared to appear against 
him. After his acquittal at a trial which was nothing more than a 
farce, he took Mary captive, apparently by arrangement planned with 
her beforehand. Having secured a divorce from his own wife, he and 
the Queen were married, 15 May, 1567. This outrageous proceeding 
led to a revolt — in which Mary was overcome. Bothwell escaped 
while she herself was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, forced to yield 

1 Earl of Moray in 1562. 



248 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the throne to her infant son, James, born 19 June, 1566, and to nomi- 
nate Moray Regent. She escaped after a few months only to receive 
another defeat, May, 1568, when, in despair, she fled across the Border, 
threw herself on the support of Elizabeth, and demanded a hearing 
against her subjects. After a body of commissioners, representing 
the two Queens and the rebellious Scots, had delayed for months on 
the case Elizabeth was able to announce a characteristically in- 
definite conclusion, blaming neither party. Nevertheless, Mary was 
held a captive for nearly twenty years. Fortunately for England, 
the French and Spanish Kings were for a time fully occupied with their 
own affairs, and, in spite of the danger of rousing the Catholics, Mary 
proved a valuable hostage. 

The Rising of the Northern Earls (1569). — Not long after Mary's 
arrival in England the plotting began. Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, 
planned to marry her. Lacking courage to declare himself, he, never- 
theless, aroused Elizabeth's suspicions, who had him locked up in the 
Tower, October, 1569. A fortnight after his arrest a great rebellion 
broke out in the north. As in the case of the Pilgrimage of Grace, 
the movement was due to a mixture of religious, political and economic 
causes. However, the specific demands of the insurgents were the 
restoration of the old religion, the purging of new men from the Council, 
the release of Norfolk, and the restoration of Mary to her throne. 
Once more, however, lack of concert among them proved fatal, with 
the result that the Queen's army was soon able to restore order. How- 
ever, a strong party still survived who firmly believed that Elizabeth 
had no right to rule and that it was their religious duty to put Mary 
Stuart in her place ; they looked to Rome for support, and, when occa- 
sion offered, intrigued with Spain and France. 

Elizabeth and the Catholics. — Elizabeth sought to meet the Roman 
Catholic danger in two ways : abroad, by stirring up the Protestant 
subjects of the rulers whom she feared ; at home, by restrictive legis- 
lation. She demanded only outward conformity ; for, as she proudly 
declared, she " made no windows into men's souls." Moreover, no one 
was put to death for religion during the first seventeen years of her 
reign. Persecution was forced upon her by political necessity. While 
liberty of worship was forbidden from the first, the restrictions later 
imposed were due in most cases to aggressions from Rome or to marked 
successes of the Catholic cause abroad. The events of 1562 illustrate 
this. The Pope struck a hard blow at the loyalty of the moderate 
Catholics by a brief in which he denounced the Prayer Book and for- 
bade the faithful to attend the services of the Church of England. In 
France the Huguenots, or Protestants, met with a series of reverses, 



THE ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT 249 

and English troops, which Elizabeth had reluctantly sent to their aid, 
were driven out of Havre. The result was a series of measures, aimed 
to offset these papal assertions and gains. So the Forty-two Articles, 
revised and reduced to thirty-nine, were adopted by Convocation, 
1563 ; l while an Act of Parliament extended the Oath of Supremacy 
to members of the House of Commons, to schoolmasters, and lawyers. 
Furthermore, the Court of High Commission, authorized by the Act 
of Supremacy, began actively to inquire into the faith of the clergy. 

The Counter-Reformation. — There was still great danger that 
England might be engulfed in the " Counter-reformation," as the 
great movement was called by which the Church of Rome sought to 
reform itself and to recover the countries which had broken away. 
Practically every spark of heresy was stamped out in Spain and Italy, 
France was retained by hard fighting, so were ten of the seventeen 
provinces in the Low Countries, while Poland, Southern Germany, and, 
later, Bohemia, were all won back. Four main factors played a de- 
cisive part in the Roman Catholic renascence. First, zealous and 
religious Popes were elected. Secondly, the counsels of progressive 
and high-thinking men began to be heard, who sought to regenerate 
the Church from within in order to tempt back those who had wandered 
from the fold. Steps even toward reconciliation with the Lutherans 
were undertaken by progressive Italian Catholics ; but were checked 
by Francis I who persuaded Paul III that religious unity in Germany 
would make Charles V dangerously strong. So the question was re- 
served for a General Council soon to meet at Trent. 

Before it came together a new religious order sprang into being, the 
influence of which prevented all reconciliation. 

The Jesuits. — This third and most aggressive factor in the regen- 
eration of the Church — the famous Society of Jesus — was the crea- 
tion of Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish knight, who developed a wonderful 
organization, the members of which, pledged to absolute obedience, 
were to be Christian soldiers in a grand spiritual campaign to convert 
all outside the pale of the Church and to suppress free thought and 
inquiry within. The Society received the papal sanction in 1540, 
and Loyola became its first general in 1541. Training schools and 
colleges were established ; and the Order, which numbered thousands 
and extended over Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, was divided 
into provinces, each under a provincial, while the general at Rome 
wielded power over Popes and Princes. 2 

1 Ratified by Parliament in 1571. 

2 They were greatly assisted in their work of suppression, by the Inquisition, 
an institution as old as the twelfth century; but which, with an elaborate or- 



250 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Council of Trent (1545-1563). The Council of Trent, the 
fourth factor in counteracting the Protestant Reformation, was opened 
in 1545, and continued its session intermittently till 1.563. Here the 
Jesuits prevailed over the party of mediation. The leading doctrines 
of Protestantism, such as individual interpretation of the Bible and 
justification by faith, were condemned ; the chief dogmas of the Church 
were defined more rigidly, the supremacy of the Pope was reaffirmed, 
glaring abuses were reformed, and stricter discipline was introduced. 
Thus reformed and reorganized, strengthened by the terrible arm of 
the Inquisition, the Church of Rome under pious and energetic Popes 
sought the support of Spain and France, and started anew on its road 
of recovery and conquest. England, however, who had so much to 
fear from this powerful combination, was to enjoy a period of respite. 
Philip II, keen enough to reestablish the power of the Church, was 
held back for some years by fear of France, who aimed to extend her 
power across the Channel by making Mary Stuart Queen of England. 
During the interval, the French Government was occupied in a series 
of religious wars with the Huguenots, while Philip himself was called 
upon to face a revolt of his Protestant subjects in the Netherlands. 

The Revolt of the Netherlands (1567). — Charles V had ruled with 
great moderation, respecting carefully their provincial privileges to 
which they clung tenaciously; but Philip II, unlike his father, had 
not been brought up among them and was Spanish to the core. Cold 
and unbending, he determined to mold them into the vast religious 
and political system by which he sought to control his dominions in 
Europe, America, and the Eastern Ocean. The opposition started 
with a combination of the local nobility, led by William of Orange, 
against an attempt to ignore their share in the government. Then 
the activity of the Inquisition in punishing heresy led to their union 
with the people in a common bond to uproot and expel the iniquitous 
instrument of oppression. As a result of a great popular outburst, the 
Regent, who governed for Philip, made certain concessions which led 
many of the nobles and some of the moderate folk to return to their 
allegiance, though the Prince of Orange held aloof and withdrew to 
Germany. Philip, instead of meeting his subjects halfway, adopted 
the advice of the Duke of Alva, the most uncompromising of his gen- 
erals, and sent him with Spanish troops to repress and punish those 
who had presumed to rebel against his authority. Directly on his 
arrival, in May, 1567, Alva set up a tribunal known as the " Blood 
Council " to try those concerned in the recent outbreak, and among 

ganization of courts and officials, had been particularly active in Spain for about a 
century. 



THE ELIZABETHAN RELIGIOUS SETTLEMENT 251 

those put to death were nobles who had renounced the extremists. 
William of Orange, who during his exile had become a Calvinist, led 
an army against the savage executioner, but had to withdraw de- 
feated. 

The Ridolfi Plot and the Execution of Norfolk (1572). — The cause 
of Protestantism was exposed to serious menace, and the Protestant 
cause received another blow from the assassination of Moray, Regent 
of the Scots, 23 January, 1 570 To cap all, the Pope issued a bull of ex- 
communication against Queen Elizabeth. Her reply was a new series 
of measures against the Catholics. In 1571 Parliament declared it 
high treason to call the Queen a heretic, to affirm that any particular 
person was her successor, 1 or to publish any papal bull against her. 
In this year " Ridolfi's Plot," engineered by a Florentine resident 
in England, came to light, a plot which, with the aid of Alva, Philip II, 
and the Pope, aimed to liberate Mary and to marry her to the Duke 
of Norfolk. Norfolk paid the penalty with his head, 1572. Though 
the clouds still hung heavy, Elizabeth had already achieved much 
and was steadily gaining ground. She had settled the religion of her 
realm, she had helped to set up Protestantism in Scotland, she held 
her rival captive, she had put down a dangerous rising, and, while 
Catholicism was gaining ground abroad, the two leading Powers of 
that faith were at odds with each other and busy repressing religious 
revolts among their own subjects. Further dangers were in store for 
England's Queen ; but when they came, she proved ready to meet 
them, backed by the moderate men of both camps who saw that the 
salvation of their country depended upon united effort. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Pollard ; Innes ; Lingard ; Froude ; and Cambridge Modern 
History. Creighton, Queen Elizabeth (1909), the best biography of the 
Queen. Creighton, The Age of Elizabeth (6th ed., 1885), a good brief survey. 
M. A. S. Hume, The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth (1896) and The Great Lord 
Burghley (1898) are useful. 

For Relations with Scotland. Cambridge Modern History, III, ch. VIII 
(bibliography 810-815) is an able and impartial survey of the Mary Stuart 
problem. See also P. H. Brown, Scotland; Andrew Lang, History of Scot- 
land (1900-1902) and W. L. Mathieson, Politics and Religion (1902). 

J. R. Seeley, Growth of British Policy (2 vols., 1895) contains a stimulating 
and suggestive account of the broader features of the diplomacy of the reign. 

Ecclesiastical. In addition to Wakeman and Dixon, W. H. Frere, 
History of the English Church, 1 588-1603 (1904). F. Proctor (ed. W. H. 

1 This was of course aimed at Mary and her adherents. 



252 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Frere) New History of the Book of Common Prayer (1901). H. Gee, The 
Elizabethan Prayer Book and Ornaments (1902). H. N. Birt, The Elizabethan 
Religious Settlement (1907) treats the subject from the Roman Catholic 
standpoint. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 167 ff. ; for a 
more complete selection G. W. Prothero, Select Statutes and Other Constitu- 
tional Documents (1894, new ed., 1913). 






CHAPTER XXV 
ELIZABETH'S ASCENDANCY AND DECLINE (1572-1603) 

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew (24 August, 1572). — Alva's 
triumph was short-lived. His bloodthirstiness and his oppressive 
taxation roused the Netherlanders to fury : encouraged by French and 
English aid, town after town rebelled, and, in July, 1572, four of the 
Northern provinces united under William of Orange as Stadholder. 
One result was a wild assault on the Huguenots in France. That 
country was practically governed by the masterful Catherine de' 
Medici, mother of the nominal King Charles IX, who had recently 
fallen under the influence of Admiral Coligny, the noblest of the 
Huguenot leaders. Momentarily freed from fear of Spain, Catherine, 
recoiling at the thought of Protestant ascendancy, combined with 
the hated Guises 1 to get rid of her son's new mentor and to destroy 
his followers. The opportunity came when the wedding of Henry 
of Navarre, 18 August, 1572, brought large numbers of the Hugue- 
not party to Paris. Representing to her feeble-minded son that his 
throne, his religion, and indeed his life were in danger, Catherine 
prevailed upon him to order a general massacre, which began in the 
early morning of St. Bartholomew's Day, 24 August. Ccligny was 
the most notable victim, though few of the leaders, except Henry of 
Navarre, escaped. The slaughter, spreading from Paris to the other 
towns of France, lasted for days. England was plunged in deepest 
gloom, and when the French ambassador succeeded in obtaining an 
audience he was received by the whole Court in mourning. 

The Union of Utrecht (1579). — Alva, now that the Netherlands 
were cut off from French help, hoped to crush them utterly ; but his 
ruthless methods only stirred them to more desperate resistance. 
Philip, in despair, soon recalled him, and sent a successor pledged to 
a more pacific policy. The French Government, too, were not long 
in recognizing the futility of the policy of bloodshed, and sought to 
conciliate the Huguenots by a new edict of toleration. In the Neth- 

1 A powerful Lorraine family who furnished many Roman Catholic leaders in 
Church and State. 

253 



254 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

erlands the new Governor, Alexander of Parma, managed to break 
up the combination of the seventeen provinces by artfully fomenting 
religious dissension. The ten southern, prevailingly Catholic, formed 
a separate union and gradually fell back to Spain, while the seven 
northern, by the Union of Utrecht, 1579, combined under William of 
Orange, and ultimately, after an heroic struggle, achieved their 
independence, which was finally acknowledged in 1648. 

Roman Catholic Movements against Elizabeth in Ireland and 
Scotland. — In view of the large number of disaffected in Ireland, 
Scotland, and Wales a plan was concocted by certain English exiles, 
with the sanction of the Pope, to strike at Queen Elizabeth in all 
those three centers simultaneously. Ireland offered a peculiarly 
favorable field. While Henry VIII had alienated many by his 
attempts to bribe the chiefs with tribal lands, attempts in Mary's 
reign to plant English settlers in western Leinster had only increased 
the bitterness. The natives were in constant turmoil, and the English 
officials, strong enough for oppression and extortion, had not sufficient 
forces to maintain order. In consequence, Irishmen listened eagerly 
to papal emissaries who promised deliverance from tyranny. How- 
ever, a joint invasion and rising, centering in Kerry, in 1579, led by 
two brothers of the powerful House of Desmond, and supported, with 
the sanction of Gregory XIII, by a few Spanish and Italian troops, 
was ruthlessly suppressed by a new Lord Deputy, an achievement 
which Elizabeth joyfully acknowledged as an act of God. Followed 
by devastations and seizures, its only result was to widen the breach 
between England and her subject people. In Scotland an attempt 
at a Catholic revival was made through Esme Stuart, sent in 1579 
by the Guises with the design of converting James VI and restoring 
the French alliance. Easily gaining a complete ascendancy over 
the young King, who created him Duke of Lennox, he was for some 
months virtually master of Scotland, and was on the point of calling 
in a force of Spanish troops when, in August, 1582, a group of nobles 
seized King James while hunting and forced him to order Lennox to 
leave the country. After a period of aimless lingering the defeated 
intriguer withdrew to France, where he died soon after. 

The Seminary Priests and Jesuits in England (1579-1581). — The 
third center of attack was in England itself. Among other evidences 
of the zeal inspired by the Jesuits was the founding of a Seminary 
at Douay (soon transferred to Rheims) and of a college at Rome for 
the training of English Catholics. Burning with enthusiasm, the 
Englishmen who went from them x strove to convert their Protestant 
1 Known as " seminary priests " when they took Holy Orders. 



ELIZABETH'S ASCENDANCY AND DECLINE 255 

countrymen and to arouse the native Catholics from their lethargy. 
In June, 1581, a mission led by two Jesuits, Edmund Campion, a 
high-minded enthusiast of captivating eloquence, and Robert Parsons, 
a restless intriguer, landed in England. Moving from place to place 
in disguise they preached to large crowds, they set up a printing 
press, circulated controversial pamphlets, and converted considerable 
numbers. Alarmed at their success, the Government passed an Act 
of Parliament which declared it high treason to convert the Queen's 
subjects to the Church of Rome or to aid or to conceal those engaged 
in such work. Heavy fines were imposed on any priest who said mass 
or on any one who refused * to go to Church. A rigid persecution 
was begun ; houses were searched for concealed priests ; Campion 
and some of the other Jesuits were captured and put to death ; but 
Parsons escaped and troubled the Government for years to come. 

Further Measures against the Roman Catholics (1584-1593). — The 
discovery, in 1583, of another plot to put Mary on the throne with 
foreign aid, and the assassination of William the Silent, 2 in July, 1584, 
led to the formation of a voluntary association to protect the Queen, 
which was legalized by Parliament early in 1585. Another Act 
ordered all Jesuits and seminary priests to quit the realm within 
forty days and declared any found thereafter, or any who had harbored 
them, guilty of high treason. The final anti-Catholic Act of the 
reign, passed in 1593, provided that recusants of the wealthier sort 
should be forbidden to travel more than five miles from their homes 3 
and that those of the poorer class should be banished. 

The Protestant Extremists. — Meantime, since the beginning of 
the reign, the extreme Protestants had been giving -serious trouble. 
Three classes may be distinguished : the Puritans or moderate Non- 
conformists, who wanted to stay in the Church, but desired to "purify" 
its services from forms and ceremonies savoring of Rome ; the Presby- 
terians, who aimed to substitute their form of government for the 
Episcopal form established by law ; finally, the Separatists or Brown- 
ists, called Independents or Congregationalists in a later time, who 
insisted on the right of each congregation to manage its own affairs. 
Differing among themselves on many fundamental points, they agreed 
in denouncing what they regarded as " Romish " forms and cere- 
monies. The Puritans, who objected to the vestments prescribed 

1 Such persons were called "recusants." The fine, £20 a month, too heavy to be 
enforced, was intended mainly as a threat. 

2 The popular name for William of Orange. 

; They were retained as a source of revenue from the fines which might be im- 
posed. 



256 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for the clergy, and to various forms and ceremonies, such as the 
observance of saints' days, the sign of the Cross in baptism, and 
organ music, opened the fight in Convocation, in 1563. Failing to 
secure any concessions, they began to meet in " conventicles," where 
they held services according to their own rules, instead of those laid 
down in the Prayer Book. Elizabeth desired to avoid trouble, but 
they flouted the ritual to which she was attached ; their contempt of 
form and denunciation of amusements were unpalatable to the 
majority of her subjects; and they defied royal authority. Ac- 
cordingly, she insisted on the observance of the forms of worship by 
law established. 

The Presbyterians. — Later, the Presbyterians entered the field 
with an onslaught upon the very structure of the Episcopal church. 
In two " Admonitions to Parliament," in 1572, they denounced the 
government of bishops as contrary to the word of God and demanded 
government by presbyters. Not only were their views startlingly 
democratic but their language was immeasurably violent. A mild 
sample is their description of the Archbishop's court as " the filthy 
quagmire and poisoned splash of all abominations that do infect the 
whole realm." The advent of the Separatists about the same time 
added another element of confusion. In 1583 the Court of High 
Commission was put on a permanent footing with enlarged powers, 
though for ten years previously it had been active in enforcing the Act 
of Uniformity against Protestants as well as Catholics. On the 
other hand, Archbishop Parker's successor had to be suspended for 
refusing to suppress meetings of those of advanced views, while 
Whitgift, an orthodox and energetic prelate who followed him, 1583, 
was greatly hampered from the fact that extreme Protestantism had 
secured strong sympathizers in the Council and Parliament. 

The Marprelate Libels (1588). — Attempts at repression only 
embittered the extremists, who replied with violent abuse which 
reached its height in the Martin Marprelate libels, in 1588. In 
them the Archbishop was graced with such names as " Beelzebub of 
Canterbury, the Canterbury Caiaphas; Esau, a monstrous anti- 
Christ; a most bloody oppressor of God's saints." The bishops 
were: "false governors of the Church, petty popes; proud, popish, 
profane, presumptuous, paltry, pestilent, pernicious prelates, and 
usurpers ; enemies of God and the State." The clergy were : " popish 
priests, ale hunters, drunkards, dolts, hogs, dogs, wolves, desperate 
and forlorn atheists, a crew of bloody soul murderers, sacrilegious 
church robbers." These pronouncements of certain hot zealots, 
" who for Zion's sake could not hold their peace," were bound to hurt 



ELIZABETH'S ASCENDANCY AND DECLINE 257 

the cause of the earnest, moderate men opposed to the Elizabethan 
State Church. Indeed, the very year in which the libels appeared 
marked a reaction toward the Establishment, to which many other 
circumstances contributed. For one thing, numbers came to realize 
that it was both graceless and futile to engender strife against a 
Sovereign who, however sternly she repressed extremists, had done 
so much for the Protestant cause ; she was growing old and they could 
wait to push their claims under a successor to whom they were not 
bound by such ties of gratitude. To dispose of the irreconcilables, 
Parliament, in response to a royal demand, passed, 1593, an Act 
" against seditious sectaries and disloyal persons," providing, among 
other things, that those who frequented conventicles or assailed the 
royal supremacy in matters ecclesiastical should abjure the realm 
and never return under pain of death. In the same year three, 
including Penry, the chief author of the Marprelate libels, suffered 
for their faith, though the cause assigned was malicious defaming of 
the Queen with intent to stir up rebellion. 

Elizabeth's Intervention in the Netherlands (1585). — Doubtless 
the chief reason for harmonizing religious differences was the necessity 
of meeting a great invasion sent by Philip II, and the burst of loyalty 
which followed its triumphant repulse. The attack was due mainly 
to two causes: English intervention in the Netherlands and the 
aggressiveness of the English sea power. With the murder of William 
of Orange and the continued successes of Alexander of Parma, the cause 
of the Netherlands seemed to be doomed, particularly when the 
childless Henry III of France, allowing his religious sentiments to 
triumph over his fear of Spain, joined Philip II, 1585, to exclude from 
the French throne his heir Henry of Navarre, leader of the Huguenots, 
and to extirpate Protestantism in France and the Low Countries. 
Elizabeth, who had hitherto lent only enough assistance to the revolt 
to keep it alive, saw that the time for active intervention had come. 
She refused the offer of sovereignty, though, with her accustomed 
thrift, she demanded from the Dutch certain " cautionary towns " 
as pledges for expenses incurred. Toward the end of 1585 Leicester 
was sent over with a force of foot and horse. Thoroughly incom- 
petent, cramped from lack of funds, and opposed by Parma, the 
greatest general of the time, he accomplished nothing, and wags put 
in his mouth the words, vent, vidi, redii. 1 Leicester's futile expedition 
is only important as a leading cause of Philip's attack on England. 

The Rise of the Elizabethan Sea Power. — More alarming to the 

1 "I came, I saw, I returned," a brilliant distortion of Caesar's famous, veni, 

vidi, vici. 



258 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Spanish King than the English intervention in the Netherlands were 
the attacks of English seamen upon his commerce and his American 
possessions. Since the accession of Elizabeth the maritime power 
of the country had sprung into a stage of growth which ultimately 
brought it to a height unequaled in the world's history. Although 
the royal navy was developing, this was the peculiar work of the 
explorers and of sea-rovers or privateers, recruited from the merchant 
marine. They braved the perils of unknown seas and unknown 
lands, they broke through the colonial and commercial monopoly of 
Spain, and strove as well to strike deadly blows at Philip's world- 
wide religious and political domination. Thus fame and booty, the 
profit and glory of England, and the defense and spread of Protestant- 
ism mingled curiously and effectively to spur them on. And in the 
Queen they found a persistent if shifty supporter, for she shared in 
their profits and gained by their victories. Though her policy was 
in essence defensive — to preserve national independence and Protes- 
tantism — she sought to realize it, to a considerable degree, by offen- 
sive means. She had no mind to declare war ; but she sent aid to the 
Dutch in revolt, first " underhand " and at length openly, and from 
the beginning of her reign she steadily kindled the enthusiasm of her 
subjects for buccaneering enterprises against the Spanish commerce 
and the Spanish colonies, though protesting, all the while, that she 
was not responsible for the acts of her subjects. 

The English Buccaneers and Their Aggressions against Spain. — 
The pioneer of the Elizabethan " sea-dogs " was John Hawkins, who 
initiated the traffic in slaves from the Guinea coast of Africa to Spanish 
America, the Queen, it is shameful to relate, sharing in his profits. 
His young cousin Francis Drake accompanied him on his second 
voyage and commanded a ship on a third and more famous one, in 
1567, when they were attacked in the Mexican port of San Juan 
d'Ulloa, 1 whence they escaped only after the bulk of their crew had 
been massacred. While they had given great provocation, the act 
was a piece of deliberate treachery 2 and determined Drake to devote 
the remainder of his life to a relentless war against Spain and her 
possessions in the new world. In his famous voyage round the world, 
1577-1580, Drake marked his course by devastation and plunder; 
yet the magnitude of his achievement and the fortitude which he 

1 The roadstead of Vera Cruz. 

2 Elizabeth replied to the incident at San Juan by seizing, in December, 1568, 
Genoese ships laden with Spanish treasure for the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands, 
a step which, with amazing effrontery, she justified on the ground that, having saved 
it from the privateers, she was entitled to take it as a loan. 



ELIZABETH'S ASCENDANCY AND DECLINE 259 

displayed amply merited the acclaim which greeted him on his return. 
Elizabeth economically rewarded him with a knighthood for the 
share of treasure which he brought her. Trembling for the safety 
of his lands and trade, Philip for some years had sought to check 
Elizabeth's aggressions by seizing ships in Spanish waters. Her 
reply was to send privateers to the scene of action. Most disastrous 
to the enemy was the activity of Drake, in 1585. Striking first at 
the coast of Spain he seized a quantity of shipping ; thence he passed 
to the West Indies and the Spanish Main, overcoming great cities, 
and plundering and destroying as he went. The simultaneous 
operations of Drake and Leicester led Philip to plan a joint attack 
on England from Spain and the Netherlands. Under cover of a 
fleet, Parma was to land an army, the English Catholics were to rise 
for Mary, Elizabeth was to be disposed of, and Parma was to marry 
the new Queen and to govern the country for his master. 

Babington's Plot (1586). Execution of Mary. — The miscarriage 
of Babington's plot in behalf of Mary, 1586, shattered this project, 
but furnished Philip with another pretext for invading England. 
Mary was brought to trial and sentenced to death. After two 
months of vacillation and after she had made a vain effort to induce 
Mary's keeper to murder his royal captive, Elizabeth finally signed 
the death-warrant and handed it over to a Secretary without, how- 
ever, giving him any authority to carry it out. By order of the Council 
who assumed the responsibility, Mary Stuart was beheaded, 8 February, 
1587, going to her death with magnificent fortitude. Elizabeth pro- 
tested to France and Scotland that she was innocent of the deed and, 
as a proof of her good faith, fined and dismissed the poor Secretary. 

The Sailing of the Armada (1588). — Before Philip, now the avenger 
of Mary's death and the claimant 1 to the English throne, had com- 
pleted his ponderous preparations, the terrible Drake assumed the 
offensive. Sailing from Plymouth harbor, in April, 1587, he made 
for Cadiz, plundered the town, and destroyed a ' vast amount of 
stores and shipping, darted thence to Lisbon Bay, creating havoc 
with the fleet which the Spanish commander was making ready, and 
then intercepted, off Cape St. Vincent, a squadron of transports from 
the Mediterranean. This exploit, which is called " singeing the King 
of Spain's beard," frustrated Philip's plans for that year. At length, 
in May, 1588, the great Armada was ready to sail; but at the very 
outset it encountered a furious storm off Lisbon which so crippled 

1 Mary before her death had disinherited her son James in his favor as a claimant. 
Philip based his claim on his descent from a marriage of John of Gaunt with a 
Portuguese princess. 



260 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and scattered the ships that the second and final start was delayed 
till 12 July. 

Comparative Strength of the English and Spanish Fleets. — At 
least three serious obstacles confronted the invaders. Parma's army 
was blockaded by a Dutch fleet and that blockade would have 
to be broken ; then it was necessary to overcome the English in 
the Channel in order to convey his army across ; finally, Parma, if 
he succeeded in landing, would have to conquer the country — in 
all probability, in the teeth of opposition even from the Catholics. 
The critical struggle took place in the Channel, and in spite of 
the terror of the Spanish name and the imposing appearance of the 
Spanish fleet, the English captains anticipated a victory from the 
outset. Elizabeth, to be sure, was not well prepared, for she had 
hoped to avert war ; but her commander, Lord Howard of Effingham , 
was a man of experience, prudence, and valor, and had some of the 
most brilliant sea fighters of the age to help him. The Spanish 
fleet numbered 130 ships with a total tonnage and an equipment of 
men and guns double the English. On the other hand, while the 
English royal navy counted only 34 ships, others contributed by 
the nobles, the gentry, and the seaports, brought their aggregate up 
to 197. Moreover, the Spanish galleons were high fore and aft, 
offering excellent marks for the English gunners, and, drawing little 
water, they were unable to move rapidly — a serious impediment to 
their classic style of fighting, which consisted of closing with the 
enemy and making use of their superior numbers in hand-to-hand 
encounters. The English ships, lighter and better handled, kept the 
weather gauge, and firing three times to the enemy's one, poured their 
shot with deadly effect into their lofty exposed hulls. The clumsy 
Spanish, on their part, wasted their fire in a vain effort to disable 
the vessels that they could not reach, by aiming at their rigging. 

The Camp at Tilbury. — The English land forces were gathered at 
Tilbury where Elizabeth appeared before them mounted on a war 
horse, holding a general's staff, and arrayed in a breastplate of steel. 
Followed by a page who bore her helmet, she rode bareheaded through 
the ranks, and roused them to the highest pitch of loyalty by her 
stirring words. " I am come among you at this time," she said, 
" being resolved ... to lay down for my God and for my Kingdom, 
and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I 
know that I have but the body of a feeble woman, but I have the heart 
of a King and a King of England too." No wonder they prayed 
heartily the Spaniards might land quickly, and " when they knew 
they were fled, they began to lament." 



ELIZABETH'S AS1ENDANCY AND DECLINE 261 

The Destruction of the Armada. — On ig July, 1588, the long- 
expected Armada was first sighted off the Cornish coast. Repulsed 
in a series of engagements in the waters about Portsmouth and the 
Isle of Wight, the invaders started up the Channel to join Parma. 
When they reached Calais the English turned loose a number of fire 
ships, scattering the Spanish vessels in all directions ; before they had 
time to recover, they were engaged by the English fleet in force and 
obliged to break and flee. The victors, however, were in no con- 
dition to pursue them, for their ammunition was exhausted, their 
provisions had run short, and what remained was spoiled — a mishap 
due partly to the faulty and inadequate supply system of those days 
and partly to Elizabeth's parsimony. The " invincible Armada " 
sped north driven by a stiff gale, rounding the north of Scotland and 
the west of Ireland ; about half of the original force finally reached 
Spain. Beside those lost in fighting, many were wrecked, of whom 
numbers, cast alive on the Scotch and Irish shores, were slain by the 
natives or by English officials. Wind and weather had fought against 
the proud Spaniard, yet, after all has been said, the result was chiefly 
due to the courage and skill of Elizabeth's seamen. 

Significance of the Repulse of the Armada. — While the Armada 
had never seemed so formidable to English seamen as to the Catholic 
Powers of the Continent, its repulse marked a grandly significant 
moment in the history of England. It justified at home and abroad 
Elizabeth's wise policy of moderation. She had won her people with 
peace, light taxes, and the fostering of trade, and had prosecuted re- 
ligious extremists only so far as necessities of State demanded. When 
the crisis came her subjects, forgetting their religious differences, 
flocked to the defense of their Sovereign and their Kingdom. And the 
victory was not only an indication, it was also a further cause of na- 
tional unity. Achievement in a common national undertaking drew 
more closely together subjects of all shades of opinion. For the first 
time, too, it revealed to Christendom the greatness of English sea 
power and marked the beginning of the end of the Spanish sea power, 
one of the leading causes of Spanish ultimate downfall. 

New Aggressions against Spain and the Final Stages of the Struggle 
with Philip II. — The younger generation were thirsting for great 
exploits. Not content with preying upon Spain's commerce and 
worrying her with occasional dashes against her coasts, they aspired 
to break up her dominion beyond the seas and to set up an English 
dominion in its place. At the head of this party stood Essex, a nephew 
of Leicester, and Raleigh, who wanted to override the older, wiser, and 
more cautious councilors like Burghley and Walsingham. A futile 



262 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

expedition, in 1589, for the purpose of restoring a Portuguese claimant 
to the throne of Portugal is an instance of their extreme aggressive 
policy. In August, 1589, Henry III was assassinated, whereupon Henry 
of Navarre was able to fight his way to the throne, while the assistance 
which Philip II and Parma vainly sent to his opponents gave England 
and the Netherlands a happy respite. In 1593 Henry IV, as he now 
was, declared himself a Catholic ; but this was only for State purposes, 
and, in 1598, by the Edict of Nantes he granted a generous toleration 
to Huguenots. Already, more than a year earlier, after Philip's forces 
captured Calais, he joined the English in an expedition which sacked 
Cadiz and destroyed the shipping in the harbor. This was the last 
great naval expedition of the reign against Spain. Burghley succeeded 
in persuading the Queen to make his son, Robert, Secretary of State, 
and the peace party was able to put a check upon the fiery Essex fac- 
tion. Philip, in 1596 and 1597, sent fleets against England and Ire- 
land successively, but neither reached its destination. In 1598 Henry 
IV concluded a peace with Spain which made Philip free to pursue his 
designs on England and the Netherlands, but he died the very same 
year, leaving a bankrupt and crumbling heritage. 

Elizabeth's Last Years. — The repulse of the Armada marked the 
climax of Elizabeth's glory. The years that followed were years of 
increasing loneliness and isolation. Her favorites and her trusted 
councilors dropped off one by one: Leicester in 1588; Walsingham 
in 1590; Burghley in 1598. l The system which she represented had 
outlived its time; the old absolutism had served its turn, and new 
men and new policies were eagerly waiting their chance. The romance, 
too, of her life was ended ; for even at Court her popularity declined 
with her fading charms. The admiration of the younger courtiers 
came to be more and more a pretense. Yet, old as she was. she re- 
fused to face the prospect of death or to provide for the succession, 
and clung to vain display till the last. Once when the Bishop of St. 
David's ventured to preach on the text, " Lord, teach us to number 
our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom," she burst out 
stormily : " He might have kept his arithmetic to himself, but I see 
that the greatest clerks are not the wisest men." Yet, too, there were 
times when she showed flashes of that tact and insight which had been 
so characteristic of her in her prime. In 1601 when Parliament forced 

1 Essex was beheaded, in 1601, in consequence of an armed uprising against his 
Court opponents, to whom he attributed an humiliating sentence to imprisonment 
in his house, after he had burst into the royal presence unannounced on his return 
from Ireland, where he failed to deal effectively with a rebellion he was sent to 
quell. Elizabeth never recovered from the shock of signing his death warrant. 



ELIZABETH'S ASCENDANCY AND DECLINE 263 

her to revoke some grants of monopolies, regarded as burdensome, she 
yielded very gracefully, and declared : " I have more cause to thank 
you all than you me ; for, had I not received a knowledge from you, I 
might have fallen into the lap of an error only from lack of true in- 
formation." Yet, when the subject had been raised four years earlier, 
she had expressed the hope that her loving subjects would not take 
away her prerogative, and had done nothing. 

Elizabeth's Death (24 March, 1603). — Elizabeth died 24 March, 
1603, in the forty-sixth year of a reign, which, judged by its achieve- 
ments, was most notable. She maintained the established religion 
without civil war and kept England from being absorbed either by 
the House of Valois or the House of Hapsburg. By preventing the 
question of the succession from being decided prematurely, she peace- 
fully prepared the way for the Scotch Protestant line and the union 
of two countries that naturally belonged together. While she kept 
England out of war she diverted its energies into trade, exploration, 
and colonization, thus helping to lay the foundations of its future 
greatness. She was blessed with a long reign in which she labored to 
educate her people into a sense of unity and national self-conscious- 
ness. She trusted to time which, though it was ruthless to her as a 
woman, blessed her policy. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

M. A. S. Hume, Treason and Plot (1901) deals with the struggles of the 
Roman Catholics for supremacy in the last years of Elizabeth. E. P. 
Cheyney, A History of England from the Defeat of the Armada to the Death 
of Elizabeth (vol. I, 1914) is the most thorough account of the history of the 
period. 

See also the references for ch. XXIV above. 



CHAPTER XXVI 
ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND (1558-1603) 

The Strength of the Later Elizabethan Monarchy. — After Eliza- 
beth had weathered the storms of the first part of her reign, the Mon- 
archy seemed to be even stronger than under her triumphant father. 
Necessity, sentiment, and gratitude all contributed to this apparent 
result. The Protestants of every shade of opinion had been forced 
to support her through fear of civil war and foreign invasion. They 
clung to her against Mary Stuart, backed by France and the Papacy 
and, at length, by Spain. After Mary's death the moderate Catholics 
ranged themselves on Elizabeth's side against the Spanish invasion 
and the conquest which it threatened to involve. The sentiment of 
chivalrous devotion to a woman, although it took absurdly extravagant 
forms, particularly at Court, was another real source of strength that 
the Queen, not from vanity alone, knew how to foster. Finally, the 
gentry and the commercial and trading classes were bound to the throne 
by ties of material interest and gratitude. Henry VII had done much 
for them ; Henry VIII, continuing his father's policy, had shared with 
them the spoils of the monasteries and contributed to their prosperity 
in other ways ; under Elizabeth came peace, economical rule, depreda- 
tions against Spain, and the expansion of trade, together with the 
glorious deliverance of 1588. 

Opposition and Sources of Weakness. — Nevertheless, forces were 
already at work which indicated that absolutism was tottering. A 
new order of things was inevitable, though it was precipitated by 
the advent of the Stuart dynasty. The very services rendered by the 
Tudors, and particularly by Elizabeth, had put the subjects of the 
realm in a position to assert themselves. They no longer feared the 
old nobility who had oppressed them in the past and had been respon- 
sible for the terrible disorders of the fifteenth century ; they were no 
longer threatened with a Catholic successor ; the combination between 
France and Scotland had been broken by the union of the English 
and Scotch crowns ; Spain had been repulsed and the Romanist party 

264 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 



265 



had shrunk to a faction of plotters who were looked at askance by 
the loyal members of thei r own communion ; and Ireland, long a storm 
center, seemed for the moment quelled. 1 The grievances, actual and 
potential, against which the disaffected could now assert themselves, 
were both religious and political. While religious strife practically 
ceased after the Armada, the extreme Protestants had not been crushed ; 
they were only waiting more auspicious times. Since the bishops 
and their followers among the clergy turned to the Crown for support 
and sought to strengthen their position by exalting the royal pre- 
rogative, their opponents turned to Parliament, combining with those 
whose grievances were primarily political, with those who were op- 
posed to arbitrary taxation and to the jurisdiction of the extraordinary 
courts which had grown up under the Tudors. In order to follow the 
conflict in the two following reigns, it is necessary to understand the 
situation in Church and State on the eve of the struggle. 

The Royal Supremacy over the Church. — The Sovereign was su- 
preme governor over all ecclesiastical persons and causes, and, directly 
or indirectly, controlled the legislation, administration, and revenues 
of the Church. Convocation was summoned and dissolved by the 
Crown, and none of its acts were valid without the royal assent, while 
the administration of ecclesiastical finances 2 and justice was under 
royal control from ;..ie fact that the bishops were appointees of the 
Crown. The regular Church courts were those of the Archdeacon, 
the Bishop, and the Archbishop. Their competence extended over 
temporal as well as spiritual causes ; for, in addition to sacrilege, heresy, 
perjury, and immorality, probate and divorce fell within their scope. 3 
Appeals in the last instance went to the High Court of Delegates, com- 
posed of judges appointed by the Sovereign whenever need arose. 4 
Until 1 64 1, however, the ordinary ecclesiastical courts were practically 
superseded by the Court of High Commission, empowered by the Act 
of Supremacy to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to inquire into 
and punish heresy and other offenses of a like nature. At first its 
energies were devoted to enforcing the Acts of Supremacy and Uni- 
formity against the Romanists ; but, when it came to be used against 
the Protestants as well, it began to be hated more and more, until it 
was finally suppressed. Moreover, its procedure was most oppres- 

1 In 1602 by Essex's successor Lord Mount joy. 

2 Among various revenues derived from the clergy were first fruits and tenths, 
clerical subsidies voted in Convocation, and occasional benevolences. 

3 Their jurisdiction over matrimonial and testamentary cases was taken away in 
i8S7. 

4 In 1833 its duties were transferred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council. 



266 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

sive ; for it dispensed with juries, and, by the so-called ex officio oath, it 
could oblige the accused to answer any question that might be put to 
him, quite contrary to the fundamental provision of common lav/ that 
no man could be obliged to testify against himself. 

The Crown and Parliament. — From the break with Rome the 
Tudor s had used Parliament as an instrument of government. Eliza- 
beth's most notable acts, though framed by herself and her councilors, 
all received parliamentary sanction. But the right of summoning, 
proroguing, and dissolving were in her hands, and she preferred to 
summon that body as infrequently as possible. Moreover, when it 
was called together, the Sovereign had various means of controlling 
its composition and workings. In the Upper House the Bishops, 
composing a third of the total membership, were royal nominees. The 
temporal peers, of whom there were about sixty, could be controlled 
by favor, by new creations, and promotions. Elizabeth relied rather 
on favors than appointments. 1 The membership in the Lower House 
could be regulated by the establishing of new boroughs. 2 Sixty- two 
date from Elizabeth's reign, some from the sparsely inhabited Cornish 
districts ; but, in general, there was little corruption for Crown pur- 
poses ; the increase of representation was a natural outcome of increase 
of population and a reliance on the support of the middle classes. Be- 
sides, it was easy to control Parliament in other ways. When roads 
were few and bad and the postal service inadequate and when public 
meetings and caucuses were unknown, no effective opposition could 
be organized outside, nor, with such short and infrequent sessions, was 
much to be feared from the disaffected after they had assembled. 
Furthermore, the names of the members were known to the Govern- 
ment before they were to each other; important measures were in- 
troduced by the royal councilors ; and the election of the Speaker was 
controlled by the Crown. If, in spite of all, an opposition member ap- 
peared dangerous, Elizabeth would forbid his attendance or order his 
imprisonment ; also she might prohibit the discussion of an unpopular 
bill, or withdraw it in the midst of a discussion. In the last instance 
she could resort to the veto. 

The Privy Council. — Under Elizabeth the actual government was 
not in Parliament, but in the hands of the Privy Council, which num- 
bered seventeen or eighteen members, mostly laymen, nominated by 
the Queen. Its functions were threefold; executive or administra- 
tive, legislative, and judicial, and its business extended over a most 

1 Henry VII created or promoted 20; Henry VIII, 66; Edward, 22; Mary, 9; 
Elizabeth, 29. 

2 Henry VIII had created 5 ; Edward, 22 ; and Mary, 14. 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 



267 



varied field — local government, industry, and trade, Irish, colonial 
and foreign affairs. Legislation was exercised by means of ordinances 
or proclamations. Emanating usually from the Sovereign, they were 
executed by means of administrative orders issued by the Secretary 
(or Secretaries, for there were generally two) who had come to super- 
sede the Chancellor as the chief officer of State. Judicial functions 
were exercised in the Star Chamber sessions. Altogether, the system 
of government by Council was very simple and workable and might 
be very oppressive under a despotic ruler. It framed and executed 
its own measures, and even on occasion tried cases arising from them. 

Revenues and Taxation. Ordinary Crown Revenues. — Taxation 
formed a leading issue in the coming struggle, partly because the sub- 
ject wished to protect his purse, and partly because the control of sup- 
ply was an effective weapon against absolutism. In ordinary times 
the Sovereign was expected " to live of its own " ; but the Crown 
revenues were far from adequate. Elizabeth, with all her economy, 
left a debt. The ordinary revenues, largely under royal control, were 
derived from several sources — Crown lands, feudal dues, court fees 
and fines, and customs duties, especially tonnage and poundage. In 
addition to tonnage and poundage and the hereditary customs, the 
Crown claimed the right to levy certain additional duties known as 
" impositions," though the Tudors, in contrast to their two successors, 
employed these largely to regulate trade. 

Monopolies, Benevolences, and Forced Loans. — Certain other royal 
exactions were resisted even under the popular Tudors. There were 
monopolies, though Elizabeth abolished some of the more objection- 
able patents, in 1601. Then there were benevolences 1 and forced 
loans. Elizabeth, however, rarely if ever exacted benevolences; as 
to forced loans, while Henry VIII, with parliamentary sanction, re- 
pudiated most of his, Elizabeth usually repaid hers, though not often 
in money. 

Extraordinary Grants by Parliament. — Extraordinary grants im- 
posed by direct taxation were wholly in the hands of Parliament. 
They were of two sorts. (1) Tenths and fifteenths, consisting origi- 
nally of a tenth of the income of burgesses and a fifteenth from the 
shires, came to be fixed in the fourteenth century at £39,000 for each 
assessment, and, owing to exemptions and other causes, grew to be 
very unequal in its distribution. (2) Less early in origin was another 
form of direct tax — the subsidy. Originally this term had been used 

1 The Tudor Henrys had revived benevolences — which Richard III had 
abolished in 1484 — ■ on the ground that, as a usurper, his legislation was invalid. 
They maintained also that they were not taxes but gifts. 



268 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

loosely as a name for additional customs ; in its later and stricter sense 
it meant a parliamentary tax of 45 in the £ on land, and 2s Sd on goods, 
though, by the time of Elizabeth, a subsidy had become fixed at about 
£80,000. Unable to secure adequate grants from the taxes under 
the control of Parliament, the two rulers who followed Elizabeth re- 
sorted, with disastrous consequences, to the irregular devices already 
in existence, but sparingly used by their predecessor. 

The Justices of the Peace and the Common Law Courts. — Only 
less fruitful in precipitating the conflict to come was the arbitrary 
jurisdiction exercised by the various special courts set up during the 
Tudor period. Just as the High Commission came to supplant the 
regular Church courts, so these extraordinary tribunals superseded, to 
a large degree, the normal judicial system. Lowest in the scale of the 
latter were the justices of the peace, chosen by the Chancellor from the 
landed gentry in the counties and from the magistrates in cities and 
boroughs. A single justice could commit ; but it required two for a 
judicial decision. In such petty sessions, as they came to be called, 
they dealt with minor criminal cases, while more important ones were re- 
served for sittings of the justices of the whole county, known as Quar- 
ter Sessions, because they were held four times a year. Next above the 
Quarter Sessions were the Assizes held at the county seat and presided 
over by one of the King's justices, assisted by such of the local justices 
as were commissioned to sit with him. Above the Assizes were the 
three Common Law Courts sitting at Westminster. 1 The Court of 
King's Bench and the Court of Common Pleas had each a chief jus- 
tice and three associate or puisne judges ; the judges in the Exchequer 
Court were called barons. The Court of Exchequer Chamber was 
a court of still higher resort, consisting of certain of the judges who 
had not previously heard the case, and, occasionally, a specially im- 
portant case would be referred to all twelve judges at the start. In the 
last instance a case went either to the Privy Council or the House of 
Lords. Even over these Common Law courts the Sovereign had great 
control ; for their judges were appointed by the Crown, usually during 
pleasure, though Elizabeth was careful not to abuse her powers. 

The Special Jurisdictions. — Of the special courts, Chancery, of 
course, greatly antedated the Tudors. Primarily designed to decide 
questions of equity, its jurisdiction was often employed to invade the 
proper field of the Common Law courts. Among the Tudor creations 
were -certain local courts modeled after Star Chamber, notably the 
President and Council in the North Parts and the Council of Wales 

1 It was their judges who held the Assizes when the central courts were not in 
session. England was divided into several circuits for the purpose. 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 269 

and the Marches, set up in 1539 and 1542 respectively for dealing with 
disturbances on the Borders. Other bodies were established for deal- 
ing with particular branches of the revenue, such as the Court of 
Wards and Liveries. In most cases their original purpose was justi- 
fied ; but their powers were greatly abused, and few of them survived 
the Puritan Revolution. 

Local Government. — The Elizabethan period is especially impor- 
tant in the history of local government ; for one thing, it was the sys- 
tem in which the American colonists were trained and which they 
developed in their new homes. Old organs were losing much of their 
vitality. The sheriff, for instance, was deprived of most of his im- 
portance ; his military duties as head of the county militia, organized 
to deal with insurrection and invasion, were taken over by the Lord 
Lieutenant — a county official dating from Edward VI, 1 while his ju- 
dicial and administrative duties passed to the justices of the peace. 
Beginning with the Statutes of Laborers, it became the work of the 
latter to license beggars, to force the sturdy to work and to repress 
vagrants ; with the passage of the poor laws and the recusancy acts, 
more burdens were laid upon them, such as regulation of wages and 
prices, management of roads and prisons ; while subsequent " stacks of 
statutes " weighed them down with innumerable duties, which, on 
the whole, they discharged effectually. 

The smallest administrative division was the parish, which looked 
after the maintenance of the church services ; had the care of the roads 
within its borders ; and was responsible for the support of its poor, 
levying rates for each of these purposes. Each parish furnished its 
quota for the Lord Lieutenant's levy and was intrusted with police 
powers exercised by elected constables. Some parishes too supported 
or helped to support schools. Business was transacted in parish 
meetings under the charge of church wardens, assisted by a committee 
ranging from eight to twenty-four members. The whole was known 
as a vestry, which was generally a close corporation, i.e. vacancies were 
filled by surviving members. The city and borough governments 
were growing equally oligarchical throughout the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries. Thus, from the Council to the parish, there was 
a complete but well-knit system of administration, in which, however, 
none but the select few had any share. 

Material Conditions. — Except for the humbler folk, the Elizabethan 
period was one of increased prosperity, of improved methods of farm- 
ing, of the growth of manufactures, of the extension of trade and com- 
merce. The Queen's wise measures — her restoration of the coinage, 

1 His military powers were not taken away till 187 1. 



270 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

her peaceful policy, economy, and light taxes, and her encouragement 
of exploration and maritime enterprise — were greatly favored by 
circumstances. England, as a wool-producing country, was bound, 
in the long run, to prevail as a manufacturer of cloth. The necessity 
of feeding those engaged in the new industry made arable farming 
again profitable. Moreover, from her position on the very threshold 
of the Atlantic seaboard, it was inevitable that the Island Kingdom 
should profit by the discovery of the New World and the new trade 
routes. Also, the revolt of the Netherlands and the ruin of Antwerp 
gave London and the other English commercial cities opportunities 
which they were not slow to seize. 

The Restoration of the Coinage. — The disorganization of the 
currency, begun under Henry VIII, continued through the next reign, 
and Mary, in spite of well-meant efforts, was able to accomplish little 
toward remedying the evils. It remained for Elizabeth to overcome 
the " hideous monster of base money." She called in the debased 
coins at a figure far below that at which they circulated and somewhat 
less than their real value, issuing, in their place, pure new coins. The 
extension of credit combined with the improved currency to help the 
growth of business. Discarding the old notion that all- lending at 
interest was usurious and wrong, both Henry VIII and Elizabeth 
recognized the legality of moderate interest. 1 Owing to the policy of 
mercantilism, to the expansion of trade and commerce, and to the 
privateering against Spain, prices kept rising; but the rise was of a 
healthier sort than that due to scarcity and debased money. Since 
rents and wages went up more slowly, the landlords and la- 
borers did not feel the change so fully or so quickly as the merchant 
and manufacturer, though the increasing demand for the products 
of the soil steadily improved the condition of the landed gentry and 
gave the laborers more regular employment. Many of the former, 
too, invested in trading and buccaneering enterprises which brought 
them large returns. Prosperity had developed to such a point in 
1569 that the Government which had hitherto borrowed abroad placed 
a loan at home. 

Development of Agriculture. — There was a marked revival of 
farming in Elizabeth's reign. Country gentlemen began again to 
turn their attention to the cultivation of their estates, agricultural 
writers discussed improved methods, while new sources of profit began 
to arise from market gardening. Sheep raising, however, had to 
contend against various obstacles ; not only was the practice of en- 
closing still discouraged by law, but also there was a decline in 
1 In 157 1 it was fixed at 10 per cent. 



PXIZABETHAN ENGLAND 27 1 

the price of wool, possibly owing to a temporary over-stocking of 
the market, more likely because rich pasturage * coarsened the 
quality. In addition to- the growth of population and the in- 
creasing demand for food supplies, the policy of the Queen contri- 
buted greatly to favor the revival of tillage. When the price of 
corn was moderate she encouraged its export in the interest of the 
farmer and the shipper ; only in times of scarcity was export checked 
in the interest of the consumer. One exception, however, was made 
on political grounds ; after hostilities opened with Spain no foodstuffs 
could be sent to that kingdom at all. New and better roads opened 
new markets at home, more attention was paid to fertilizing, and with 
the revival of market gardening, onions, cabbages, carrots, and parsnips 
began to be grown. In general, it may be said that relatively to tillage 
and cattle raising, sheep farming was becoming less profitable, and that 
most of the enclosures were for the purpose of convertible husbandry. 

Discovery and Exploration. — The notable exploits of Elizabethan 
seamen have influenced profoundly the history of England and the 
history of the world in a multitude of ways. In these men the spirit 
of the Renascence was wonderfully manifested, and geographical know- 
ledge, literature, religion, commerce, industry, colonization, and the 
spread of civilization all bear the marks of their achievements. They 
circumnavigated the globe ; they opened Russia and the East to Eng- 
lish trade, they extended English commerce into the Mediterranean 
and along the African coast ; they took the first steps toward securing 
a foothold in India ; they undertook Arctic voyages in search of north- 
east and northwest passages to Cathay ; and they made possible the 
beginnings of English colonization in America. 

The Opening up of Russia and Central Asia. — The opening up of 
Russia began with an attempt on the part of two daring explorers, 
Richard Chancellor and Sir Hugh Willoughby, in search of the north- 
east passage. Of the three ships which began the voyage, in 1553, 
two, including Willoughby's, were lost. Chancellor, " very heavy, 
pensive, and sorrowful," proceeded alone. He rounded the North 
Cape, passed southward to the White Sea, and landed near the present 
Archangel. Thence he journeyed fifteen hundred miles on sledges 
to Moscow, the court of Ivan the Terrible, King of the Muscovites. 
After remaining three months he returned to England with letters 
from Ivan and an account of the condition and resources of his King- 
dom. Chancellor was drowned on his return from a subsequent 
voyage, but the Muscovite ambassador who accompanied him was 

1 Due to the development of mixed farming or convertible husbandry when 
lands used for tillage one year were turned into pasture the next, and vice versa. 



272 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

received at Mary's court in 1557. Having secured a foothold in 
Russia and the favor of the Tsar, English enterprise was extended 
under Elizabeth, by journeys along the shores of the Caspian Sea 
into Turkestan and northern Persia, valuable commercial privileges 
being secured in all these countries. However, the death of Ivan, 
in 1584, marked the decline of English trade in this direction, the 
Dutch broke in upon the monopoly, and new fields of commerce and 
other routes to the further east were sought. 

The Mediterranean. The Overland and Sea Routes to India. — 
One was overland from the Mediterranean, a natural development 
from the Turkey trade which was being pushed forward vigorously. 
Most notable of all was an overland expedition led by John New- 
berrie and Ralph Fitch. Starting from Syria, in 1583, they went in 
company as far as the western coast of India. There Fitch parted 
pany with Newberrie, and penetrated to Bengal and other parts of 
the eastern side of the peninsula, probably the first Englishman who 
ever made the journey. The other route was by sea around southern 
Africa. James Lancaster and George Raymond, the first English- 
men to venture past the Cape of Good Hope, 1 returned in 1594, having 
gone as far as Malacca and Ceylon. The tales of these explorers and 
the desire to compete with the Dutch, 2 who were beginning to supplant 
the Portuguese in the East Indies, led to the formation of the English 
East India company, in 1599. 

The English Seamen in the Western World. — Biggest, however, 
in results, as we view them, were the voyages to our American shores 
and the first steps toward colonization within the limits of the present 
United States. The Cabots had prepared the way in the reign of 
Henry VII, but little more was done till Elizabeth's time, when Haw- 
kins and Drake stirred the spirit of English maritime adventure, the 
crowning achievement being Drake's circumnavigation of " the whole 
globe of the earth " from 1577 to 1580. There was still much specu- 
lation as to the possibility of a northwest passage, and Englishmen 
hoped to discover gold as well as a trade route in the bleak northern 
regions. Thither, Martin Frobisher made three voyages (1576-1578) 
adding much to the knowledge of Greenland and Labrador. 

Early English Attempts at Colonization. — Attempts at conquest 
and settlement followed in the wake of these voyages of discovery 

1 The Portuguese, Bartholomew Diaz, was the first to round the Cape of Good 
Hope, in i486. In 1497-1498 Vasco de Gama made his celebrated voyage from 
Portugal to India. 

2 Their various trading companies were united into the Dutch East India Com- 
pany, in 1602. 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 273 

and plundering raids. The pioneer was Sir Humphrey Gilbert who, 
in 1578, received a patent for " the planting of our people in America." 
Failing in his first two voyages, he sailed again, in 1583, and reached 
the coast of Newfoundland, where he founded the first colony in 
British North America. On his return voyage he went down with 
his ship, crying with pious courage to those in a neighboring vessel : 
" We are as near heaven by sea as by land." His half-brother, Sir 
Walter Raleigh, took over his patent, and the region which he selected 
for colonization was named " Virginia," after England's virgin Queen. 
Although the various colonies which he sent failed to establish a per- 
manent settlement on the Carolina coast, he deserves credit for his 
efforts in a work so big in future results. Never setting foot himself on 
the shores of North America, he did, however, make a voyage, 1595, 
in search for El Dorado, the fabulous city — an expedition that gave 
the English their claim to the present British Guiana. Also, Eliza- 
bethan seamen undertook numberless other journeys to remote lands 
and distant seas, and the whole wonderful story may be read in the 
stirring pages of the contemporary Richard Hakluyt (1 552-1616) 
whose Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English 
Nation — form the " best collection of the exploits of the heroes in 
whom the new era was revealed." 

Foreign Trade. — Governmental regulation of trade still prevailed. 
New navigation laws were passed, partly for protection and partly 
to foster English seamenship. The latter motive also played a part 
in the encouragement of the fisheries, which explains why England, 
a Protestant country, not only enforced fast-days by law, but added 
Wednesday as a new " fish day." In order to nurse infant industries 
the importation of certain manufactured goods and the export of raw 
materials (except wool which was an English staple) were discouraged. 
One curious enactment provided that, on Sundays and holidays, every 
English subject over six years of age must wear a cap of native manu- 
facture or pay a fine. 1 Monopolies were another means of fostering 
English industry and commerce, though, later in the reign, they were 
also employed as a means of adding to the royal revenues. All sorts 
of luxuries and some necessities were imported. Trade was largely 
monopolized by great merchant companies. The old Merchant Ad- 
venturers, who had received a patent from Henry VII, were incor- 
porated with extended privileges in 1564, while most noteworthy 
among the many new companies was the famous East India Company, 
which laid the foundations of the present Indian Empire of Great 

1 The "woolsack", on which the Chancellor sits in the House of Lords, had its 
origin in the same effort to foster the national industry. 



274 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Britain. Though the Dutch still led in almost all branches of com- 
merce and though agriculture still remained England's chief industry, 
this period is marked by progress in manufactures and trade which 
led within two centuries to her preeminence over all rivals. 

Burghley's Economic Policy. — This great development was due, 
in a considerable degree, to Burghley. With him the strength of the 
State was the main aim, and much of his industrial and commercial 
legislation was designed toward that end. He developed mining and 
manufacturing with a view of enabling England to supply her own 
ordnance and ammunition, and, in order to increase the effectiveness 
of the navy, he took steps to preserve the timber lands, to increase 
the native supply of hemp and sailcloth, and actively encouraged 
the merchant marine. Among the means which he employed were : 
the formation of trading companies, granting patents of monopoly, 
fostering the fisheries, and improving the harbors. In some respects 
his policy was sharply opposed to that of Elizabeth : he was against 
piracy, which she secretly encouraged, and he disapproved of the navi- 
gation laws on the ground that, while they helped the growth of Eng- 
lish shipping, they encouraged the importation of luxuries, such as 
wines, silks, and spices. 

Internal Trade and Industry. — Industry was greatly stimulated 
by immigrants from France and Flanders, who went, in limited num- 
bers, to towns authorized by license to receive them, introducing, among 
other things, thread and lace making and silk weaving. The gilds 
which had long regulated industry, at first independently and then 
under central control, were already on the decline before the Reforma- 
tion, and the confiscation of their religious and charitable funds under 
Henry VIII and Edward VI practically forced them to the wall. In 
many places " livery companies " were formed to take their place, 
new organizations*, 1 which were associations of employers authorized 
by the Crown instead of the municipalities, and often included several 
trades. Their aim was to supervise the quality of wares, to keep 
records of entered apprentices, and to protect the natives of corporate 
towns in competition with aliens. In order better to control condi- 
tions of labor and production, Elizabeth, in the fifth year of her reign, 
passed the famous Statute of Apprentices, not repealed till 1813. All 
able-bodied men, with certain exceptions noted in the Act, were liable 
to serve as agricultural laborers; measures were framed to prevent 
irregular and brief employment, vagrancy, migration of laborers and 
artificers alike; and the term of apprenticeship was fixed at seven 
years in both town and country. In the choice of apprentices the 
1 Not to be confused with the merchant companies who traded abroad. 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 



275 



rural districts and the corporate towns were given special advantages 
over market towns, which checked the drift toward the newer towns 
where conditions of employment had been unregulated and lax. Also 
the Act intrusted the assessment of wages to the justices of the peace 
acting under the supervision of the Council, and wages were no longer 
arbitrarily fixed as had been the case under the old Statutes of Laborers, 
but were to be regulated according to plenty or scarcity and accord- 
ing to local conditions. 

The Poor Laws. — Important as were the poor laws of Henry VIII 
in foreshadowing new principles, he failed to provide effective means 
for enforcing them. While something was done to improve his 
system under both Edward and Mary, it remained for the government 
of Elizabeth to put the laws in a shape which survived, in most of. 
their features, down to the nineteenth century. The famous " Old 
Poor Law " of 1601 was really only the embodiment in permanent 
form of a series of statutes extending from 1563 to 1598. In sub- 
stance it provided that: contributions for the relief of the poor 
should be compulsory ; habitations were to be furnished for the 
impotent and aged ; children of paupers were to be apprenticed ; 
stocks of hemp and wool were to be provided for the employment 
of sturdy idlers ; and houses of correction were to be set up for those 
who obstinately refused to work. 

Royal Progresses. — The Queen in her tireless pursuit of pleasure 
and her fondness for magnificent display 1 naturally set the fashion 
for her people, particularly the Court and the upper classes. This 
ostentation was peculiarly manifest in the royal progresses, when 
she was entertained so lavishly as to bring many noblemen and 
gentlemen to the verge of ruin. These journeys and visits served va- 
rious purposes : they gratified the Queen's inordinate vanity ; they were 
a part of her economy, for during long intervals she was supported 
at the expense of others ; and finally they kept her before her subjects 
and stimulated rivalry in loyalty. The most famous of the entertain- 
ments in her honor was that provided by Leicester at Kenilworth 
Castle, where she stayed three weeks in the summer of 1575. There 
were all sorts of pageantry and poetry, giants, nymphs, fireworks, 
a floating island in a pool in front of the palace, hunting, tilting, bear 
baiting, tumbling, rustic sports, songs, and masques. 

Dress and Manner of Living. — Extravagance and artificiality 

were characteristic of the dress, the manners, and the speech of the 

period. Women dressed their hair in most elaborate fashions; they 

surrounded their necks with enormous ruffs held by wire or starch 

1 In spite of her parsimony she left a wardrobe of 3000 gowns. 



276 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and wore huge farthingales or hoop skirts. And the men were fully 
as bad. They perfumed themselves with musk and civet ; and with 
tight-fitting nether stocks and trunk hose, surmounted by padded 
doublets or jackets, with highly ornamented cloaks slung over their 
shoulders, with gaudy befeathered hats, and girt with swords and 
adorned with bracelets and earrings, they presented an imposing 
show. The dress of the laborer was of necessity very plain; but 
sumptuary laws were passed from time to time to check the extrava- 
gance of the lower classes and to encourage the use of homemade 
woolens. There were abundant sports and diversions in town and 
country. The man of fashion lounged in the nave of St. Paul's of 
a morning ; he dined at a tavern, drinking heavily and smoking tobacco, 
a practice introduced from the New World before the close of the 
reign ; then he might choose between bull and bear baitings and the 
theater for further amusements. Masques and interludes were fre- 
quent, and, for the hardier sort, tennis, football, wrestling, fencing, 
tilting, hunting, and hawking. There were still numerous holidays, 
each with its appropriate festival, with mummings, games, and 
abundant eating and drinking. The merits of soap were not yet fully 
recognized, though refinements and luxuries were on the increase, 
such as chimneys, glass windows and carpets in place of lattice and 
rushes. Plate and glassware were abundant among the wealthy, while 
the poor used pewter. Knives supplanted the fingers in eating, more 
and more, and forks were soon to appear. Many artificers and 
farmers even began to have beds hung with tapestry and to discard 
logs of wood and sacks of chaff for pillows. Timber houses gave 
way to dwellings of brick and stone. There was great lament over 
these changes : it was said that when houses were of willow there were 
men of oak, and that now with houses of oak there were men of straw. 
Architecture. — By Elizabeth's time men had ceased to use the 
Gothic style in building. The classical Italian, which gradually 
replaced it, was at first a mixture of Italian and Gothic, and was 
chiefly employed in secular building; for, from the Reformation to 
well into the seventeenth century, church building of original artistic 
value practically ceased. Henry VIII was as fond of fine buildings 
as he was of fine clothes, though Wolsey, who built Hampton Court 
and Christ Church, Oxford, was far more active in construction, 
while Henry's courtiers were too poor to build very extensively. It 
was only with the increase of wealth and the rising of standards of 
comfort of Elizabeth's time that such magnificent palaces as Kenil- 
worth begin to raise their heads. Then, too, numbers of stately and 
artistic country mansions were erected. In the early part of her 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 277 

reign the old English, rambling and picturesque in effect, still pre- 
dominated over the Italian; later the Italian elements with greater 
symmetry of plan had come to prevail. 

Prevalence of Superstition. — Except for William Gilbert's treatise 
on the magnet, in 1600, there were few real steps in advance between 
the Reformation and time of the Stuarts. Witchcraft and sorcery 
still held sway over men's minds. Alchemists and quacks had great 
vogue ; indeed, a Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity resigned his 
chair to devote himself to the study of transmutation of metals. The 
revival of Greek medical science contributed to prolong a popular 
belief in astrology, while the triumph of the Copernican system was 
undermining its basic principles. One famous physician, who was 
a professor of the art, found it wise to flee the country after he had 
predicted from the stars a long life for Edward VI. 

The Elizabethan Age an Epoch in the World's Literature. — The 
three main achievements of the Elizabethan age were : the establish- 
ment of Protestantism; the remarkable impulse in maritime enter- 
prise ; and the wonderful literary outburst, perhaps unparalleled in 
the world's history. The third remains to be considered. Up to 
this time England had produced only one writer of enduring fame — 
the incomparable Chaucer. While from the beginning of Elizabeth's 
reign promising writers were in evidence, the work of the decade 
preceding its close -has never been matched in any period or country. 
In seeking to account for the phenomenon it is hardly enough to say 
that it was due simply to the fact that a number of men of unusual 
gifts of expression chanced to be born about the same time. Many 
causes had combined to awaken a spirit which quickened their imagi- 
nation and stirred them to speech. First, there was the influence 
of the Italian Renascence. Those who first drank from that in- 
vigorating source were primarily interested in religious problems, 
and the ecclesiastical upheaval, which followed, diverted men for a 
time from pure literature. However, before the end of the reign of 
Henry VIII, Wyatt and Surrey had begun to voice the worldly aspect 
of Humanism, which was to reach such a choice and varied expression 
under Elizabeth. Secondly, the discoveries and explorations and 
the strange new outlook on the world which it brought, broadened 
the mental horizon of Englishmen and gave them stimulating food 
for thought. And, finally, the triumph over Catholicism and Spain 
aroused a national consciousness and a pride which clamored for utter- 
ance. 

Translations. — The works of the ancients and of the Italians of 
the Renascence were opened to Englishmen largely through adapta- 



278 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

tion and translations. The old printer Caxton had led the way. 
From his time until Elizabeth the most notable production of this 
sort was Surrey's JEneid. Then they followed thick and fast. In 
1566 appeared William Painter's Palace of Pleasure, a collection of 
stories from the Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, which furnished 
a rich store of material for the Elizabethan dramatists. Another 
source from which they drew freely was Plutarch's Lives, done into 
English by Thomas North in 1579. Most of the earlier work of this 
field was by lesser men; but later such renderings as Chapman's 
Iliad (1598) and Florio's Montaigne (1603), deservedly rank as works 
of art. 

Prose Literature : Early Affectation. " Euphuism." — Imma- 
turity, the use of these foreign models, and the prevailing affecta- 
tion led to much pedantry, extravagance, and obscurity among the 
earlier writers of the reign. There were a few stout protests against 
such " inkhorn English," larded with French or " Italianated " 
idioms. For example, Roger Ascham, himself a master of vigorous, 
plain but graceful English, declared that, " he that will write well in 
any tongue must speak as the common people do, and think as wise 
men do," and lamented that " many English writers have not done 
so, but, using strange words, as Latin, French, and Italian, do make all 
things dark." But the young writers of the new age were too im- 
petuous and too bubbling over with ardor to take him as a model, nor 
did the impressive and grave simplicity of the Book of Common 
Prayer and the Bible translations of the previous generation appeal 
to them. It was only after a period of luxuriant extravagance that 
the ripe, finished, and gorgeous but dignified style of the late Eliza- 
bethan and early Jacobean era was attained. The summit of affec- 
tation v/as manifested in John Lyly's Euphues, 1579, a fantastic 
romance full of labored and far-fetched figures of speech. Taken 
up by the Queen, the work was enthusiastically received at Court, 
where a new style of speaking, known as " Euphuism," came into 
vogue. An inevitable reaction followed, and it was attacked and 
caricatured, notably by Shakespeare in his earliest play, Love's 
Labour's Lost. While the ridicule was deserved, Euphues accomplished 
something for the improvement of morals and culture, and the refine- 
ment of current speech. 

The Middle Period. Sir Philip Sidney. — Sir Philip Sidney 
(1 554-1 586), whose short life was crowded with activity as a soldier, 
statesman, and poet, marks the transition from the earlier to the 
later period. Although an outspoken critic of Lyly, Arcadia, his 
first book, is marked to a considerable decree bv the same faults of 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 



279 



artificiality and diffuseness. On the other hand, it is illuminated by 
passages of real beauty and was immensely popular for nearly two 
centuries, until the advent of the modern novel, for which it was a 
forerunner, superseded the type. His Apologie for Poetrie, 1 1581, 
one of the earliest pieces of English criticism and a splendid vindi- 
cation of imaginative literature, though not free from exuberance, 
pedantry, and scholasticism, marks a great advance over the Arcadia. 
One passage will illustrate the wondrous charm of his phrasing at its 
best. " Nature," he says, " never set forth the earth in so rich tapes- 
try as divers poets have done, neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful 
trees, sweet smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too 
much loved earth more lovely." Altogether, Sidney marks a genuine 
advance in clearness, genuineness of feeling, and beauty of expression. 
The Crowning Decade. — As was the case with all other forms of 
Elizabethan literature, the truly great prose did not appear until the 
last decade of the reign. Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, the 
first four books of which appeared in 1594, did much to soften the strife 
between Puritan and Anglican. With " sweet reasonableness " the 
" judicious Hooker " sought to justify the Church of England by 
a threefold appeal : to Scripture and primitive practice ; to reason ; 
and to the needs of the times, arguing that its policy best accorded 
with all three. Aside from its polemical importance it is a recognized 
monument of classic English prose. Equally significant in form, and 
even more in substance, because of their more general appeal, are the 
Essays, 1597, of Francis Bacon (1 561-1626) whom many regard as 
England's greatest intellectual product. Though he esteemed Latin 
to be the only tongue fit for learned communication, and wrote in 
English only under protest, his style, in spite of its formality and 
overgreat use of Latinized expressions, is remarkable for its vigor, wit, 
incisive ness, and pith. The only parts which he ever completed of 
a vast treatise designed to comprehend all learning and science, 
appeared in the next reign. Of the men who supported themselves 
by their pens, most wrote chiefly for the theater; yet, altogether, 
they produced a large body of miscellaneous writing — prose fiction 
and controversial pamphlets. Perhaps the most worthy of note are 
Robert Greene's Repentance and A Groat's Worth of Wit which tell 
of his own irregular life, all too characteristic of the set in which he 
moved, and Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde, a romance regarded as the 
most perfect bit of prose fiction of the time, from which Shakespeare 
got the plot of As You Like It. Thomas Nash, who died in poverty 
at an early age, also wrote vigorous biting prose, and entered into all 

1 Or Defense of Poesie. 



280 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

sorts of controversies, attacking with especial bitterness the Puritan 
authors of the Marprelate Libels, while his Unfortunate Traveller, or 
the Adventures of Jack Wilton, a romance of reckless exploits, is an 
interesting anticipation of one type of modern novel. 

Elizabethan Historical Writing. — Throughout the reign men were 
producing important historical works. John Fox (15 16-1587), one 
of the Marian exiles, published, in 1563, the first English edition of 
his famous Acts and Monuments, popularly known as the " Book of 
Martyrs." In 1578 appeared Holinshed's Chronicles, which furnished 
Shakespeare with the materials for his historical plays, and for some 
of his grandest tragedies. John Stow's Survey of London, 1598, is 
a mine of information on the buildings and streets of the Elizabethan 
city. Other historical works reflect the larger world that writers of 
the age were coming to know. In this field Richard Hakluyt's 
Principall Navigations outshines them all. 

Poetry. — Yet it is in its poetry that the age is really distinctive. 
There was a constantly swelling stream of sonnets, lyrics, pastorals, 
epics, and, above all, of dramas, of unsurpassed richness, variety, and 
beauty. For twenty years, however, it was chiefly minor poets that 
were busy, and anthologies appeared with titles more enticing than 
their contents warranted ; for example, A Gorgeous Gallery cf Gallant 
Inventions, 1578. The Shepherd's Calendar, 1579, of Edmund Spenser 
(155 2-1 599) marks the transition between the period of beginnings 
and the glorious final decade of the reign. Meantime, Philip Sidney 
had begun his charming group of sonnets entitled Astro phel and 
Stella, 1 noteworthy not only for their own sake, but for their influence 
on Shakespeare's matchless collection. Only a work especially 
devoted to literary history could give an adequate description of 
the mass of exquisite songs and lyrics which appeared thenceforth 
either independently, or, set like jewels, in the contemporary stories 
and plays. The " great epic of Elizabethan England " was Spenser's 
Faerie Queene, 1 590-1 596. Cast in the form of a medieval romance, 
it is in substance an allegorical manifestation of the spirit of the age 
— a defense of Protestantism, and a glorification of Elizabeth as the 
champion of the truth and virtue against Papal Rome, embodiment of 
error and vice. 

The Drama. English and Roman Sources. — Rich and beautiful 
as was the Elizabethan literature in its manifold forms, the supreme 
achievement was in the drama. While distinctly an expression of 
the spirit of the age, inspired and strongly influenced by the study 

1 They were written during the years from 15 75-1 583, though they were not 
published till 1591. 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 281 

of revived classical and Italian models, it was not wholly unaffected 
by the popular and Court festivals and the religious representations 
which had been developing for centuries on the native soil. The 
pageants and masques, the mysteries, miracle and morality plays, 
the interludes and mummings which delighted the medieval English- 
men furnished one fruitful source. From them came the local color, 
the life and the old time jollity. The other source is to be found in 
the Roman dramas, revived in the Italy of the Renascence. They 
served as models of style and structure and provided many of the 
plots. 1 Masters of the great public schools prepared scenes from 
the Roman comedy writers, chiefly Plautus and Terence, for their 
boys to act, either -in Latin or in English translation. Nicholas 
Udall marked an epoch when, about 1541, he wrote in English, from 
a Latin model, Ralph Roister Doister, the first English comedy. In 
tragedy the chief model was Seneca. The first English tragedy in 
the approved classical style was Gorboduc or F err ex and Porrex, based 
on an old British legend from Geoffrey of Monmouth. Written by 
Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, it was pre- 
sented before Queen Elizabeth, in 156 1. In general, however, the 
first half of Elizabeth's reign was not productive of significant dra- 
matic works, and while plays of all sorts were written, it was largely 
a time of experiment. 

The " University Group." — The " great dramatic period " opened 
first with the so-called " University Group." The list includes many 
names. George Peele, an Oxford man who wrote plays, pageants, 
and miscellaneous verse, was brilliant and versatile but weak in power 
of construction, as is evident in his David and Bethsabe, full of fine, 
detached passages. Preeminent among the Cambridge groirp was 
Christopher Marlowe, the author of many remarkable plays — 
Tamburlaine (about 1587) ; The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus (1588) ; and 
The Jew of Malta (1593). Also he wrote a goodly part of the second 
and third parts of Henry VI, which Shakespeare revised and com- 
pleted. Much other work, too, he produced before he was killed in 
a drunken brawl at the age of twenty-nine. His Tamburlaine marked 
an epoch in tragedy, while his sonorous, uneven blank verse far 
excelled that of any who had preceded him. With an amazing 
mingling of bombast and sublimity he set forth the soaring flights 
of human ambition, for power in Tamburlaine, for knowledge in Dr. 
Faustus, for wealth in the Jew of Malta. In spite of his lack of humor 
and restraint, some leading critics have ranked him among the world's 

1 While the scenes of the Elizabethan writers were laid in far-off countries in 
bygone days their characters were English to the core. 



282 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

great poets. Robert Greene went first to Cambridge and later to 
Oxford. Although his prose, and the poetry scattered through it, 
are superior to any of his dramas, one of the latter, The Honorable 
Historie of Frier Bacon and Frier Bungay, contains glowing pictures 
of healthy country life. Altogether, the " University Group struck 
out one of the faultiest, but one of the most original and vigorous 
kinds of literature that the world has seen." While it is full of 
extravagance and horror, it is charged with passion and power. If 
many of the plots are ill constructed and told in language often over- 
wrought, frequent passages of lofty eloquence and rare sweetness 
more than make atonement. The lives of most of this set were as 
tempestuous as their works, and, with one or two exceptions, they 
came to a sad and untimely end. 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). — The English drama reached 
its culmination in Shakespeare, who, indeed, has been without a peer 
before or since in any language. Something, but not overmuch, is 
known about him, nor is it strange that so few details of his life have 
survived, for he came of a family of no distinction, he did not go to 
a university, he did not belong to a learned profession, and nothing 
that he wrote, save a few poems, was published with his authority in 
his lifetime. For twenty years, from about 1591, when he wrote 
Love's Labour's Lost, until 161 1, when he completed The Tempest, he 
was actively writing. During this time he produced about forty 
plays, besides the sonnets and the poems, Venus and Adonis, and 
Lucrece. The plays include all sorts: history, comedy, tragedy, 
dramatic romance, and melodrama. He portrays every mood from 
mirth and joy to black despair, and every class of society from peasant 
to king; he deals with every phase of human passion : love, jealousy, 
ambition, and resignation, besides telling the past life of his people 
and reflecting to posterity the conditions of his own age. Though 
while he lived, his works appeared only in pirated editions, and are 
not mentioned in his will, they were collected in a folio edition, in 
1623, and thus have come down to us. 

The Shakespearian Theater. — The means for presenting the 
wonderful dramas of that age were curiously primitive. The early 
mystery or miracle plays had been given in churches and church- 
yards, then on moving carts or pageants. Others were rendered in 
noblemen's halls or in the courtyards of inns, the audience looking 
down from surrounding galleries ; still others were produced privately 
at court. By the middle of Elizabeth's reign independent theaters 
had begun to spring up. Originally they were placed in the suburbs, 
since, for reasons of public policy, the authorities refused to have 



ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND 283 

them in London ; within a few years, however, the actors pushed into 
the City, and, before the close of the century, there were eleven play- 
houses in London and the adjoining districts. They were very 
simple structures, circular or octagonal in shape, with the center or 
pit where the poorer classes stood, open to the sky, which afforded 
the only light. 1 The surrounding galleries only were roofed; here 
or on the stage the fashionable classes sat, lounging, eating, smoking, 
talking, flirting, and interrupting the actors when it pleased them. 
Female parts were played by young men. While costumes were often 
rich, scenery and properties were most primitive : a change of scene 
was indicated by a placard ; a lantern represented the moon ; a 
wooden cannon and a pasteboard tower a siege. Yet the absence of 
elaborate scenery had its advantages ; it fixed attention on the play 
and it called forth some of Shakespeare's finest descriptive passages. 

The Successors of Shakespeare. — While no one reached the 
height of Shakespeare, the great age of Elizabethan drama continued 
under the Stuarts, until an ordinance of 1642 closed the theaters for 
some years. Foremost among the younger contemporaries and 
successors of Shakespeare was Ben Jonson (1573-1637), poet laureate 
of James I, literary dictator of the time and king of tavern wits. 
Learned, rugged, and fearless, he struggled for pure classicism against 
the prevailing romantic tendencies, drew lifelike pictures of his age, 
and strove for workmanlike restraint, though he could fashion sweet, 
beautiful lyrics. It would take pages merely to enumerate the names 
and plays of hosts of others. In spite of their achievements the 
drama steadily declined. The youthful ardor was gone, and the 
growing Puritan spirit was hostile. By way of reaction, playwrights 
catered more to the courtier and the cavalier with coarseness and 
sensational horror. Many fair pieces continued to be written, but 
the greatest literary work now came to be produced in other fields. 
" Merrie England," throbbing with fullness of life, was yielding to 
riotousness and dissipation at one extreme, at the other to soberer 
ideals and practice. 

Final Estimate of the Elizabethan Period. — Altogether, Eliza- 
beth's long reign, though blemished by traits of meanness, shuffling, 
and evasion, was a period of glorious achievement. Her Court was 
a center of pomp and magnificence, learning and statesmanship, 
where polished gentlemen, brilliant adventurers, wise councilors and 
judges strove with each other for her favor. If the peace, prosperity, 
and industrial development, the ecclesiastical settlement, and the 

1 Though plays were given in the afternoon it grows dark very early in London 
in the autumn and winter. 



284 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

wonderful literary outburst were not all her work, they all redounded 
to her credit. For a time Elizabeth seemed the most absolute, the 
strongest, and the most popular of all the rulers of her House. But 
the splendor and strength of her power reached maturity during the 
years just following the Armada. As she approached the close of 
her reign, the luster of her glory had begun to dim and the vigor of 
her power to decline. Her people began to await impatiently for her 
decease to open the way for new men and new measures. Those 
who valued religious and political liberty more than wealth eagerly 
greeted the new dynasty from Scotland. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Constitutional. Prothero, Statutes, introduction, an admirable survey. 
Sir Thomas Smith, De Republica Anglorum, A Discourse on the Common- 
wealth of England (first published in 1583 ; the best and most recent edition, 
1906, ed. L. Alston). Also Taswell-Langmead ; Taylor; and Hallam. 

Social and Industrial. Innes, England under the Tudors, ch. XXVIII. 
Traill; Cunningham; Ashley; Rogers; Tickner and Usher. E. M. 
Leonard, Early History of English Poor Relief (1900). Hubert Hall, Society 
in the Elizabethan Age (1901). Stephenson, The Elizabethan People (1910). 
G. Unwin, Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 
(1904). Harrison's famous Description of England, from Holinshed's 
Chronicle, is reprinted in the "Camelot Series" (ed. L. Withington, n. d.). 
P. H. Ditchfield, The England of Shakespeare (191 7). Shakespeare's Eng- 
land (2 vols., 1916), a cooperative work. Frank Aydelotte, Elizabethan 
Rogues and Vagabonds (1913). 

Maritime enterprise, the Navy and the Army. Pollard, ch. XVI ; 
Innes, ch. XXIII ; Froude, English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century (1895) ; 
J. W. Williamson, Maritime Enterprise, 148 5-1 588 (1913), based on docu- 
ments. Selections from Hakluyt's Voyages ed. by E. J. Payne (2 series, 
1893-1900) and C. R. Beazley (1907). Oppenheim, Administration of the 
Royal Navy, I; J. S. Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy (2 vols., 1898) 
and The Successors of Drake (1900). Fortescue, British A.rmy, I. 

Literature. Moody and Lovett ; Cambridge History of Literature; 
Jusserand, II ; and Taine, I, II. Saintsbury, History of Elizabethan Litera- 
ture (1890). Cambridge Modern History, III; Pollard, ch. XXIII; Innes, 
ch. XXVII. Sidney Lee, Life of Shakespeare (1898), the standard biography. 
Sir Walter Raleigh, William Shakespeare (1907), a charming appreciation. 

For the Church, see references to chs. XXIV and XXV, together with 
R. G. Usher, The Reconstruction of the English Church (2 vols., 1910). 



CHAPTER XXVII 

JAMES I AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 

(1603-1625) 

The Significance of the Accession of James I. — The accession of 
the Stuarts in the person of James I, 24 March, 1603, was fraught 
with consequences. United and prosperous, the mass of the English 
people were now eager to throw off the Tudor absolutism, which had 
fulfilled its mission, and to ask for more liberty. There was much 
in the old system which they opposed, and which not only stood in 
the way of free religious and political development, but might, under 
a new line of Sovereigns, menace the little which they still enjoyed. 
There was the State Church absolutely under royal control; there 
were the extraordinary courts, all independent of common law guaran- 
tees; and there were taxes and exactions, not only oppressive in 
themselves, but peculiarly dangerous from the fact that they made 
the Sovereign independent of Parliament. These were the special 
grievances, actual or potential. The main issue which was tried out 
under the Stuarts was whether the sovereignty, supposed to rest in 
the King-in-Parliament, should, in cases of conflict, be exercised by 
the Monarch or by the body which stood between him and the people. 
The result was victory for Parliament. In this respect England led, 
by nearly two centuries, the countries of Continental Europe, where 
the tendency, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was 
toward increasing absolutism, and the tide did not turn till the French 
Revolution. 

The King's Early Scotch Environment. — James, called upon to 
face a situation grave enough for any one, " turned out to be one of 
those curiosities which the laws of inheritance occasionally bring to 
the notice of mankind." Not only did he represent an alien house 
to whom the English were bound by no ties of gratitude, but he was 
totally unfitted by training and temperament to rule a country where 
the ideal was constitutional government. When, as an infant scarcely 
more than a year old, James VI had succeeded to the throne of Scot- 

285 



286 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

land, 24 July, 1567, another minority was added to those which had 
during two centuries plagued the country. Internal and border wars 
had torn the Kingdom for ages : the barons contended against the 
Crown ; Highland chiefs fought against Lowland lords and each 
fought among themselves, while the Border was wasted by the con- 
stant passage of Southron and Scot, and the wild Highlander lived 
by pillage. Parliament was not a representative body but a col- 
lection of factions from the various estates ; the King rarely went to 
it for supplies and the nobles redressed their own grievances. 

The religious grievances added another element of discord. While 
the Reformation was aimed against real abuses in the ancient Church, 
it was directed by greedy nobles who appropriated the greater part 
of its temporal goods. The General Assembly of the new Church 
not only demanded a more adequate share of the ecclesiastical property 
but the right to interfere in State affairs. Finally, the intrigues of 
the French and Romanists, and of Elizabeth's agents as well, all 
contributed still further to weaken national sentiment and to promote 
lawlessness. Truly, the little James grew up in troublous times. 
Before he was fifteen years old, four Regents had come and gone, of 
whom only one died a natural death. Twice the King himself had 
been taken captive by factious nobles. Weak in position and in 
temperament, he sought to make himself strong and to attain the 
English succession by the only means open to him, by dissimulation 
and intrigue, a policy upon which he came to pride himself and which 
he dignified by the name of " Kingcraft." So he had grown up to 
thread a tortuous way between a rapacious, turbulent nobility and 
a gloomy, fanatical,- domineering clergy, between an English and a 
French party ; between, indeed, all sorts of conflicting forces. 

Character of the King. — There were many good points about 
James. He had the good of his subjects at heart, he strove for peace, 
and aimed to be the reconciler of factions and the arbiter of warring 
nations. He had a touch of Scotch shrewdness, he was kind-hearted, 
and on the whole good-natured. Gifted with considerable natural 
ability, he had been carefully educated, but he was uncouth in manners 
and was a pedant rather than a scholar; he paraded rather than 
applied his learning, so that he was properly called " the wisest fool 
in Christendom." Naturally indolent, he was also timid and infirm 
of purpose, impatient of detail, and irritated at contradiction. From 
his youth up he was easily led by favorites, who gained ascendancy 
over him more by their personal graces than by their attainments. 
James' Queen, Anne of Denmark (f 1619) was not a help to him. 
Although faithful, kindly, and personally popular, she was frivolous 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 287 

and extravagant; moreover, she inclined toward Rome and was 
reported to be a convert, although she finally died a Protestant. 

James and " The Divine Right of Kings." — A most fruitful source 
of discord between James and his subjects was the exalted notions 
which he held concerning the origin and nature of Monarchy. Al- 
ready before coming to England he had shaped his views, and, in the 
True Law of Free Monarchies, had asserted that a Monarch was 
created by God and accountable to God alone, though he graciously 
admitted that a good King should govern in the popular interest. 
Such views in themselves were enough to arouse the bitterest oppo- 
sition. James only added fuel to the fire by his astounding manner of 
stating them. " The State of Monarchy," he announced in a speech 
before Parliament, in 1610, " is the supremest thing upon earth; for 
Kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth and sit upon God's 
throne, but even by God himself they are called gods .... That 
as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy ... so it is seditious 
in subjects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power." 

James I and the Puritans. The Millenary Petition (1603). — Count- 
ing much on the fact that he had been brought up a Protestant, the 
Puritan l clergy presented to James as he journeyed to London, in 
April, 1603, the so-called Millenary Petition, 2 embodying various 
demands: I, that the ritual of the Church be purged of Romish 
forms and ceremonies, such as the cross in baptism, and the wearing 
of the cap and surplice, that holidays be decreased, and the Sabbath 
be better observed ; II, that more care be taken to secure learned 
preachers ; III, that such abuses as non-residence and pluralities 3 be 
abolished ; IV, that oppressive customs in the ecclesiastical courts 
be remedied — their expensive procedure, their excommunication for 
trivial matters, and their use of the ex officio oath. 

The Hampton Court Conference (1604). — In January, 1604, James 
arranged a conference between representatives of their party on the 
one hand, and certain bishops and clergy of the Established Church 
on the other. The King himself presided. Bred a Calvinist, he 
favored Calvinistic theology, he was fond of argument, tolerant of 
other men's opinions, and too kind-hearted to be a persecutor. At 
the same time, he had been overawed and browbeaten by Presby- 
terian ministers from his youth up, and his later experiences only 
accentuated his distrust of the Presbyterian theory that all men were 

1 Those who wanted to stay in the Church while purifying it of certain abuses. 

2 Because it was supposed to have been signed by 1000 clergymen. As a matter 
of fact, it was assented to by about 800. 

3 The holding of many Church offices in one hand. 



288 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

equal in the sight of God, that the Church was independent of State 
control, and of their Presbyterian practice of interfering in secular 
affairs. In shining contrast, to his mind, was the English custom 
where the Sovereign appointed the bishops and through them con- 
trolled the Church. " No Bishop, no King " was his motto. He was 
on the lookout for any political bearing in the Puritan demands, and 
when their leader began to outline a scheme of government he burst 
out : "If you aim at Scotch presbytery, it agreeth as well with 
monarchy as God and the devil." After a long harangue he concluded 
with the ominous threat to the Puritans : "I will make them con- 
form themselves, or else I will harry them out of the land, or else do 
worse." The only results of the Conference were a few alterations 
in the liturgy, and the decision to translate the Scriptures which bore 
fruit in the famous King James' version, 1611. Before the close of 
1604 a proclamation was issued depriving of their livings those who 
refused to conform. Some of the irreconcilables went to the Low 
Countries, whence they migrated later and founded Plymouth Colony. 

James and the Catholics. — The turn of the Catholics, who had 
hoped much from Mary's son, soon came. Averse to persecution 
and desirous of a Spanish alliance, he started by remitting the recu- 
sancy fines, and, in August, 1604, made peace with Spain, leaving 
the Dutch to shift for themselves, though he still allowed his subjects 
to volunteer in their service. Nevertheless, he could not accept the 
claim of Popes to be above earthly rulers and shuddered at the right 
which they asserted of deposing princes when the occasion demanded. 
Moreover, the Catholics multiplied so soon as they received the 
encouragement, James became agitated by accusations that he was 
leaning toward Rome, and resented the Pope's refusal to excommuni- 
cate certain turbulent members of his flock who were disturbing the 
repose of the Kingdom. As early as February, 1604, he issued a procla- 
mation banishing priests ; in June, Parliament passed an Act confirm- 
ing and extending the penal laws of Elizabeth, and before the end of 
the summer the royal justices were busy enforcing them. 

The Gunpowder Plot (1605). — The result was to precipitate a 
dangerous plot, already in the making, of which Robert Catesby, 
whose family had suffered for the old faith, was the leading spirit. 
Among the conspirators whom he enlisted was Guy Fawkes, a young 
Englishman who had been serving in the Spanish army in the Nether- 
lands. After some delays and changes in their plan they at length 
hired a house with a cellar running under the Parliament buildings, 
where they deposited twenty barrels of gunpowder which they covered 
with iron bars, faggots, and billets of wood. Their design was to blow 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 289 

up the Lords and Commons, together with James and his eldest son, 
Prince Henry, when the session opened, in November, 1605. Beyond 
this they contemplated a general rising of the Catholics in the west 
Midlands, and the setting up of a new government. Too many, 
however, were taken into the secret, the plot was disclosed, and 
Fawkes was surprised and seized in the cellar. Catesby, with a num- 
ber of his fellow plotters who had escaped to the scene of the projected 
rising, were shot in an attempt to bring it about, while several others 
who were captured were tried and executed, together with Fawkes. 
Under the name of Guy Fawkes's Day 5 November came to be cele- 
brated as the anniversary of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, 
with bonfires and fireworks, and remained a national holiday for over 
two centuries. By way of retaliation Parliament, in 1606, passed two 
Acts greatly increasing Roman Catholic disabilities and imposing a 
new oath of allegiance, expressly denying the papal power of de- 
position, on all recusants. Another Act followed, in 1610. These 
penalties, however, were not enforced, partly because the pacific 
King did not want to drive the Catholics to desperation, partly 
because he was frequently in negotiation with Spain. Their exist- 
ence, however, was a constant grievance to the Catholic subjects, 
while the failure to enforce them was a source of resentment to the 
Protestants. 

Initial Difficulties with Parliament. — Parliament, which met for 
its first session, 19 March, 1604, came into conflict with James from 
the very start. His opening speech, though reasonable and dignified 
in many respects, was marked by evidences of his characteristic 
vanity and grotesqueness. Before proceeding to other business, two 
important cases of privilege were settled. By Goodwin's case it was 
determined that the Commons should henceforth be the sole judge 
of election returns of their members. In the case of Sir Thomas 
Shirley it was established that members, during the session and for an 
interval of forty days before and after, should be exempt from arrest 
for debt. Thus the King's power of excluding possible opponents 
from the House of Commons was greatly restricted. In sharp con- 
troversies which followed on various political and religious questions 
one fundamental issue was defined. The King took the ground that 
the Commons " derived all matters of privilege from him." In a 
notable Apology, which was drawn up and read in the House before 
the close of the session, they declared that their privileges of free 
election, freedom from arrest, and freedom of speech were their lawful 
inheritance and not a gift from the Sovereign — an inalienable right 
which could not be withdrawn. In this reply to the royal challenge 



290 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

they took a position about which a fierce struggle was waged for nearly 
a century, a struggle from which Parliament ultimately emerged 
victorious. 

James's Financial Embarrassments. — The King's chief weakness 
was his need of money, due partly to royal extravagance, though still 
more to the increasing needs of the State, and to the fact that the 
royal income had been fixed when money went further than it did at 
this time, when the standard of living was growing steadily higher 
and the influx of precious metals was still sending up prices. It 
speaks volumes that the thrifty Elizabeth had left a deficit. The 
plain duty of the Stuarts was to economize or, by timely concessions, 
to obtain larger grants from Parliament — that they did neither ac- 
counts for their final overthrow. 

The Bate Case and Impositions (1606-1610). — One of the means 
by which James undertook to increase his revenue was the levying of 
impositions, and, in 1606, Bate, a Turkey merchant, refused to pay 
such an imposition on a consignment cf currants. On the case being 
referred to the Court of Exchequer the barons decided in favor of 
the King. There was some legal ground for this decision ; because, 
while it was recognized that direct taxes could not be imposed without 
parliamentary consent, there was no general prohibition comprehend- 
ing all indirect taxes. Moreover, it had been customary for certain 
Sovereigns, particularly the Tudors, to impose such duties as a means 
of encouraging native industries or of striking a blow at the trade of 
hostile powers. Nevertheless, the power was fraught with dangerous 
consequences. Kings might employ it, not merely for the regulation 
of commerce, but in order to raise a revenue independent of Parlia- 
ment. James's intentions were soon evident. In 1608 the Lord 
Treasurer issued a new Book of Rates, or tariff schedule, in which he 
greatly increased the revenue from tonnage and poundage, adding, 
at the same time, impositions to the amount of £70,000 a year. 
Nevertheless, there was still great need of money when Parliament 
assembled, 9 February, 16 10. 

The Great Contract (1610). — While the King was concerned chiefly 
with supply, the Commons were intent upon redress of grievances, 
financial, religious, and legal. After some haggling they agreed to 
grant a permanent revenue of £200,000 a year, provided that purvey- 
ance and feudal dues were given up. Then the matter was laid over 
till autumn. But when they met again the Commons insisted on 
including the redress of various other grievances. The King, on his 
part, felt that £200,000 was an inadequate compensation for what 
he was asked to yield. Thus the Great Contract, as it was called, 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 



291 



came to nothing. Worse than that, the bitterness engendered by the 
struggle marked another step in the breach between the Crown and 
Parliament. 

Relations with Scotland to 1612. — Meantime, the Scotch question 
was producing friction that was to be a decisive factor in the coming 
conflict. James strove ardently to bring about a constitutional 
union between the two countries ; but there were serious obstacles in 
the way. For one thing it would involve free trade, and the English 
were set against meeting the competition of the frugal and industrious 
Scot. Thus an irritating issue had been raised, destined to remain 
unsettled for a century. As the English opposed James's plan for 
a union, so the Scotch Presbyterians struggled against his restoration 
of the Episcopal system, which it took him from 1599 to 161 2 to effect. 
Since he and the nobles selected bishops for the control of the Church, 
while the Presbyterian clergy represented the bulk of the people, 
anti-Episcopalianism came to be identified with national independence. 
Irish Difficulties. The Plantation of Ulster (161 1). — In spite of 
Lord Mount joy's conquest, Ireland presented even greater difficulties 
than Scotland. Unable to maintain a Standing army, England's only 
hope was in conciliation, though, in view of the turbulent and back- 
ward condition of the people, as well as the native hatred of the 
Church of England, the prospect seemed well-nigh hopeless. Other 
stumblingblocks were the greed of unscrupulous officials, and the land 
question. The colonists of Mary and Elizabeth were in general a 
thrifty and progressive class, but they were provided with estates 
which justly belonged to the Irish. James, however, sent out a wise 
and liberal-minded Lord Deputy, Sir Arthur Chichester, who with a 
free hand might have accomplished wonders. As it was, he put an 
end to martial law and pardoned offenses committed before the 
accession of James ; also, he turned much of the tribal land which the 
chiefs had secured from Henry VIII into individual freeholds and 
transferred the tribal dependents into tenants with fixed obligations 
and rents protected by English law. But in religious affairs, bound 
unfortunately at the start by royal orders, he made futile attempts 
to enforce conformity, and when he afterward sought to strengthen 
the Church by regulating abuses and by putting in conscientious 
ministers it was too late. The situation became impossible. Per- 
secution only nerved the priests to greater efforts, toleration multi- 
plied their number and influence. Then an unsuccessful rising in 
the north led the Crown to seize vast estates, which were utilized for 
the Celebrated Plantation of Ulster, in 161 1. Against Chichester's 
advice the most fertile tracts were allotted to English and Scotch 



292 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

settlers and undertakers. 1 As in the case of the previous plantations, 
the economic results were excellent, but, politically, new bitterness 
was engendered which bore fruit, thirty years later, in a bloody 
rebellion. 

The "Addled Parliament " (1614). — After the failure of the Great 
Contract, the King got on for nearly four years without a Parliament, 
ever more and more hard put to it for money. After the death, in 
161 2, of the Lord Treasurer Salisbury he acted as his own chief 
Minister under the influence of frivolous, incompetent, and self-seeking 
favorites. 

Early in 1614 James called his second Parliament; 2 but contrary 
to good advice, he decided to exclude impositions and all questions 
of an ecclesiastical nature from the grievances he was willing to re- 
dress. After two months spent in discussing the prohibited subjects 
Parliament was dissolved without having passed a single measure or 
voted a money grant ; hence it was called the " Addled Parliament." 

Grievances During the Inter-Parliamentary Period (1614-1620). 
(1) Financial. — Then followed another and longer interval of nearly 
seven years when James tried to get on without a Parliament, exciting 
opposition by the continuance of old grievances and by the addition 
of new ones. A leading cause of discontent lay in his futile schemes 
for raising money, though none of them proved specially burdensome. 
In 1 6 14 letters from the Council were sent out asking for benevolences, 
but in three years they yielded only £66,000, less than a single subsidy, 
and called forth protests from some counties, rdusals to pay from 
others. Another device, which happily attracted but few, was the 
sale of peerages and titles. Worse even than this, the nefarious prac- 
tice of buying and selling offices, prohibited by a Statute of Edward 
VI, was vigorously pursued. Only the rich and the unscrupulous and 
mean-spirited, the one by purchase and the others by scheming and 
fawning, could hope to obtain places, and hence royal government be- 
came a chaos of intrigue. 

(2) Legal. The Crown and the Judges. Sir Edward Coke. — 
More significant was a conflict which came to a head between the. 
Crown and the judges. The King and his supporters maintained 
that there were occasions when reasons of State should prevail over 
strict legal rules, but in carrying out his policy he sought to set himself 
above the law and to make the judges mere creatures of the royal will. 
At the beginning of James's reign, before it was evident that their 
jurisdiction was to be infringed upon, the judges were, as the Bate 

1 Speculators or promoters. 

2 The first had held five sessions from 1604 to 161 1. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 293 

case indicated, inclined to support the Crown, largely owing to their 
love of precedent and their failure to take into account the political 
bearings of an issue. Their attitude changed when attempts were 
made to encroach upon their Common Law jurisdiction. In the 
struggle which followed Sir Edward Coke (155 2-1634) took the lead. 
He was harsh, avaricious, and narrow. As Attorney-General, 1594- 
1606, he had shown himself one of the most brutal prosecutors who 
ever served the Stuarts, and first began to oppose the King after he 
became Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, in 1606. Though his 
motives were largely personal and professional, his prodigious learning 
and his savage aggressiveness made him an invaluable champion of 
the popular cause. The struggle opened over prohibitions, or the 
right of the Common Law courts to restrain the ecclesiastical tribunals 
from proceeding with a case until the judges decided whether it lay 
within their field. Finally they had to yield on prohibitions ; but, in 
16 10, they managed to carry another point, that the King could create 
no new offenses by proclamation. Another clash came, in 1614, over 
the case of Peacham, a clergyman, who, charged with writing against 
the King and Government, was convicted and died in prison. Before 
the trial the King called in the judges for consultation, a proceeding 
against which Coke stoutly protested, though on the narrow technical 
ground that James was acting contrary to custom, rather than on 
the broad principle that the Crown was seizing a dangerous weapon 
for prejudicing or intimidating the bench. In a suit which arose two 
years later, 16 16, Coke was the only one who held out, refusing to 
promise anything further than that, when a case came before him, he 
would act as became a judge. He was suspended, and, ignoring a 
royal hint to cull from his Reports observations reflecting on the pre- 
rogative, was dismissed from his judgeship. In the next Parliament 
he appeared in the opposition ranks where he rendered valiant service. 
Coke and the judges, so far as they followed him, performed a great 
work in striving to hold the King to the limitations of the law ; but 
it was well that they did not realize their ambition to act as arbiters 
in the great political questions at issue between the Sovereign and his 
people, for that would have resulted in the legal domination fully as 
dangerous to liberty and progress as royal tyranny. 

(3) Immorality at Court. The Rise of Villiers. — A third cause 
of friction was in the frivolity, extravagance, and riotous life at Court 
which shocked the growing Puritan sentiment. James himself loved 
study, his life was pure, and he was never overcome by liquor. Never- 
theless, he enjoyed the society of boon companions, he mingled with 
those of evil lives, and did nothing to reform his Court. Most scan- 



294 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

dalous of all was the case of an unworthy favorite who rose to be Earl 
cf Somerset. Convicted of complicity in a murder on evidence by 
no means conclusive, James commuted the death sentence to impris- 
sonment in the Tower. Although he honestly labored to see justice 
done, the whole affair roused widespread and prolonged abhorrence. 
The growing arrogance of Somerset before his downfall had caused 
his personal and political enemies to bring to Court as a rival, George 
Villiers, the son of an obscure country knight but a youth of rare 
personal charm, clever, audacious, and ambitious. Villiers' influence 
proved more dangerous than that of Somerset because he came to play 
a greater role in public affairs. 

(4) Foreign Policy. The Spanish Marriage Negotiations (1604- 
1618). — The relations with Spain marked another breach between 
James and his subjects and led to a series of parliamentary crises. 
The peace with Spain, in 1604, had been followed by negotiations for 
a marriage between Prince Henry and the eldest daughter of Philip III. 
James was particularly anxious to bring it about, as a means of cement- 
ing an alliance which he ardently desired : he wanted to prevent the 
recurrence of hostilities which had occupied so much of the previous 
reign, he admired the Spanish absolutism, and he aspired, with Spanish 
support, to become the peacemaker of Europe. Philip, however, 
demanded concessions in favor of Roman Catholics that James dared 
not grant. During the negotiations, which were more than once sus- 
pended, Prince Henry died and the eldest daughter of the Spanish 
King married Louis XIII of France, so her younger sister and Henry's 
brother Charles were substituted. The Spanish gradually became 
more anxious for the alliance, since a twelve years' truce with the Nether- 
lands was due to expire in 162 1 and England commanded the sea route 
to the Low Countries. Again, however, marriage negotiations were 
blocked, chiefly owing to the difficulty of relaxing the penal laws, and 
were only resumed after the English King had been drawn into the 
Thirty Years' War. 1 

The Beginning of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1620). — The war 
was brought on by difficulties growing out of the Reformation settle- 
ment, complicated by others of a political nature. The German 
princes were striving for independence against the Emperor, and in 

1 James's subserviency to Spain led to the sacrifice of Sir Walter Raleigh, who 
had been sentenced to death, in 1604, for an alleged plot against the Sovereign. 
Sorely in need of money, the English King had allowed him to go to South America 
in search of gold; at the same time promising the Spanish ambassador that if 
any Spanish possession were attacked, the leader would pay the penalty. A 
Spanish town in the Orinoco was destroyed. Raleigh on his return, June, 1618, 
was beheaded, though on the original charge. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 295 

Bohemia, where he was King, the national feeling was acute. In 1608 
a Protestant Union was formed which called forth, in 1609, a Catholic 
League ; but a series of events in Bohemia led to the first outbreak 
of the war. On the death of the childless Emperor Matthias, in 16 19, 
the Bohemian Protestants, refusing to acknowledge as their King his 
cousin Ferdinand, a pupil of the Jesuits, whom he had selected for 
his successor, 1 chose the Count Palatine of the Rhine, Frederick V, 
son-in-law of James. 2 Ferdinand, who was elected Emperor, leagued 
with Maximilian of Bavaria and Philip III of Spain. A Spanish army 
invaded the Palatinate, while, 8 November, 1620, Frederick himself 
was decisively defeated at White Hill near Prague. He was driven 
out of Bohemia, his own Palatine lands were confiscated, and he fled 
to Holland. What began as a revolt in Bohemia became a general 
European conflict, drawing into its vortex England, Denmark, Sweden, 
and France, and directed against the ascendancy of the Spanish and 
Imperial branches of the House of Hapsburg and the triumph of the 
Counter-Reformation. 

Divergent Views of James and the Popular Party regarding the 
Thirty Years' War. — James was finally moved to intervene, but solely 
in order to recover the Palatinate for his son-in-law, a purpose which 
he sought to effect by securing the good offices of Spain through the 
long-contemplated marriage alliance. Owing, however, to the need 
of money to carry on his diplomacy, he was obliged to call, in 162 1, an- 
other Parliament, which precipitated another conflict with his sub- 
jects, for the majority regarded Spain as the prime mover in a great 
Catholic aggression which could best be met by a " war of diversion," 
that is, a naval war directed against the Spanish for the purpose of 
diverting them from the Imperial alliance. Feeling even that could 
wait they seized the opportunity to demand the redress of pressing 
grievances and the recognition of fundamental rights. 

Monopolies and the Revival of Impeachments. — Among them 
were the non-enforcement of the recusancy laws and infringements on 
the liberty of speech, but they devoted their chief attention to abuses 
connected with monopolies. Even to-day monopolies are recognized 
by law in the case of patents and copyrights ; at that time they went 
much farther and included the exclusive right of dealing in certain 

1 In theory the Emperor was elected. As a matter of fact, from 1438 till the 
dissolution of the Holy Roman or German Empire, in 1806, a member of the Austrian 
House of Hapsburg was always chosen. Since 1526 the kingdoms of Bohemia 
and Hungary had been annexed to the House of Austria in a personal union. 

2 The leading Calvinist Prince in Germany. He had married the Princess 
Elizabeth, in 16 13. 



296 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

commodities, of trading in a particular district, or of carrying on a 
specified industry. There were many reasons why this should have 
been so. The dangers from pirates and savages, the uncertainties 
of unknown lands and seas, the risk oi" shipwreck in small and weakly 
constructed ships made it necessary to offer unusual privileges in 
order to induce men to venture their lives and their capital. As a 
means of building up industries, monopolies were granted not only 
to inventors but to all who introduced new processes from abroad. 
Here again there was not infrequently a special justification, for ex- 
ample, in the case of arms and ammunition, to insure an adequate 
supply in the event of war. Licenses, too, were required from inns 
and alehouses, for the restriction and regulation of the traffic in 
drink. The chief complaint against James, who derived compara- 
tively little revenue from his monopolies, was that he granted them 
to favorites who made a large profit from acting as figureheads in 
companies or from re-selling their rights. Moreover, those who had 
the supervision of inns and alehouses frequently used their powers 
for extortion and blackmail. As a result of the investigation which 
Parliament now undertook, the King abolished the worst abuses by 
proclamation, and, by an Act of 1624, monopolies with certain excep- 
tions were done away with. 1 

Francis Bacon (1561-1626). —-This first session of the Parliament 
of 162 1 is also notable for the impeachment of Francis Bacon on charges 
of judicial corruption. Made Lord Chancellor, in 16 18, and created 
Viscount St. Albans, in 162 1, he had, in spite of his unusual abilities, 
risen very slowly. At once a man of affairs and a man of letters, he 
wrote on many subjects, philosophy, scientific theory, literature, 
history, and law. His views on politics were broad and liberal, he 
favored a strong monarchy resting on the support of the people and 
acting for the popular good, informed and advised by a loyal Parlia- 
ment. Advocating liberal reforms in the law, he had, in the struggle 
with Coke, stood for interpreting legal questions on large grounds of 
policy rather than upon technical precedents. Always prone, how- 
ever, to overlook practical difficulties, he failed to recognize that Par- 
liament would no longer tolerate even a benevolent despot, and that, 
in any event, James was not the man to exercise such power. Yet, 
as he saw plan after plan fail, he continued in office as a supporter of 
the Crown. Aside from his vast intellect, his sobriety and industry, 
he had few commendable qualities ; he was cold, lacking in affection, 
and fond of comfort and display; he stooped to the most servile 

1 These exceptions included : new inventions, charters to trading companies 
and certain specified manufactures. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 297 

flattery in his relations with James ; he was ever ready with worldly- 
wise council ; indeed, the poet Pope did not greatly exaggerate in 
designating him as the " wisest, wittiest, meanest of mankind." 

His Impeachment and Fall (1621). — Parliament, already prejudiced 
against him, particularly since he had taken the royal side on the 
legality of monopolies, was very ready to listen to complaints brought 
against him by certain persons for accepting money from suitors while 
their cases were pending in Chancery, and, on the basis of these charges, 
proceeded to impeach him. Bacon, while he did not at first realize 
the gravity of the situation, was at length forced to admit, that while 
he had never allowed gifts to influence him, he had been guilty of 
accepting both presents and loans from those who had suits in his 
court. Public officials were in those days regularly in receipt of pay 
from companies and even from foreign countries in return for represent- 
ing their special interests, and it was also customary for judges to 
accept gifts from successful suitors. Bacon, with a salary inadequate 
for his office, particularly in view of the pomp and circumstance of 
his household, also notoriously loose in money matters and contemp- 
tuous of forms, had simply neglected to wait until he rendered his 
decisions. The sentence imposed upon him was a heavy one ; but 
more to mark Parliament's opinion of the enormity of the offense than 
with any thought that it would be fully executed. He was to pay a 
fine of £40,000, to be imprisoned in the Tower, to give up the Great 
Seal, and to be henceforth disqualified from holding any office of State 
or sitting in Parliament. The fine and imprisonment were remitted 
and the old man retired to achieve by his studies a reputation which 
he had failed to attain as an officer of State. His impeachment, 
while technical rules were not strictly observed, is an important step 
in the revival of a practice which had been in disuse for over a century 
and a half. 

Second Session of the Parliament of 1621. — In the autumn session 
the difference over foreign policy developed into a momentous quarrel 
which reopened the whole question of privilege. James hoped, if the 
marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta were brought about, 
that the Spanish would intervene to restore Frederick by force if 
necessary. The Commons, fearing that the Catholics were unduly 
encouraged, framed a petition asking that the Prince marry one of 
his own religion ; calling for the execution of the penal laws ; and for 
a war against Spain. A long and bitter correspondence resulted, in 
which the King forbade the Commons "to meddle with mysteries of 
State," asserting again that their privileges were derived from the 
grace of his ancestors, though he assured them that, so long as they 



298 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

confined themselves within proper limits, " he would be careful to 
preserve their lawful liberties." More than one picturesque incident 
enlivened the controversy. When the Commons sent a deputation 
with a second petition, James cried " Bring stools for the ambassadors," 
implying that they were assuming the position of an independent 
power. Finally, they framed a protestation in which they declared 
that : " their liberties and privileges were the inherited birthright of 
the subjects of England ; the State, the defense of the realm, the laws 
and grievances were proper matters for them to debate ; the members 
have liberty of speech, and freedom from all imprisonment for speaking 
on matters touching Parliamentary business." The King adjourned 
the session, sent for the Journal, and tore out the protestation with his 
own hands, while opposition members were imprisoned or confined 
to their houses in London, and, 6 January, 1622, Parliament was dis- 
solved. 

The Journey of Charles and Buckingham to Spain (1623). — The 
Spanish, realizing that the King's hands were tied so long as he had 
failed to obtain supplies, determined to keep him at odds with his 
subjects in order to avoid the least chance of English intervention in 
the Continental war. To that end, their ambassador encouraged 
Charles and Buckingham 1 in a harebrained project — a journey in- 
cognito to Madrid, where the Prince was to woo the Infanta in person. 
The visit ultimately failed of its object, although Charles agreed to 
the hardest terms short of changing his religion. When it finally 
became clear that Spain would grant no aid in recovering the Palatinate 
negotiations were broken off. The initiative was taken by Bucking- 
ham, whose self-importance had been wounded by the lack of con- 
sideration shown him at the Spanish court, and to whom the popularity 
which would result from an anti-Spanish policy proved a temptation 
which he could not resist. Indeed, he made up his mind to go to the 
length of war and dragged Charles along with him. 

The Parliament of 1624. Breach with Spain. — When Parliament 
met again, in 1624, James, who had hitherto refused to. consider the 
right of the Commons to discuss foreign politics, now consented to 
ask their advice. Buckingham told all the assembled members the 
story of the journey to Spain, insisted that the Spanish had never in- 
tended to help recover the Palatinate, and urged that the marriage 
treaty be canceled. James had come to see that war was necessary ; 
but he would only consent to a land war for the recovery of the Palat- 
inate ; Parliament was still bent on fighting Spain at sea, while Buck- 
ingham was keen for both. It was a part of his plan to ally with the 

1 The royal favorite Villiers, created Duke of Buckingham, 1623. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE PURITAN REVOLUTION 2QQ 

Dutch, the Danes, and the German princes, assisting them with Eng- 
lish subsidies. In voting a grant, less than half the sum asked for, 
the Commons specified distinctly the purpose for which it was to be 
employed, which included the strengthening of the navy and assistance 
to the Dutch and other allies. 

The French Marriage Treaty (1624). — Parliament was prorogued 
till autumn; but it never met again during the reign, for the King 
simply did not dare to face the Houses. On the failure of the Spanish 
marriage, negotiations had been opened with France for a marriage 
between Charles and Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII. Although, 
during the recent session, James had distinctly promised that no con- 
cessions would be made to the recusants in consequence of any such 
alliance, Cardinal Richelieu, Louis's adroit and able chief Minister, 
forced the weak King and his weak son to agree to a secret article 
guaranteeing a relaxation of the penal laws, and on these terms the 
treaty was ratified, in December, 1624. However, France, though 
anxious to strike a blow at the Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs, had 
no mind as yet to assist the German heretics. Accordingly, they re- 
fused to allow a rabble of raw pressed men whom James had dispatched 
abroad under a German soldier of fortune, Count Mansfeld, to pass 
through their territories. So in the dead of winter, he had to lead his 
half -clad troops into Holland, where more than three quarters of them 
perished of cold and starvation, and, in the spring, the miserable 
remnant returned to England. 

Death of James and Estimate of His Reign. — In March, 1625, the 
poor old King, much reduced by gout and worry, was attacked by an 
ague, from which he died on the 27th. As a ruler he had been a failure. 
His problem in a critical time had been to economize and to gain the 
good will of his subjects. Yet he was lavish to the last, and, what 
with the expenses in connection with foreign affairs, he left the treasury 
too poor to give him a royal burial ; he disappointed the Catholics 
and he disappointed the Puritans ; he quarreled with the judges and 
he quarreled with Parliament. While he never acted without some 
color of legality, many of his measures ran counter to the temper of 
the times. By his pompousness and love of theorizing he alienated 
his subjects, and by his failure to meet crises with decision he forfeited 
their confidence. All through his reign he strove, in the teeth of Prot- 
estant prejudice and Elizabethan tradition, for an alliance with Spain, 
and lived to see his pet project destroyed by his son and his favorite. 
His only essay in war — the Mansfeld expedition — ■ was a pitiful 
fiasco. The fresh memory of this, the empty treasury, and a crop of 
differences with his subjects were his legacy to Charles. 



300 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRTTA1N 

The bright spots in the reign were not due in any great degree to 
James. The peace which he maintained was favorable to industry, 
commerce, and prosperity; but the light taxes which contributed 
greatly to the result were due to necessity rather than to policy. Also, 
the settlements leading to a vast colonial empire in the New World 
have him to thank only so far as he drove opponents of the Established 
Church from England. Again, while he shares with Elizabeth the 
glory of the greatest age of the world's literature, he was, in spite of 
his scholarly tastes, as innocent as his predecessor of assisting the 
movement. In spite of him, very notable gains were made by the 
Commons. They secured the right of deciding contested elections 
and right of freedom from arrest, and effectively asserted their right 
to debate all matters of public concern and to appropriate supplies 
for purposes which they designated. On the other hand, they pro- 
tested vainly against impositions, and failed deservedly in an at- 
tempt to judge and punish offenses not committed against their 
own House. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. F. C. Montague, Political History of England, 1603-1660 
(1907), an accurate account of the main course of events. G. M. Trevelyan, 
England under the Stuarts, 1603-17 14 (1904), a work of unusual brilliancy 
and suggestiveness, an excellent supplement to Montague. Cambridge 
Modern History, III. S. R. Gardiner, History of England, 1603-1642 
(10 vols., 1883 -1884), a monumental work, the authority on the period, 
but confined almost exclusively to the political and ecclesiastical aspects of 
the subject. L. von Ranke, History of England (6 vols., Eng. tr., 1875), next 
to Gardiner the best detailed work, particularly valuable for foreign re- 
lations. Lingard, already cited. T. Carlyle, Historical Sketches (1891), 
a picturesque and stimulating work. 

Special. Seeley, British Policy. J. Corbett, England in the Mediter- 
ranean (1904). J. N. Figgis, The Divine Right of Kings (1896). Algernon 
Cecil, A Life of Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury (191 5). 

Constitutional. Hallam; Taylor; Taswell-Langmead ; and especially 
Maitland, Constitutional History of England, Period III, sketch of the public 
law at the death of James I. 

Church. Wakeman ; Frere ; Usher, as above. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 181-188. 
Prothero, Select Statutes. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

CHARLES I AND THE PRECIPITATION OF THE CONFLICT BETWEEN 
KING AND PEOPLE (1625-1640) 

Personal Traits of Charles I. — Charles I had many of the quali- 
ties of a popular Sovereign. Handsome and of a noble presence, he 
was a skillful athlete and bore himself with the courage of a thorough- 
bred. Keenly appreciative of all that was beautiful in the world 
about him, he was at the same time deeply religious, and lived un- 
spotted amidst the dissipations of his Court. On the other hand, he 
lacked that power of reading the temper of the times and that gift of 
voicing the feelings of his subjects which had made the Tudors so 
irresistible. Without the imagination and sympathy necessary ' to 
the understanding of other men's views, he regarded every one who 
differed from him as an enemy ; while he prided himself on the legality 
of his measures he failed to see that what had the sanction of the law 
might at times be absolutely inexpedient. Much influenced by the 
few to whom he gave his confidence, he clung obstinately to an opinion 
he had once formed. Worse than all, he was secretive and evasive ; he 
made promises which he found himself unable to keep, and sometimes 
even entered into engagements with mental reservations which would 
enable him to elude what he did not consider to be for the public good. 

Political Problems. — Spurred on by Buckingham he had aroused 
popular enthusiasm by forcing the timid old King to abandon his peace 
policy, but he and his favorite planned to conduct the war in a manner 
quite out of accord with that advocated by Parliament ; they entered 
into engagements which that body was not asked to approve, and they 
conducted their military operations with a rashness, an incompetence, 
and a lack of success which forfeited the confidence of the nation. 
Consequently, the Commons, when they were called together, would 
not grant the supplies necessary to meet the situation. This forced 
the King to resort to the irregular measures which, in conjunction with 
his religious policy, led to the revolt which finally cost him his head. 

Religious Problems. — While the Puritans had failed to receive 
under James the concessions which they desired, they had not been 

301 



302 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

actively persecuted. Silently but effectively their views were being 
preserved and spread by means of Bible reading, prayer, and services 
in private houses. Already chafing under restraint, the victories of 
the Catholics in the Continental war, the King's marriage, and the 
relaxation of the penal laws aroused their gravest apprehensions. 
Furthermore, while James had been content with the existing Es- 
tablishment, Charles was a High Churchman, who wanted, so far as 
possible, to restore the liturgy and the ecclesiastical organization of 
the pre-Reformation days, partly because he loved the splendid ancient 
ceremonial, but chiefly because of the chance to strengthen his royal 
powers. The high Anglican divines, as a means of securing the great 
offices in Church and State and counteracting the Puritan tendencies 
of the people, sought his ear and magnified the prerogative to ridiculous 
heights. So the issue was not merely religious, it was political as well. 
Two parties were ranged against each other, one in close alliance with 
the Crown, the other with Parliament. 

The Puritan Parliamentary Party. — Though the Puritan party in- 
cluded high-souled cultivated gentlemen, poets, and scholars, its gen- 
eral attitude was hard and ungracious. The spirit of the Renascence 
appealed but little to them. The old English Sunday with its pic- 
turesque and boisterous merriment was an abomination in their eyes. 
Standing for the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, many had scant 
sympathy for philosophical and historical studies. They wanted to 
enter the lists against the great Catholic combination on the Continent, 
but only after the King had redressed domestic grievances and had 
agreed upon a plan of hostilities of which they approved. At home 
they insisted upon the enforcement of the penal laws, and, as the event 
proved, they desired also to put down the Anglicans as well as various 
sects of religious extremists which had recently sprung up. They 
did not oppose an Established Church as such, but they opposed one 
upheld by the Crown and Bishops — a Church which they held re- 
sponsible for the prevailing moral laxness, particularly at Court, a 
Church with ceremonies which they denounced as " popish " idolatries 
imposed by authority. The Puritans fought, not for any principle 
of toleration, but for their own supremacy; yet, in so doing, they 
deepened the spiritual independence of the people, they struck at 
despotism, and, if they did not gain the ascendancy at which they 
aimed, they secured a large measure of political freedom for their 
country and prepared the way for a religious liberty that came slowly 
but none the less surely. 

The High Church Royalist Party. — The High Church party, ranged 
against them, stood for a revival of medieval ceremonialism and held 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 303 

exalted views regarding the origin and functions of the Church. While 
the Puritan regarded the Bible as the sole source of Christian truth, 
this party insisted that it must be interpreted according to the writings 
of the early Fathers and of the customs of the primitive Church. They 
laid stress on the divine origin of Episcopacy, and maintained that 
the observance of the Sacraments of the Church was as essential to 
salvation as personal holiness. While the standpoint of the royalist 
party was broader than that of the Puritans, it was unfortunate that 
they sought to impose their views by insisting upon absolute conformity 
and by magnifying the King's prerogative in Church and State as a 
means of crushing their opponents. Yet both parties were equally 
intolerant and both were equally aggressive. 

The Royal Advisers. — Incompetent himself to deal with the polit- 
ical and religious problems which confronted him, Charles was pecul- 
iarly unfortunate in his advisers. Indeed, it is an evidence of his 
incapacity that he should have chosen such men. Buckingham was 
rash, self-confident, and incapable, and he was largely responsible 
for the foreign disasters and the constant conflicts with Parliament 
which marked the four years of his ascendancy from 1624 to 1628. 
Worse still was Queen Henrietta Maria, who proved an evil genius to 
the King and the country ; bred in an atmosphere of absolutism and 
Catholicism, ignorant of the ways and temper of Englishmen, and 
dominated by papal agents, she put worthless men into office, and 
egged Charles on to some of his rashest and most unpopular acts, cul- 
minating in a disastrous policy of foreign intrigue. Abler far than 
these mischievous councilors and the group of religious enthusiasts 
who surrounded the throne were Charles's two later councilors, 
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and William Laud, Archbishop 
of Canterbury, though they pushed him still further toward his final 
ruin. 

Charles':: First Parliament. — The royal supporters in Charles's first 
Parliament, which met 18 June, 1625, were few and weak, while the 
King made the fatal mistake of not explaining at once what he meant 
to do, how much he needed, and for what objects. The Opposition, 
counting many effective leaders, had no sympathy with a Continental 
war, they were determined to keep control of the taxes, and were 
bitterly suspicious of relaxations in favor of the Roman Catholics. 
So, after voting an absolutely inadequate supply, they fell to discussing 
grievances and foreign policy. When they began to express their 
distrust of the royal advisers, especially Buckingham, who had aroused 
such enthusiasm in James's last Parliament, Charles ordered a dissolu- 
tion, 12 August. 



304 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Cadiz Expedition, 1625. — That autumn, Charles and Bucking- 
ham, hoping to increase their scanty funds by rich booty and to re- 
cover their lost prestige by a glorious success, sent an expedition against 
Cadiz. The invaders were unable to take the town, or to capture 
the ships in the harbor, and allowed a treasure fleet to slip by them. 
The troops got drunk on Spanish wine and became unruly. Storm- 
tossed, starving, and sick, the expedition straggled back to Plymouth 
late in November, another miserable failure. 

Charles's Second Parliament and the Impeachment of Buckingham 
(1626). — Pressed by his financial needs, Charles very reluctantly called 
a second Parliament, which met 6 February, 1626. To guard against 
resistance the leaders of the Opposition in the last Parliament had been 
disqualified for reelection, but an unexpected opponent came to the 
front, Sir John Eliot, vice-admiral of Devon. Though he had formerly 
been a friend of Buckingham, the shameless miscarriage of the Cadiz 
expedition and the deplorable condition of the returning soldiers and 
sailors had inflamed his wrath and stirred his pity. At once he forced 
the fighting by demanding an inquiry into the " recent disaster," de- 
nouncing Buckingham as the cause of all the mischief. Eliot, though 
violent and partisan, was a lofty-minded patriot, not in any sense a 
republican but an advocate of a form of monarchy in which Parlia- 
ment should be supreme. Following his attack, articles of impeach- 
ment against Buckingham were framed, in which he was accused, among 
other things, of gross neglect and mismanagement of public affairs. 
Although the King had supported the favorite in all his acts, and, by 
assuming the responsibility, placed an insurmountable obstacle in 
the way of conviction, nevertheless, Buckingham's mismanagement 
and incompetence were publicly exposed, while, for the first time since 
the pre-Tudor period, the Commons had ventured, on grounds of 
public policy, to assail a Minister enjoying the unlimited confidence 
of the Sovereign. To be sure, Charles finally stopped the impeach- 
ment by a dissolution, but, in so doing, he lost the grant which the 
Commons had resolved to vote him. Hard put to it for money he 
tried all sorts of devices, and at length resorted to a forced loan, dis- 
missing Chief Justice Crewe because he would not declare it legal. 
Some eighty gentlemen, including Eliot and Wentworth, were im- 
prisoned for refusing to lend, while many of the commoner sort were 
pressed as soldiers. Out of £350,000 asked for £236,000 was secured, 
but at the price of sullen and widespread discontent. 

The War with France and the Expedition to Rhe (1627). — In the 
spring of 1627 a war with France which had long been brewing was 
declared. Toward the close of the last reign Richelieu had exacted 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 305 

an impossible promise that the English would loan him a fleet to be 
used " against whomsoever except the King of Great Britain." When 
it became clear that he was to employ it to reduce the Huguenots at 
La Rochelle who were in revolt, Charles and Buckingham, unable to 
face the popular outcry, had tried to elude the obligation by instigating 
the Admiral in command to stir his crews to mutiny. Eventually 
the French got the ships without the men. Such double dealing ac- 
centuated the distrust of the English and alienated the French. Two 
other causes of friction were : that French ships trading with Spain 
and the Netherlands were searched and condemned even before formal 
trial in the English prize courts, and that King Charles was not only 
unable to relax the penal laws against the English Catholics but was 
even obliged to dismiss the Queen's French attendants, and, after 
much shuffling, to declare himself the protector of the French Hugue- 
nots. As a stroke against France, Buckingham, in June, 1627, sent 
an expedition which landed on the island of Rhe, opposite La Ro- 
chelle, with the object of securing a base for assisting the beleaguered 
citizens and for attacking the French coast and shipping. Bucking- 
ham himself showed both courage and energy in the undertaking, 
but the English, resenting the forced loan and without confidence in 
the leader, gave him grudging support. As a result the French, in 
October, drove the invaders from the island. 

The Five Knights' Case (1627). — Following this fresh humiliation, 
five knights, 1 who were among those imprisoned for refusing to con- 
tribute to the recent loan, brought their case to trial by suing for a 
writ of Habeas Corpus. 2 Fearing to state the reason for their deten- 
tion, Charles had assigned no cause except the command of the King. 
The judges decided to send the knights back to prison, although they 
did not commit themselves on the general question as to whether 
the Sovereign might, under all circumstances, hold the subject in con- 
finement, solely by virtue of his royal command. Nevertheless, the 
decision was ominous for the subject who looked to the protection of 

1 One of them was Sir Thomas Darnel, hence the case is sometimes called Darnel's 
Case. 

2 As it was against the spirit of English law for a subject to be detained in prison 
without cause shown, the writ of Habeas Corpus had been devised, in order that the 
judges might inquire into the case and, in view of the sufficiency or insufficiency of 
the evidence, release the prisoner, admit him to bail, or remand him to prison. 
It had always been the custom for the Sovereign, for reasons of State, to order the 
arrest of persons dangerous to the public safety without any further reason than the 
royal command. In the present instance, however, no one was conspiring against 
the State ; the only offense of those imprisoned was resistance to unparliamentary 
taxation. 



306 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the law against royal oppression. Charles, still hoping to obtain 
the needed supplies, soon released all the prisoners, and called a third 
Parliament to assemble, 17 March, 1628. 

Charles's Third Parliament (1628). — Before the opening of the ses- 
sion the Opposition leaders had met and agreed to drop the proceed- 
ings against Buckingham until they had secured redress of recent and 
pressing grievances. In addition to the arbitrary exactions and the 
imprisonment or impressment of those who had refused to pay, soldiers 
had been billeted on private houses, consuming the goods and menac- 
ing the quiet and security of those who occupied them. Moreover, 
they were under the government of martial law, which was feared as 
a dangerous encroachment on liberty. After sharp discussion, the 
Commons agreed to grant five subsidies in return for the removal of 
these evils, both Houses adopted a proposal of Coke's to formulate 
their grievances and demands in a petition, to which Charles, after 
vain efforts to wriggle out by means of vague promises, gave his formal 
assent, 7 June, 1628. 

The Petition of Right (1628). — The Petition of Right, as it was 
called, provided that : (1) No man hereafter should be compelled 
to make or yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge 
without common consent by Act of Parliament; (2) No freeman 
should be imprisoned or detained without cause shown ; (3) Soldiers 
should not be billeted in private homes ; (4) . Commissions to punish 
by martial law should be revoked and no more issued. This Petition 
of Right has always been regarded as one of the great landmarks in 
the progress of English popular liberty, ranking with Magna Carta, 
and with the later Bill of Rights. Yet it left more than one issue un- 
settled. 

When the Commons proceeded to formulate the more outstanding 
ones in two remonstrances, reiterating their demand for the removal 
of Buckingham, Charles forthwith prorogued Parliament with " a 
sharp speech," 26 June, 1628. 

The Murder of Buckingham and the Rise of Wentworth (1628). — 
Less than two months had passed when, 23 August, Buckingham, 
while superintending the embarkation of a fleet at Portsmouth, was 
stabbed by John Felton, who combined personal grievances with a 
desire to perform a public service. The crime, though received with 
general rejoicing, only embittered the King without doing any good. 
While he never again loved or trusted any one as he had the departed 
favorite, he turned to new councilors equally regardless of the popular 
will. Thomas Wentworth, who had already, in July, passed over to 
the royalist party, gradually attained the position of the King's chief 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 307 

adviser. Though he had strenuously fought the King for years, it 
was because he was opposed to the Buckingham regime, which ran 
counter to his ideals of peace abroad and efficient administration at 
home. An aristocrat by birth and temper he had no sympathy with 
Puritanism and parliamentary supremacy. The Petition of Right 
and the remonstrances went further than he could follow, so he turned 
back. When Buckingham, the chief obstacle which had stood in his 
way, was removed, he welcomed the chance to put into practice the 
policies which he had long cherished. 

Tonnage and Poundage and Religious Innovations. — The two 
most pressing questions left unsettled by the Petition of Right con- 
cerned the royal right to levy tonnage and poundage without parlia- 
mentary grant, and religious innovations. Charles maintained that 
since Parliament had, in failing at the beginning of his reign to grant 
him tonnage and poundage, departed from a long-recognized custom, 
he was entitled to collect it on his own authority. The Commons 
argued that by the Petition of Right he had yielded any right which 
he may have possessed. This he denied on the ground that tonnage 
and poundage was not included under " gift, loan, benevolence, or 
tax." Since a " tax " was then generally understood to mean a direct 
tax, there seems to be little doubt that, technically, he was in the right. 
Whatever legal rights the King may have had, his attempts to enforce 
them were bitterly resisted. In reply he imprisoned some and seized 
the goods of others who refused to pay. The religious issue had 
reached an equally acute stage. When his High Church supporters 
were sharply attacked he sought to shield them by pardons and pro- 
motions. Then, in November, 1628, he issued a Declaration pro- 
hibiting further disputes on Church questions, and providing that all 
ecclesiastical changes, unless contrary to the laws and customs of the 
land, should be settled in Convocation with the royal approval, which 
meant by a body composed largely of the King's creatures. 

The Eliot Resolutions (1629). — When Charles's third Parliament 
met for its second session, 20 January, 1629, the Commons began a 
busy discussion of the religious differences and of the treatment of 
the merchants who refused to pay tonnage and poundage. Seeing 
that he was to get nothing but complaints, the King ordered them to 
adjourn. The news caused a tumult, and, when the Speaker sought 
to leave the chair, two members, Holies and Valentine, held him down 
by main force while Holies repeated from memory three resolutions 
which Eliot had drawn up. They declared that : 

" Whosoever shall bring in innovations in religion, or by favor seek 
to extend or introduce Popery or Arminianism, or other opinions dis- 



308 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

agreeing from the true and orthodox Church, shall be reputed a cap- 
ital enemy to this Kingdom and Commonwealth. 

" Whosoever shall counsel or advise the . . . levying of . . . 
tonnage and poundage, not being granted by Parliament, or shall be 
an actor or instrument therein, shall be likewise reputed an innovator 
in the Government and a capital enemy of this Kingdom and Common- 
wealth." 

" If any merchant, or other person whatsoever, shall voluntarily 
. . . pay . . . tonnage and poundage not being granted by Parlia- 
ment, he shall likewise be reputed a betrayer of the liberty of England 
and an enemy to the same." 

While the King's officers were pounding at the door, the resolutions 
were carried and the excited throng who had pressed and shouted 
about the Speaker's chair left the House. Thus ended the last Par- 
liament which Charles was to hold for eleven years. 

The Significance of the Dissolution. — A crisis marking an inevitable 
breach had arisen. If the King could at pleasure interrupt debate on 
public grievances, popular representation was an empty form. On 
the other hand, if his royal orders could be openly resisted, Charles 
Stuart had practically ceased to be King. Eliot and eight other mem- 
bers concerned in the recent disturbances were arrested on an indef- 
inite charge of sedition and contempt. An attempt on the part of 
some to obtain their release by Habeas Corpus was first evaded and 
then offered on terms which they could not accept. When finally 
brought to trial the majority made submission. Eliot died in the 
Tower, 27 November, 1632. Holies escaped abroad; but Valentine 
and another of the eight remained in prison till 1640. 

The Period of Personal Government (1629-1640). — During the 
eleven years that Charles governed without a Parliament he had an 
opportunity to do one of two things — to establish a despotism or 
to conciliate his subjects. He did neither. The royal impolicy was 
manifested in diverse ways : in vacillation and duplicity in foreign 
relations; in taking money from the people by methods inexpedient 
and of doubtful legality ; in allowing Laud and his party full scope to 
carry out a program which ran counter to the wishes of the majority ; 
in offending the moral sense of the graver sort by the license allowed 
at Court and by the harsh treatment meted out to those who protested ; 
in breaking down respect for the judiciary, the guardian of the laws ; 
and finally by a rash attempt to introduce Episcopacy in Scotland. 

(1) Foreign Policy. — Buckingham's foreign policy had at least 
the merit of energy ; but even that disappeared with his death. Peace 
was concluded with France in 1629 and with Spain in 1630. Then 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 309 

followed a series of futile negotiations with these two countries and 
with various Protestant Powers. Charles aimed to recover the Palat- 
inate and to assert the supremacy of the narrow seas ; but his un- 
trustworthiness drew on him the contempt of the great Continental 
leaders, while by his inaction he lost the chance of increasing his 
popularity at home and abroad. 

(2) Arbitrary Taxation. — The King's irregular methods of raising 
money, though bolstered up with a show of legality, proved one of 
the chief means of alienating his subjects. He continued to levy 
tonnage and poundage and impositions regardless of public feeling. 
Perverse ingenuity was shown in the creation of new monopolies; 
since the Act of 1624 limiting monopolies had excepted corporations 
and trading companies from its prohibitions, licenses were granted to 
a number of such organizations for the manufacture of soap, starch, 
beer, and other commodities, and it was in vain that the patentees 
were scathingly denounced as a " nest of wasps or swarm of vermin 
which have overcrept the land." Although the country was prosper- 
ous and most of the financial exactions fell on special classes best able 
to bear them, nevertheless, discontent at the royal attempt to raise 
money independent of Parliament became increasingly widespread 
as the years went on, until a crisis came in the year 1637. 

(3) Religion and Morals. The Laudian Policy. — Meantime, the 
differences in questions of religion and morals were reaching an acute 
stage. The King's chief agent in Church affairs, Archbishop Laud, 
by his influence in the Privy Council, and by his control of the courts 
of High Commission and Star Chamber, gathered into his hands all 
the machinery, both ecclesiastical and temporal, for enforcing his 
drastic policy. He was a tireless worker, fearless, honest, and devoted 
to his duty as he saw it ; but he was narrow and rigid in his views, 
and, though he put no one to death, he sanctioned cruel punishments. 
Religious toleration was still practically unknown even among his 
opponents, but he was wanting in discrimination as well. He restored 
church buildings whose original beauty had been marred by neglect, 
he cleared St. Paul's of tradesmen and lawyers who used the holy 
place for base traffic, he made war on corruption and religious sloth, 
but, at the same time, he persecuted men who, from sincere convic- 
tion, refused to participate in the ceremonies which he was laboring 
to extend throughout the land. While he strove for Church unity, 
his test was uniformity; hence, he was not inclined to inquire too 
strictly what people believed, so long as they conformed. Wherever 
prescribed ecclesiastical rules were disregarded he concluded that 
there was no religion. Hence the Puritan, the indifferent, and the 



310 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

profane were alike in his eyes. Furthermore, he undertook to suppress 
every breath of hostile expression in the press, in the pulpit, the parish 
church, and the conventicle. Much corruption, irreverence, and neg- 
lect he found by energetic inquiry. Many clergymen were profane, 
abusive, and loose in their conduct, the Communion table was some- 
times used as a writing desk, or otherwise desecrated; men slouched 
into church with their hats on, or disturbed the service outside ; pigs 
were allowed in many places to root up the churchyard. While Laud 
did much good work in remedying these and various other abuses, 
his failure to distinguish between the worthy and the unworthy stirred 
up a curiously general opposition. The impious or profligate, lay or 
cleric, who was proceeded against in the ecclesiastical courts, the 
country squire who resented the enhanced power of the parson, the 
lawyer who chafed against the increased jurisdiction of the Church 
tribunals, and the courtiers who disliked the bishops usurping great 
offices of State were all aroused. 

The Puritan Sentiment and Current Morality. — On the other 
hand, the Puritan conscience was shocked at what they considered 
to be the high-handed encouragement of immorality. In 1618, in 
order to counteract the zeal of certain magistrates, James had issued 
a Declaration of Sports which authorized the continuance of games 
on Sunday. There were some good reasons for this : among others 
to prevent idleness and tippling; and to encourage the subjects to 
strengthen their bodies for the more effective defense of the realm. 
In 1633, the Declaration, which had been promulgated in only one 
diocese, was published throughout the land, and ministers were ordered 
to read it from the pulpit under pain of suspension or deprivation. 
Then, in Somerset, it was the custom to celebrate the anniversary 
of the patron saints of churches on the Sunday following. These 
" Wakes," as they were called, were frequently scenes of drunkenness 
and disorder. When a conscientious Chief Justice made an effort to 
stop this abuse he was forbidden to ride on the Western circuit again. 
All this seemed to the Puritans nothing more than governmental sanc- 
tion of Sabbath breaking. 

The Censorship of the Press. — By a rigid censorship of the Press 
and by the brutal punishment of those who evaded its restrictions 
an attempt was made to check attacks on the existing system. Many 
of those suppressed or punished were violent and abusive in their 
language and unreasonable in their standards, but there was much 
to justify their protests, so that, in silencing them, voices were stifled 
that cried for better things. The first sufferers, in spite of the cruel 
pains inflicted on them, attracted little attention. Among them was 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 311 

Alexander Leighton, a fiery and uneasy Scot. In his writings he had 
alluded to the Queen as a " Canaanite and an idolatress " and had 
attacked the bishops as " trumpery of anti-Christ " whom he coun- 
seled Parliament to smite under the fifth rib ; so, in 1630, he was ar- 
rested, sentenced to pay a fine of £10,000, to have his ears cropped, 
be pilloried, and whipped and to remain in prison for life. Though 
part of the sentence was remitted he was only released from prison 
ten years latepi /In 1632 William Prynne, a barrister of vast learn- 
ing but narrow-minded and contentious, denounced the theater in a 
work entitled Histriomastix; a Scourge of Stage Players, and received 
as hard measure as Leighton. Continuing his jeremiads from prison 
he was called to account again, in 1637, together with two others, 
chiefly for onslaughts on the Episcopacy. Each was sentenced in 
the Star Chamber to pay a fine of £5000, to stand in the pillory, 
to lose his ears, 1 and to be imprisoned. But, whereas the former 
sentences had passed unnoticed, this time the sufferers were sur- 
rounded by a sympathetic grieving multitude ; nevertheless, in 
company with John Lilburne > another tempestuous spirit who was 
caught circulating Puritanical books, they had to languish in prison 
till 1640. 

Fear of the Revival of Roman Catholicism. — Another thing which 
contributed to alienate the subject was the widespread suspicion 
that the King and his advisers were on the road to Rome. Laud, 
as a matter of fact, regarded the Roman Church as a branch of the 
Catholic communion, but thought it was severed by errors and in- 
novations from the truer traditions preserved in the Church of Eng- 
land ; Charles, too, was stanchly Anglican ; but the Queen was a 
Roman Catholic, and many of the Court ladies were attracted by the 
gorgeous Roman ritual. Moreover, the King, in his desire to please 
Henrietta Maria, admitted papal legates and allowed concessions to 
worshipers of the old faith, and a number of conversions resulted. 
Laud did all in his power to check the movement; but he was far 
from successful. 

The Convergence of Discontent (1637). — The significance of the 
discontent aroused by the Laudian policy is difficult to realize in the 
present day when men have such varied interests, when they may 
think what they like, and worship where they please. In the early 
seventeenth century the mass of Englishmen, beyond the routine 
of their daily life, had almost no intellectual resource save religion, 

1 Since Prynne's ears were already cropped, the stumps were gleaned and he 
was branded with the letters "S. L.," that is, "Seditious Libeler," but he inter- 
preted them to mean "Scars of Laud." 



312 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and they were obliged to worship in the parish church. When they 
were forced to participate in ceremonies which many of them regarded 
as idolatrous and to hear doctrines which their reason could not ac- 
cept, it was inevitable that their pent-up fury would burst forth with 
terrific consequences when the chance offered. For years, however, 
after the crisis of 1629, there was no open resistance. The reasons 
are obvious : no machinery existed for focusing and expressing public 
discontent. The press was muzzled ; there were no public meetings, 
and, if any had been attempted, they would have been suppressed 
as seditious riots ; there was no party organization or no adequate 
means of communication. Even gatherings at the tavern or ale houses 
or at the homes of the great merchants and gentry were dangerous, 
for they might be reported by spies ; so the bulk, even of the Puritans, 
conformed to the ecclesiastical regulations, either half-heartedly or 
sullenly, most of them meeting to worship and pray in secret, while 
others fled to America to develop in the New World religious and 
political ideas and practices which were stifled in the old. The turn 
of the tide in England came in 1637 — first, the popular demonstra- 
tion about the pillory for Prynne and his fellow sufferers, then the 
case of John Hampden, and a rising in Scotland. 

(4) Ship Money. Origin and Aim. — All of the King's ingenious 
but ill-judged financial expedients had been unpopular ; ship money 
proved to be the most " famous and disastrous " in its consequences. 
It called forth the first notable resistance and it convinced the mass 
of the subjects that they could not depend upon the judges to pro- 
tect popular rights. 1 There was no doubt that Charles was con- 
fronted by an urgent problem. The French, rapidly developing 
their maritime resources, were in negotiation with the Dutch, who 
had the greatest mercantile fleet and the finest navy afloat, for the 
partition of the Spanish Netherlands, while, in addition, English 
shipping was gravely menaced by pirates from Algiers and Dunkirk 
who scoured the Channel. Her merchant marine was in a deplorable 
state compared with the glorious days of Elizabeth, and the sov- 
ereignty of the seas, asserted by English monarchs since the first Ed- 
ward, was in danger of becoming an empty boast. It was at this 
critical juncture that Charles, at the suggestion of his Attorney-Gen- 
eral Noy, called on his subjects for ship money. With his charac- 
teristic want of frankness he concealed designs for maintaining the 
supremacy of the narrow seas and protecting the Spanish Netherlands 

1 They were still consulted beforehand, and those who showed the slightest 
independence were dismissed. This happened to Crew in 1626; to Walter in 
1629; to Heath in 1634. 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 313 

against the French and Dutch, alleging merely that he aimed to clear 
the Channel of pirates. 

It was an old custom to call on the port towns and maritime 
counties for ships, while the levying of money instead, though very 
infrequent, was not unknown. The first of the writs which Charles 
now issued, in October, 1634, was confined to the port towns. 
Since the country was at peace and since money and not ships 
were asked for, the suspicion arose that a new scheme of direct 
taxation independent of Parliament was intended. In spite of 
some grumbling, however, the levy was paid without resistance, 
and, during the summer, Charles actually sent out a fleet which did 
good service. On 4 August, 1635, a second writ was issued calling 
for twice the amount of the first and including the inland towns and 
counties. Public opinion was so roused that Charles consulted the 
judges in December and obtained an opinion that : " When the 
Kingdom was in danger, whereof his Majesty was the only judge, 
the charge ought to be borne by the Kingdom in general." When a 
third and even a fourth levy followed, in 1636 and 1637, it became 
evident that there was an opportunity fcr a permanent and • general 
tax — '" an everlasting supply for all occasions." Feeling surged 
higher and higher, and calls were even heard for a Parliament. 
Hoping to stem the tide, Charles had, in February, 1637, referred 
to the judges again, and again they sustained him. 

Hampden's Case (1637). — Among those who refused to pay his 
assessment, in 1635, was John Hampden, a wealthy country gentle- 
man. Though it amounted to only 20 shillings his case was made 
the test. The trial was opened in November, 1637, before the full 
bench of twelve judges, and judgment was rendered in the following 
June. There were learned arguments as to whether ship money was a 
tax which required the consent of Parliament, also as to whether 
inland towns and counties were included in the obligation to fur- 
nish ships ; but the main issue developed over the question as to whether, 
in time of danger, the King had the right of levying the money of 
the subject for the defense of the realm, and whether the King was 
the sole judge of such danger. Charles's extreme supporters took a 
position according to which the long battle which Parliament had 
been waging for centuries to secure the power of the purse had been 
fought in vain. The Sovereign, by the simple assertion that the 
Kingdom was in danger, could impose whatever taxes he chose. 

Seven of the twelve decided against Hampden, in spite of the fact 
that, at the time of his refusal to pay, the Kingdom was in no dan- 
ger of invasion. For nearly four years ship money continued a 



314 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

legal source of revenue and was occasionally collected. It was evi- 
dent that the judges would not protect the liberties of the subject, 
and that some of them at least had scant regard for what Parliament 
had gained in the past. With dependence on established law thus 
shaken, the way was opened for Revolution. 

(5) The Crisis in Scotland. — The outbreak in Scotland, which 
also began in the memorable year 1637, was fraught with two notable 
consequences. It forced the King to call another Parliament, thus 
giving his English subjects a chance for concerted action which cul- 
minated in civil war ; furthermore, it threw the Scotch on the par- 
liamentary side, a fact which contributed appreciably to Charles's 
ultimate defeat. James, who boasted that " he knew the stomach " 
of his Scotch subjects, had been very cautious in his policy, notwith- 
standing the fact that he restored Episcopacy in a modified form. 
It was Charles and Laud who brought on the crisis. The Catholic 
marriage had aroused the suspicion of the Scots at the very beginning 
of the reign, and every act which followed deepened their distrust. 
In 1633 the King, accompanied by Laud, visited Scotland. Shocked 
at the lack of propriety in outward religious observance, they launched, 
on their return to England, a series of high-handed measures. Among 
them was a new Book of Canons or rules for ecclesiastical government, 
drawn up without ever being referred to the General Assembly or to 
Parliament. Published in 1636, they declared the King absolute 
head of the Church in Scotland. Also, a new Service Book was 
issued, " Laud's Liturgy," which was unsparingly denounced be- 
cause its ceremonies smelled of the mass, because it followed the 
English model, and because it was imposed by royal authority. 

The Scottish National Covenant. — The first attempt to read 
the new service, made, 23 August, 1637, at St. Giles's, Edinburgh, 
provoked a riot. And, as the news spread through the country, 
Charles was soon flooded with supplications from all classes, beg- 
ging that the hated liturgy be suppressed. To these he turned 
a deaf ear, and when the Opposition began to organize, he issued a 
proclamation declaring all meetings and supplications treasonable. 
The Scotch leaders, by way of reply, framed a " National Cove- 
nant," February, 1638, the signers of which pledged themselves 
on oath to defend the Crown and true religion. 1 Almost everywhere 
throughout Scotland it was signed with enthusiasm. Where such 
was lacking persuasion and threats were even employed. 

1 These two contradictory principles of devotion to Presbyterianism and of 
loyalty to the King played a curious part in the struggles to follow. Often the 
Scots were in arms against him ; but only, they insisted, in defense of their religion. 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 315 

Futile Negotiations and Preparations for War. — In order to stem 
the rising tide, Charles agreed that a free Assembly and a free Parlia- 
ment should meet, and even professed his willingness to revoke the 
Canons and Liturgy, though he refused to accept the Covenant. He 
insisted, also, that the Assembly should consist solely of clergymen, 
including bishops, while the Scots were determined to exclude the 
latter and to admit laymen. In defiance of the royal wishes an As- 
sembly, constituted after the Scotch plan, met at Glasgow, 21 No- 
vember, 1638, deposed the bishops, and nullified the Canons and the 
Liturgy. Charles, who had only promised concessions in order to 
gain time, had, by the spring of 1639, completed an elaborate plan 
for an invasion of Scotland, and for combining with it a rising of 
his supporters in the Highlands. But his funds were scanty, while 
his troops were raw and undisciplined, with no enthusiasm except 
to get home safely, and his generals were men of no military ex- 
perience or capacity. The Scots, on the other hand, were fired by a 
tremendous zeal and were drilled by veterans schooled in the Con- 
tinental wars. Indeed, their commander, Alexander Leslie, later Earl 
of Leven, had been trained under Gustavus Adolphus, the greatest 
captain of the age. 

The First Bishops' War (1639). — The royalist risings in the High- 
lands came to nothing, and when the two armies on the Border were 
brought face to face neither wished to fight. For Charles it meant 
certain defeat, while the Scotch feared the consequences of a victory 
which might rouse the national pride of Englishmen to rally to the 
support of the King. It is said that only one man was killed, and he 
by accident, in the whole war. With both sides ready to come to 
terms a treaty was easily arranged. The Scots agreed to disband, 
while Charles agreed to leave the ecclesiastical questions in dispute 
to a General Assembly and the civil questions to a free Parliament. 
The Assembly, which met at Edinburgh, 12 August, replaced the Epis- 
copal by the Presbyterian system, and imposed the Covenant upon 
the whole nation, while Charles, again merely to gain time, ratified 
all its measures, though when the Scotch Estates met and confirmed 
these measures they were dissolved. Later, they met again, 2 June, 
1640, on their own authority and prepared to resume the war. 

Wentworth in Ireland. Recall to England as Chief Minister. — 
Charles, too, had been making ready to renew hostilities. His chief 
adviser was Thomas Wentworth, whom he recalled, in September, 
1639, from Ireland where he had served as Lord Deputy since 1633. 
He had ruled with a strong hand and greatly improved the material 
conditions of the country. He had suppressed piracy, protected 



316 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

trade, and encouraged the flax culture in the north, he had developed 
a well-disciplined army, he had been successful in managing Parlia- 
ment and using it as a source of supplies. Also, he had endeavored 
to reform the Church in order to employ it against the ascendancy 
of Rome. Yet he had only accentuated the bitterness of the sub- 
ject people. Besides having to contend against the religious prejudice 
and anti-English feeling of the natives and the greed of the English 
officials and colonists, he was also harsh, impatient of opposition, 
and high-handed in his methods. In order to keep Ireland to 
some degree dependent on England, he discouraged the wool manu- 
facture and kept salt as government monopoly. Moreover, he was 
guilty of unjust evictions in the province of Connaught. On the 
whole, he carried out in Ireland the rule of " thorough " * which 
he and Laud in their correspondence advocated for England. 

The Short Parliament (13 April-May, 1640). — In January, 1640, 
Wentworth was created Earl of Strafford. Influenced by his success 
with the Irish Parliament, he advised Charles to call an English Par- 
liament, which might grant the supplies needed to put down the Scots, 
or by its refusal give the King an excuse to act on his own authority. 
When the session opened, 13 April, all of the leading opponents of 
the royal policy were present. Although far from extreme in their 
attitude, they were determined upon redress of grievances, while 
the King insisted that a grant of supplies should come first. John 
Pym, a veteran who had sat in every Parliament since 16 14 and who, 
from the leadership which he now assumed, came to be known as 
" King Pym," opened with a stirring speech. In a masterly survey 
of the events of the session of 1629 and of the period of personal rule 
which followed, he summed up the popular complaints under three 
heads : breaches of parliamentary privilege ; innovations in religion ; 
and invasions of private property. Committees were appointed 
to consider each of these subjects. Finding that there was little 
chance of getting any money without concessions which he was un- 
willing to make, and that the Opposition leaders were treating with 
the Scots, Charles ordered a dissolution, 5 May. Although the 
Short Parliament only sat three weeks and did not pass a single meas- 
ure, its work was memorable ; for it brought the chiefs of the people 
together and gave them an opportunity to discuss and formulate 
the popular discontent against the Crown. 

Devices for Raising Money after the Short Parliament. — Straf- 
ford, in the Privy Council, held that, since Parliament had refused to 

1 That is, carrying "through" a policy regardless of consequences. The two 
words meant the same in those days. 



PRECIPITATION OF CONFLICT BETWEEN KING AND PEOPLE 317 

vote the required supplies, the King was " absolved from all rules 
of government." His violence and arbitrariness knew no bounds : 
he proposed that an army should be raised in Ireland to assist in re- 
ducing " this Kingdom" — whether Scotland or England is not quite cer- 
tain. Hampden, he declared, should be " well whipped into his right 
senses," for going to law about ship money. When the City refused 
a loan he proposed that some of the aldermen be hanged as examples. 
Ail sorts of expedients were tried to raise funds — ship money and 
its military equivalent, " coat and conduct " money for the equip- 
ment and transport of troops, were levied ; futile attempts were 
made to raise loans from Spain and the Pope ; while a proposal to 
debase the currency, known as " the abominable project of brass 
money," came to nothing. These and various other schemes proved 
as unproductive as they were unpopular. 

The Second Bishops' War, 1640. — On 23 August, Charles joined 
his army at York. It consisted mainly of pressed men, ill-equipped, 
discontented, Puritan in sentiment, and violently suspicious of its 
officers, many of whom were reputed Romanists. The Scots, having 
issued a manifesto declaring that they were merely seeking their 
rights, and that they were in full sympathy with the English, crossed 
the Border, brushed the King's forces aside, and occupied the two 
counties of Durham and Northumberland. In the face of the crisis 
Charles was forced to consent to summon another Parliament. Be- 
fore it assembled he called a Great Council of the Peers — the first 
of the sort since the reign of Edward III — to meet him, 24 September, 
at York. This body guaranteed a large loan and opened negotiations 
with the Scots at Ripon. It was finally agreed that the invaders 
should remain in possession of Durham and Northumberland and 
receive £850 a day until a definite peace was signed ; then the nego- 
tiations were transferred to London, where they were concluded the 
following August. On 28 October, 1640, the Great Council was dis- 
solved and a few days later Parliament met. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

For narrative, constitutional, and special references, see ch. XXVII. Also 
Gardiner, Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution (1899), intro- 
duction, a good summary, and G. P. Gooch, English Democratic Ideas in 
the Seventeenth Century (1898). 

Biography. P. Gibbs, George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham (1908) 
rather gossipy. I. A. Taylor, The Life of Queen Henrietta Maria (1905). 
Macaulay, essay on Hampden. Goldwin Smith, Three English Statesmen 
(1868), Pym, Cromwell, and Pitt. IT. D. Traill, Strafford (1889). W. H. 



*l8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Hutton, Laud (1895). D. Masson, The Life of John Milton (6 vols., 1859- 
1880) ; every other chapter is devoted to the general history of the times. 

Contemporary. Clarendon, History of the Great Rebellion (best ed. 
W. D. Macray, 6 vols., 1886), a literary and historical classic; but must be 
read with caution, owing to the inaccuracies and prejudices of the author. 
Lucy Hutchinson, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson (best ed, C. H. 
Firth, 2 vols., 1885), a rather idealized picture of the highest type of Puritan 
gentleman. Peter Heylyn, Cyprianus Anglicus (1668), a life of Laud by 
an avowed admirer. 

Church. W. H. Hutton, History of the English Church from the Accession 
of Charles I to the Death of Anne (1903). 

Scotland and Ireland. P. H. Brown, Scotland. Cambridge Modern 
History, IV. Turner, Joyce, and Bagwell. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 189-194. 
Gardiner, Documents, nos. 1-25. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

FROM THE OPENING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT TO THE OUT- 
BREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR (i 640-1 642) 

The Opening of the Long Parliament. Temper and Aims. — The 

body which assembled, 3 November, 1640, came to be known as the 
Long Parliament and was destined to sit through years perhaps the 
most eventful in English history. While most of the men who had 
found seats in the Short Parliament were reelected in the autumn of 
1640, the temper both of the members and of those who returned them 
had changed. Convinced by the developments of the intervening 
months that Charles and his councilors were conspiring to crush their 
religious and civil liberties and to introduce " Popery," they now de- 
termined not only to remove existing grievances, but to " pull up the 
causes of them by the roots." Even yet, however, their intentions 
were not revolutionary : they designed merely to make it impossible 
for the King to govern without a Parliament ; to do away with his 
arbitrary power of taxing and administering justice ; to safeguard 
Protestantism, and to punish the evil advisers whom they blamed 
for leading the King astray. While they were pretty generally agreed 
upon their political program, a split came on the religious question ; 
one party wanted to abolish Episcopacy outright, the other party 
wanted only to modify it. The inevitable conflict encouraged the 
shifty King to start intriguing again in order to recover what he had 
yielded, and convinced the extremists that there was no hope of peace 
and safety until Charles Stuart had ceased to live. 

The Opposition Leaders in the Commons Pym and Hampden. — 
The party chiefs who had succeeded Eliot and his fellows differed 
from their predecessors in organizing a great popular movement out- 
side the walls of Parliament. For years they had been meeting and 
maturing their plans in the country houses of wealthy peers and com- 
moners. When the Short Parliament revealed the temper of the nation 
they began to act. They entered into negotiations with the Scots ; 
they organized the petition for a new Parliament, and, during the 
autumn elections, they rode about the country influencing voters to 
choose Puritan representatives. Until his death, in December, 1643, 

319 



320 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the leading spirit in the popular opposition was John Pym. Added 
to unusual abilities as a debater and parliamentary tactician, he had 
rare gifts of popular management. According to his theory, Parlia- 
ment was the chief element in the constitutional life of the nation, of 
the two Houses the lower was superior, while the rights of the people 
transcended both. He never was a Republican, though events might 
have made him such had he lived. He was opposed to the Bishops, 
whom he regarded as agents of royal despotism ; but he advocated in 
place of Episcopal, not Presbyterian but Parliamentary control of 
the Church. Pym's closest associate and supporter was John Hamp- 
den, whom the Ship Money Case made a central figure in the struggles 
against the Crown. Hampden's influence was due as much to his 
high rank and to his character as to his abilities ; he was absolutely 
fearless, free from private ambition, and possessed of a wonderful ascend- 
ancy over men. Like Pym, he sought to bring about a reconciliation 
with Charles and his people rather than to do away with the Monarchy ; 
on the other hand, he gradually became an advocate of a " root and 
branch " extirpation of Episcopacy. Pym and Hampden were the cen- 
ters of a small group, forming the " engine which moved all the rest." 

Cromwell, Vane, and Hyde. — Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) who had 
entered the House of Commons in 1628, and represented Cambridge 
in the Short and Long Parliaments, was as yet notable chiefly for his 
religious zeal and his advocacy of Puritan liberty of preaching. The 
fact, however, that he was a cousin of Hampden brought him into 
intimate relation with the Opposition chiefs ; he soon became active 
on committees, and " very much hearkened unto." " Very ordinarily 
apparelled ... his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp 
and untuneable," and fervid in utterance, he was a man of power rather 
than charm. Sir Harry Vane, almost a fanatic in his enthusiasm, 
was an extreme liberal in politics and an Independent in religion, 
but had both ability and great powers of leadership. Edward Hyde, 
later Earl of Clarendon, was one of the most active in securing the 
political reforms of the first session of the Long Parliament ; but he 
was too much attached to the Church and the prerogative to go fur- 
ther, so, as the tendencies of the extremists in Church and State be- 
came more and more evident, he joined the King's party and became 
the leader of the constitutional royalists. His History of the Great 
Rebellion, written mostly during his subsequent exile, is, in spite of 
its prejudices and errors of fact, the great classic of the period. 

The Puritan Peers. — There was a small but stanch body of Puri- 
tan leaders among the peers, a few of whom belonged to the little circle 
dominated by Pym and Hampden. Chief among them were the Earls 



FROM LONG PARLIAMENT TO OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR 3 21 

of Essex and Manchester. The Earl of Essex, a son of Elizabeth's 
favorite, became the first commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary 
army, but though actuated by a high sense of duty, he lacked asser- 
tiveness, his abilities were too slender for the difficult situation, and he 
soon had to make way for a leader of more robust fiber. The Earl 
of Manchester was " a sweet meek man " who for a time commanded 
the army of the Association of Eastern Counties, but was also forced 
into retirement for lack of vigor. 

Early Work of the Long Parliament. — Charles could not dismiss 
this Parliament nor could he resist its measures ; for it was absolutely 
necessary for him to obtain a grant, either to pay off the Scottish in- 
vaders or to raise another army to resist them. London became 
the center of stirring activity. Pamphlets on religion and politics 
and fervid sermons contributed to spread radical ideas and to rouse 
men to carry them into effect ; sects multiplied ; while mobs of howling 
apprentices and even of once sober tradesmen menaced the Court at 
Whitehall and fanned the zeal of Parliament at Westminster. As an 
act of tardy justice the victims of the Star Chamber prosecutions, 
Prynne, Leighton, and Lilburne, were released and welcomed in the 
City with every manifestation of joy. Parliament's valiant labors 
during the few months of its first session group themselves under three 
main heads: (1) proceedings against the King's evil councilors; 
(2) curtailing the royal powers of arbitrary taxation and administra- 
tion of justice ; (3) attempts at religious reforms. 

(1) Impeachments. The Trial and Execution of Strafford. — 
Parliament had sat just a week when Strafford, the " dark-browed 
apostate," whom the Commons regarded as the King's evil genius and 
their own most dangerous enemy, was impeached and placed in cus- 
tody. Other impeachments followed in swift succession. Some 
escaped, but Laud, " too old and brave to fly," was lodged in the Tower, 
whence he was taken four years later to the block. The charges 
against Strafford which the Commons sent to the House of Lords de- 
clared, in substance : that he had traitorously endeavored to subvert 
the laws of England and Ireland and to introduce arbitrary and ty- 
rannical government ; that he had advised the King to reduce his 
subjects in Scotland and England by force of arms ; and that he had 
tried to enlist " papists " in support of his political schemes. The 
trial began 22 March, 1641, in Westminster Hall, which was crowded 
with spectators. While it was easy to prove the accused Minister 
guilty of tyranny and contempt of the law, it was not possible to sub- 
stantiate the charge of treason. According to the existing law that 
was an offense that could be committed only against the King, and 



322 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the King had approved of all that Strafford had done. The charge 
which underlay the various counts against the accused was treason 
against the nation — a new offense which had never been recognized 
by Statute. As the trial progressed the danger increased that he might 
escape after all, so those most bent on his destruction proposed that 
a Bill of Attainder — which required no evidence — be substituted 
for an impeachment ; though opposed at first by Pym and Hampden, 
the Bill passed the Commons, 21 April. Charles did everything in 
his power to block its further progress : he offered to dismiss the Earl, 
and even to give his consent to any punishment short of death penalty. 
But the mob which surged about Westminster demanded the head of 
" Black Tom the Tyrant," whose fate was sealed by the discovery 
of a plot, in which the Queen rashly engaged to bring the army down 
from York to overawe Parliament. In consequence of a dispute 
which arose between two factions of the royalist supporters, this "first 
army plot" was betrayed to the popular leaders; Pym seized a fitting 
moment to disclose the information, and the Lords, who had hitherto 
hesitated, voted the Attainder, 8 May. Charles withheld his signa- 
ture as long as he could, but pressed by deputations from both Houses 
and menaced by the armed dnd excited throng, he was obliged to 
sacrifice his Minister whom he had promised to protect. When the 
condemned Earl heard the decision, he exclaimed : " Put not your 
trust in princes nor in the sons of men, for in them is no salva- 
tion." On 12 May, 1641, receiving Laud's benediction as he passed, 
he proceeded dauntlessly and haughtily to his execution on Tower 
Hill. He had served the King faithfully and he was put to death 
without a warrant of law ; but he was a dangerous man who, had he 
been allowed to live, would have worked to destroy the liberties of 
the people and the lives of their leaders. 

(2) Remedial Legislation. — Meantime, Parliament had taken 
steps to curtail the King's arbitrary powers. On 16 February, 1641, 
a Triennial Bill became law, providing that henceforth Parliament 
should meet at least once in three years, a design to prevent such 
long inter-parliamentary intervals as had occurred under James and 
Charles. Another measure — aimed to stop for the future the sum- 
mary methods which Charles had employed to block Buckingham's 
impeachment and Eliot's resolutions — provided that Parliament 
should not be dissolved without its own consent. The King gave his 
assent 1 1 May. Secured against interference with its work, Parliament 
proceeded to deal with taxation and the extraordinary courts. On 
22 June, 1 641, a statute was passed granting tonnage and poundage 
for two months ; but providing that henceforth " no subsidy, 



FROM LONG PARLIAMENT TO OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR 323 

custom, impost or other charge whatsoever " should be imposed 
except by consent of Parliament on merchandise imported or ex- 
ported. This was followed, 5 July, by an Act abolishing the Star 
Chamber, and greatly restricting the jurisdiction of the Council of 
Wales and the Marches. The High Commission was done away with 
by an Act which became law the same day. In August, ship money 
was declared illegal. Unhappily, Charles, in spite of his promises, 
refused to accept without a struggle the limitations thus imposed upon 
his sovereignty. He tried all manner of devices to recover the ground 
he had lost ; his wife, too, was fertile in suggesting expedients as rash 
as they were futile, while increasing dissension over the Church ques- 
tion offered him the hope of strengthening his party at the expense 
of his opponents. 

(3) The Attempt to Settle the Church Question. — Of the parties 
opposed to the existing Church of England it seemed for a time as if 
the Presbyterians would prevail. The Scotch commissioners for com- 
pleting the treaty of peace brought to London a number of preachers 
who at first received a favorable hearing; but the hotness of their 
proselyting zeal and the expense of maintaining the Scotch forces 
gradually made them unpopular with one section of the English popu- 
lar party. Throughout that party there was a general desire for a 
parliamentary regulation of the Church as well as the State, and for 
doing away with the Laudian innovations. Sharp differences of 
opinion, however, arose over the nature and extent of the changes 
to be undertaken ; there were many who demanded the abolition of 
Episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer, while others would 
have been content with modifying the powers of the Bishops and alter- 
ing the liturgy. Among the extremists, or " root and branch " men, 
there were at least three groups : the parliamentary majority, led by 
Pym, wanted a Puritan State Church, controlled by parliamentary lay 
commissioners in place of Bishops ; a second group, made up of a few 
divines backed by the Scots, clamored for a Presbyterian establishment ; 
a third party, led by the London Independents, strove for congre- 
gational control of doctrine and worship. The issue was joined when, 
December, 1640, " a world of honest citizens in their best apparel " 
came to the House of Commons "in a very modest way " with a 
petition, containing 15,000 names, for the abolition of Episcopacy 
"with all its roots and branches." For months the whole Church 
question was debated earnestly but inconclusively, and one bill after 
another was introduced only to be rejected. 

The Second Army Plot and the " Incident." — The differences 
gave Charles " a majority in the Lords and a large minority in the 



324 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Commons " ; but instead of fostering the moderate party, he allowed 
himself to be drawn into two wild and wholly irreconcilable schemes. 
One was to go to Scotland to attach himself to a party that was forming 
against the extreme Covenanters. At the same time, under the bane- 
ful influence of the Queen , Charles hopefully welcomed another attempt 
to bring the Yorkshire army to London. The Second Army Plot, 
which proved more futile than the first, served only to strengthen the 
suspicion against the King. He started for Scotland, 10 August, 1641, 
concealing his real purpose under the pretext that he was going to com- 
plete arrangements for the treaty of peace. While he evidently was 
not privy to a mad and futile plot — known as the " Incident " — 
for seizing the Covenanting leaders, he was suspected of complicity 
in it, which almost amounted to the same thing. 

The Ulster Rebellion (1641). — In the autumn of 1641 the news of 
a terrible rebellion in Ulster reached England. Freed from the iron 
grip of Strafford, chafing under the ascendancy of an ultra-Protestant 
Parliament, and infuriated by generations of accumulated grievances, 
the wild and ignorant peasantry, whom the leaders from the Celtic 
aristocracy could not or would not control, threw themselves on their 
enemies with barbarous cruelty. It is estimated that 5000 were 
massacred outright and that twice as many more perished from star- 
vation, exposure, fright, and other causes. Rumor exaggerated the 
victims to fabulous numbers, ranging from 40,000 to 300,000. The 
English, horrified and alarmed, attributed the outburst not to oppres- 
sion and extortion, but to the savagery of the Irish worked on by the 
teachings of the Church of Rome. Parliament and the people saw 
the need of recruiting a large army to deal with the situation, but the 
leaders feared to trust unreservedly any considerable force to the King, 
because it would give him just the weapon he needed to recover the 
power which he had been obliged to yield. So Pym carried a motion 
that Charles should either " employ such Councilors and Ministers as 
should be approved by his Parliament "or Parliament would raise an 
army subject to its own control, and as a means of appealing to the 
people in a more detailed and formal manner than they had yet done, 
he and his followers pushed through the celebrated Grand Remon- 
strance. 

The Grand Remonstrance (1641). — During the first week after 
the opening of the Long Parliament a motion had been introduced to 
draw up such a remonstrance to the King " as should be a faithful 
and lively representation of the state of the kingdom." It was August, 
however, before the proposal was adopted, and the discussion might 
have dragged on interminably if the Rebellion had not brought the 




IREIiAND 

SINCE THE 
ACCESSION OF THE STUARTS 

SCALE OF ENGLISH MILES 
20 40 CO 80 100 



West 7 from 6 Greenwich 5 



' &Ct). l ENafi'8,N.Y t 



FROM LONG PARLIAMENT TO OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR 325 

matter to a head. The Remonstrance finally passed the Commons, 
22 November, and was shortly after presented to the King and printed. 
Although addressed to the Crown, the Grand Remonstrance was, in 
reality as well as in intention, an " appeal to the nation," a statement 
of the case of the Commons against the King. It consists of a pre- 
amble and 204 clauses, which trace in considerable detail the King's 
misgovernment, from his accession to the meeting of the Long Parlia- 
ment ; describe the abuses which the Commons had abolished since 
the opening of the session, the reforms which they had prepared and 
effected and the obstacles they had met with ; explain and defend 
the scheme of the Church reform of the parliamentary leaders ; and 
outline the other remedial measures demanded — the establishment 
of safeguards against Roman Catholicism, of securities for the better 
administration of justice, and the choice of such Ministers as Parlia- 
ment might have cause to confide in. 

Its Significance. — The document is of the deepest significance. 
It presents a condensed but adequate history of the reign from the 
standpoint of the parliamentary opposition, it is a clear, concise state- 
ment of the case of the popular party, and, finally, it caused a breach 
in the opposition ranks resulting in the formation of a party of con- 
stitutional royalists who encouraged the King to continue the struggle. 
The earlier clauses denouncing past misgovernment were not opposed. 
The fight began over the recommendation for Church reform and 
waxed bitter over the question of printing, which meant submitting the 
whole matter to the people. Members shouted, waved their hats, and 
even drew their swords. During the factional fights which followed 
the names " Cavalier " and " Roundhead " first came to be employed. 

The Attempted Arrest of the Five Members. — Charles returned 
from Scotland late in November, 1641. Deceived by the splendor of 
his reception in the City and encouraged by the split in the parlia- 
mentary ranks, he not only returned an unsatisfactory answer to the 
petition, but sharpened the issue by various ill-advised acts. On 
3 January, 1642, in order to rid himself of his most dangerous oppo- 
nents, he ordered the Attorney-General to impeach five members of the 
House of Commons, including Pym and Hampden x — charged with 
subverting the fundamental laws of England and inviting a foreign 
power to invade the Kingdom. Egged on by his wife, Charles went 
the next day with an armed force to seize them in person. Warned 
of his intention, the accused members had fled by boat to the City, 
and, when Charles asked if they were in the House , the Speaker Lenthall 

1 This was a most irregular proceeding, for impeachment had hitherto never 
originated except in the Lower House. The name of one peer was afterward added. 



326 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

humbly evaded the question with the memorable words: "May it 
please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak 
but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here." 
Charles answered : " Well, I see all the birds are flown," and went 
away pursued by cries of " Privilege, privilege ! " The incident was 
regarded as one of tremendous import. If the leaders of the party 
of reform were to be treated as traitors, and if the sacred precincts 
of the Commons could be invaded by the Sovereign with an armed 
force at his heels, there was little hope of any safeguarding the liberties 
of the subject in a peaceful parliamentary way. 

The Struggle for the Control of the Kingdom. — Five days after 
his failure to arrest the members, Charles withdrew with his family 
from London, never again to enter his capital except as a prisoner. 
The next six months were occupied in a struggle between Parliament 
and the Crown for the control of arsenals, fortresses, militia, and other 
military resources of the Kingdom. Parliament saw no other way to 
guarantee the political and religious liberties of the people, while the 
King realized that he could only maintain his sovereignty by frustrating 
their efforts. 

The Opening of the War (22 August, 1642). — Parliament, 2 June, 
sent him nineteen Propositions embodying their final demands, which 
included : parliamentary control of the army and of appointments 
to important political and judicial offices, the suppression of Roman 
Catholicism, and the reform of the government and liturgy of the 
Church as Parliament should advise. Refusing to accept these 
terms, Charles hastened preparations for war. Parliament did the 
like : they chose a committee of both Houses to provide for the safety 
of the Kingdom, they voted an army, and appointed the Earl of Essex 
Captain-General. Further futile negotiations followed. Then Charles 
marched south toward London from York, where his headquarters 
were. On 22 August he raised his standard at Nottingham and the 
Civil War was begun. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

See chs. XXVII, XXVIII. Also H. L. Schoolcraft, The Genesis of the 
Grand Remonstrance (1902) an excellent study; John Forster, The Debates 
on the Grand Remonstrance (i860) and The Arrest of the Five Members (i860). 
J. A. R. Marriott, Life and Times of Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland (1907). 
John Stoughton, History of Religion in England (6 vols., 1881) from the 
Nonconformist standpoint. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 195-206. 
Gardiner, Documents, nos. 26-56. 



CHAPTER XXX 

FROM THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR TO THE EXECUTION OF 
CHARLES I (1642-1649) 

The Aim of the Popular Leaders in the Civil War. — Even now 
that the issue was joined, the guiding aim of the parliamentary 
leaders was still merely so to restrict the powers of the Crown that 
the people they represented might be secure in their civil and re- 
ligious liberties. The war which followed, and the resulting execu- 
tion of the King, came from a final realization of the fact that 
Charles would not submit to any considerable loss of his powers, 
and that he was conspiring in every possible way to recover the ground 
which he had been forced to yield. The events of the past year had 
marked a decided advance in the parliamentary demands. Barring 
the settlement of the religious situation, the great mass of the mem- 
bers, in the autumn of 1641, had been satisfied with depriving the King 
of the extraordinary judicial powers acquired since the accession of 
the Tudors; with securing control of the supplies; with guarantee- 
ing frequent sessions and the duration of the existing body until its 
work was done. By June, 1642, they found it necessary to demand 
safeguards against Episcopacy and Roman Catholicism, and con- 
trol of the military, judicial, and administrative machinery of the 
Government. While, during the struggle, Episcopacy and Monarchy 
were temporarily overthrown, it was only as a means to an end — 
to preserve Protestantism and the law. 

The Numbers and Grouping of the Combatants. — The zealous 
fighters on either side, however, were in a small minority. Many 
who had resisted the King in his encroachments against their liberties 
and property hesitated to draw their swords against him when the 
fatal moment of decision came. Fear of anarchy and dread of Puri- 
tan supremacy weighed heavily with numbers of them ; another power- 
ful check was a deep-rooted instinct of loyalty to Monarchy. The 
nobles generally took the King's side, though enough, like Essex and 
Manchester, fought against him " to make rebellion respectable." 

327 



328 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

While the majority of the gentry also stood by the King, a consider- 
able minority were to be found in the parliamentary ranks. Of the 
small freeholders or yeomen the greater part in the east and midlands 
were Parliament men ; the royalist following among this class was 
strongest in the west. As a general rule, the trading classes in the 
towns were strong for Parliament. The laboring classes were mostly 
indifferent, only fighting when they were pressed, or when it was neces- 
sary to defend their poor homes and their goods and chattels. The 
Anglican clergy were stanch in their royalism, as were the Univer- 
sities, more especially Oxford, which was, during the greater portion 
of the war, the King's headquarters. Most of the great Catholic 
families also threw in their lot with the Crown. 

Territorial Distribution of Parliamentarians and Royalists. — The 
north, the west, and the extreme southwest, the stronghold of royal- 
ism, were largely agricultural and pastoral, economically backward and 
under the control of landed magnates. The most productive agri- 
cultural regions and the bulk of the commerce and manufactures 
were in the south and east, the centers of advanced religious and 
political sentiment. Roughly, a line from Hull to Southampton 
separated the royal from the parliamentary districts, though ports 
and marts of trade like Bristol, Gloucester, and Plymouth in the 
royalist country were for Parliament. Resources of men and money 
were very unequally distributed, the parliamentary territory con- 
taining more than three quarters of the wealth of the entire coun- 
try. Here the rich and populous London, an incalculable source 
of strength, was situated. But, although there were general lines of 
cleavage socially and territorially, " the war was not one of classes 
or districts but of ideas." Outside England, Charles sought aid in 
various directions ; but with ill-success. In attempting to ally 
himself with the Irish Catholics he lost more than he gained, because 
of the opposition which he excited among his English subjects. In 
Scotland the Earl of Montrose led the wild Highland clans valiantly 
but vainly in his cause. The Queen was tireless in her intrigues 
with Continental Powers: for one reason or another none could or 
would do much ; but the Catholic powers were particularly reluctant 
to furnish assistance unless Charles changed his faith. 

The Revenues of the Two Parties. — Parliament collected the 
King's taxes and the rents from the royal estates in the districts 
which they controlled ; also, since the navy took their side, they se- 
cured the customs duties. But they derived the bulk of their revenue 
from an excise, or inland revenue duty, and a direct assessment on 
lands and goods, apportioned in the various counties each month. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 329 

Charles, for his part, had to subsist largely on plunder and gifts from 
his devoted followers. Having little ready money and able to col- 
lect only a portion of their normal rents, most of them were sooner or 
later reduced to melting their plate and sacrificing their jewels. 

The Two Armies. — Parliament directed its side of the war through 
a Committee of Safety until 1643, when they united with the Scotch. 
Thenceforth, Scotch representatives were admitted, and the name 
was changed to the Committee of Both Kingdoms. There was no 
standing army or professional soldiery : the forces consisted of volun- 
teers, pressed men, and county militia or " trained bands," of which 
the trained bands — with the notable exception of those from Lon- 
don — were the least satisfactory. Since they were changed at every 
muster they were always raw and inexperienced, besides being un- 
willing to march outside their own counties. The best service was 
rendered by volunteer forces raised by private persons for the King 
or Parliament. In some cases, groups of counties banded together 
to put an army into the field, the most famous being the Eastern 
Association, whose levies rendered notable service. 

At first the Parliamentary party suffered from the lack of a com- 
petent commander : indeed, most of their earlier generals were chosen 
because of their social position rather than their military capacity. 
The King was head of the Royal forces, but he was slow and irreso- 
lute, while his nephew Rupert, 1 who began as commander of horse 
and, toward the close of the war, became General-in Chief, was a dash- 
ing cavalry leader, but utterly without caution and restraint. At 
the opening of the struggle both the sides made the mistake of under- 
rating their opponents. The Parliamentarians saw in the King's 
men a body of mincing courtiers and profane swaggerers, while the 
Royalists contemned their enemies as shopkeepers and clodhoppers. 
Cromwell, however, after the first real encounter recognized the mis- 
take his side was making, and said to Hampden with shrewd pene- 
tration : " Your troops are, most of them, old decayed serving men 
and tapsters, and such kind of fellows, and their troops are gentle- 
men's sons, younger men and persons of quality ; do you think that 
the spirits of such base and mean fellows will ever be able to encounter 
gentlemen that have honor and courage and resolution in them? 
You must get men of a spirit, and, take it not ill what I say ... of a 
spirit that will go on as far as the gentlemen will go or you will be 
beaten still." In cavalry the Royalists had the initial advantage, 
for the gentry were used to riding, hunting, and martial exercises, 
and exacted implicit obedience from the tenantry who served under 
1 A son of the Count Palatine Frederick. 



330 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

them. The infantry were about double the number of cavalry. 
Their weapons were supposed to be the pike and the musket, but 
many had nothing but pitchforks and cudgels, while a few appeared 
with the primitive bow and arrow. The Parliamentary artillery, 
greatly developed by Cromwell, proved very effective in reducing 
Royalist strongholds after the King had been overcome. 

The Plan of War. — In the early stages of the war neither 
side had any consistently executed plan of campaign. Charles's 
main aim was to recover London, while Parliament at first aimed 
merely to gain as much territory as possible, and to that end its 
armies wandered aimlessly about the country. It was only after the 
rise of Fairfax and Cromwell that a definite plan was adopted — 
the defeat of the King in battle and the capture of his person. Want 
of money, lack of discipline, and absence of enthusiasm on the part 
of the rank and file hampered both sides, and numberless petty en- 
gagements resulted, which exhausted their energies and obscured 
the larger features of the struggle. 

The Campaign of 1642. — From Nottingham, Charles marched west 
to recruit his slender forces and supplies. Essex followed him slowly. 
Suddenly the King turned back, with his pursuer hard on his heels, 
and made for London. At Edgehill, in Warwickshire, the first serious 
encounter of the war took place, 23 October, 1642. The result was 
a drawn battle, the chief consequence of which was to convince Crom- 
well that his party could accomplish nothing with such a miscel- 
laneous lot, whereupon he went off to the eastern counties to or- 
ganize his famous troop of Ironsides. Essex pressed on to London, 
while Charles established himself at Oxford, which he made his head- 
quarters during the remainder of the war. Before the close of the 
year he made one more vain attempt to reach the capital ; but his 
failure was counterbalanced by the success of Royalist forces in the 
southwest and the north. 

The Campaign of 1643. — The Royalists, in the campaign of 1643, 
again made London the objective point, planning to approach and 
surround the City from three directions. The Earl of Newcastle 
was to force his way from Yorkshire through the hostile eastern coun- 
ties and take up a position on the north bank of the Thames, a con- 
tingent from Devon and Cornwall was to march through the south- 
ern counties, occupy Kent, and thus threaten the City from that di- 
rection, while Charles, with the Oxford army recruited from Wales 
and the west Midlands, was to approach between them and com- 
plete the line of investment. But this well-devised plan, in spite of 
some preliminary successes, was frustrated mainly by the narrow 




80BMAY i CO.. FN9R/S. H.t. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 331 

fears and selfishness of the local levies and the Parliamentary control 
of the ports. The Yorkshiremen would not move from home while 
Hull remained in the hands of the enemy ; the men of the south were 
of the same mind about Plymouth, and Charles found it impossible 
to lead his forces from the west until he had made an attempt to re- 
duce Gloucester, which commanded the navigation of the Severn. 

Newcastle's Failure in the Eastern Counties. Cromwell's " Iron- 
sides." — During the spring and early summer Newcastle with 
his northern army won for Charles practically the whole land from the 
Scotch border to the Humber, except Hull. Then he led his unwill- 
ing forces into the counties of the Eastern Association, a district 
which, because of its wealth and tough Puritan stock, formed the 
backbone of the Parliamentary cause. Here Cromwell was laboring 
to organize a force of men of real ideals, strengthened by effective 
drill and held together by adequate and regular pay. His famous 
regiment of horse — the " Ironsides" — which was his particular' 
creation, is almost unique in the history of warfare. Almost exclu- 
sively men of substance, largely freeholders, none were included but 
" those who had the fear of God before them and made some con- 
science of what they did," yet, so long as they were Protestants who 
were not " prelatists," x Cromwell did not care what their sect might 
be. Terrible against the enemy, they studiously refrained from 
plunder and all manner of cruelty toward non-combatants. Crom- 
well not only commanded their respect by his military ability and his 
political and religious principles, but won their warm affection by his 
" familiar, rustic carriage," his love of merriment and fondness for 
rough games. The new regiment first showed its strength by repuls- 
ing Newcastle in a cavalry skirmish 25 July, 1643. Though they 
were obliged to retreat when the latter's whole army came up, the 
reluctant temper of his forces obliged the Royalist general to turn 
back, and, after a brief and unsuccessful siege of Hull, he retired to 
York. Meantime, Parliament had sent Manchester into the Asso- 
ciated Counties with a commission to raise 10,000 foot and 5000 
horse to be paid for out of the national taxes. 

The Royalists from the South and West Likewise Fail to Reach 
London. — In the southwest, the Royalists succeeded in overrunning 
Devon, Wiltshire, and Dorset ; but since Plymouth, supported by a 
parliamentary fleet, held out persistently, the Cornishmen refused to 
inarch to Kent. In the west, Essex, whose army was steadily wasted 
by sickness and desertion, conducted a desultory and ineffective 
campaign centering about Oxford. In spite of the ineptitude of the 
1 That is, supporters of the Episcopal system. 



332 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Parliamentarians the Royalist forces would not march on London until 
Gloucester was captured; so, 10 August, Charles encamped before 
the city. In spite of the efforts of a strong peace party Essex was 
provided with a force of 15,000, from the London trained bands, to 
raise the siege of Gloucester. Charles, withdrawing at their approach, 
sought to block their return to London, and a fierce but indecisive 
battle was fought near Newbury, 20 September, 1643. The King's 
powder having given out, he slipped away during the night, leaving 
the London road open to his enemy. 

The Solemn League and Covenant (1643). — Meantime, Parliament 
had completed an alliance with " their brethren of Scotland " that 
marked the turning point of the war. By the Solemn League and 
Covenant, finally accepted by both Houses, 25 September, 1643, 
the subscribers agreed to preserve the reformed religion in the Church 
of Scotland (Presbyterianism), to reform religion in England and Ire- 
land, and " to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to 
the nearest conjunction and uniformity " ; to extirpate " Popery, 
prelacy . . . and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound 
doctrine and the power of Godliness " ; and to " preserve the rights 
and privileges of Parliament and the liberties of the Kingdoms." 
The Scots contracted to provide an army, for the support of which the 
English Parliament agreed to furnish £30,000 a month. Their as- 
sistance assured the victory of Parliament, yet at the same time their 
entrance into the struggle sharpened the differences between Pres- 
byterians, Independents, 1 and those who advocated parliamentary 
control of religion — differences which encouraged the King to per- 
severe in fighting and intrigue until he finally lost his head. 

The Deaths of Pym and Hampden (1643). — The alliance was 
mainly the work of Pym and was his last great undertaking; for, 
worn out with his arduous labors, he died, 8 December, 1643. In 
him the cause lost a matchless leader, as it had lost a wise counselor 
in Hampden, mortally wounded at Chalgrove Field in the previous 
June. They were sadly missed in the troubles soon to break out 
between the military chiefs and the Houses. 

The Westminster Assembly. — As soon as it was decided to ask 
military aid of the Scots, reform of the Church on a Presbyterian 
basis became a " political necessity," and an assembly for that pur- 
pose met at Westminster Abbey, 1 July, 1643, nearly two months 
before the formal ratification of the Solemn League and Covenant. 
This body, made up of representative English divines, peers and com- 
moners, together with Scotch commissioners, continued in formal 
1 Advocates of congregational church government. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 333 

session till 22 February, 1649. One fruit of its labors, the Westminster 
Confession, though never accepted by Parliament, remains the form 
of belief in the Presbyterian Church to-day, while the system of Church 
government — on the Presbyterian model — which it formulated 
was accepted by Parliament, with the qualification that it should be 
under the control of a standing committee of the Houses. Although 
partially established in some counties, the final triumph of the army 
under Cromwell, who stood for Independency and toleration against 
Scotch clerical Parliamentary domination, and who aimed to unite 
all Protestants who would fight against the King, prevented the 
system from ever becoming national. 

Marston Moor (2 July, 1644). — Although at the beginning of 1644 
Charles was still master of two thirds of the Kingdom, he weakened 
his forces by trying to garrison all the territories which he held, while 
his supplies and equipment were rapidly melting away. On the other 
hand, though the taxpayers grumbled, the Parliamentary troops were 
well provided and were learning their trade in the exacting school 
of experience. In January, 1644, the Scots under the veteran Earl 
of Leven crossed the Tweed with 18,000 foot and 3000 horse. New- 
castle, who had only 5000 foot and 3000 horse, shut himself up in York. 
In April, Leven, joined by a Parliamentary army under the Fairfaxes, 
father and son, sat down before the city, where in June, they were re- 
inforced by the army of the Eastern Association under Manchester, 
with Cromwell as lieutenant-general commanding the horse. On the 
approach of Rupert, whom Newcastle had summoned to his relief, 
the Parliamentarians raised the siege and took up a position near 
Long Marston, somewhat west of York, to bar his road. But Rupert 
" by a dashing maneuver " circled round them, entered the city from 
the north, and, 2 July, came out and offered battle at Marston Moor, 
the bloodiest contest of the whole war. 1 For five hours, in the long 
twilight of a summer evening, the combat raged. While the soldiers 
fought magnificently, it was mainly Cromwell who plucked the victory 
from the enemies' hands, and he earned here from Rupert the name of 
" Ironsides," later transferred to his famous regiment. Cromwell 
himself attributed the success to " the Lord's blessing on the Godly 
party principally." Though Rupert escaped with 6000 horse, the 
rest of the Royalist army was broken up, York surrendered and the 
land north of the Trent was lost to the King. This decisive victory 
for Cromwell and the " Godly party " marked a decided breach in 
the anti-royalist ranks; fearing that the extremists might become 

1 The united Parliamentary armies numbered 20,000 foot and 7000 horse, the 
Royalists, about the same number of horse, and 11,000 foot. 



334 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

dominant, Leven, Manchester, and Lord Fairfax before they parted 
sent a joint letter to the Committee of both Kingdoms recommending 
the establishment of Presbyterianism and peace with the King. 

Surrender of Essex's Army (2 September, 1644). — The Presbyterian 
wing were all the more uneasy because, in the late summer, Charles 
succeeded in bottling up the army of Essex on the Devon coast ; while 
Essex escaped by boat and his cavalry managed to break through, 
his infantry were forced to surrender, 2 September. In London the 
disappointment was bitter, for it looked as if the great gain in the north 
was to be altogether neutralized. Charles, however, was not able to 
profit by his success, for his supplies were short and his troops were 
mutinous. On his way north he was intercepted by a Parliamentary 
army, twice the size of his own, made up of many elements, includ- 
ing the army of the Eastern Association which came down from the 
north. In the second battle of Newbury which ensued, 27 October, 
1644, Cromwell was completely victorious, but owing to the inert- 
ness of Manchester, the King was able to slip off to Oxford in the 
night. 

Cromwell's Plan for Remodeling the Army. The Self-denying 
Ordinance. — Cromwell saw that it was necessary to get rid of generals 
like Essex and Manchester before the cause which he had at heart 
could prevail. Accordingly, he made a speech in the House of Com- 
mons in which he laid the whole blame for the failure to capture Charles 
and his army at Newbury on Manchester, who was not only ineffective 
but professedly half-hearted. Cromwell and his supporters, vigorously 
opposing a considerable element who were vainly striving to arrange 
terms with the King, saw that, in addition to getting rid of incompe- 
tent and unenthusiastic leaders, they must reorganize the whole army 
into an effective fighting machine, well paid, equipped and disciplined, 
consisting of spirited, zealous troops and unhampered by Presbyterian 
tests. He saw that the first essential was to beat the King in the field 
and to postpone the settlement of other questions until that was ac- 
complished. At his suggestion the Self-denying Ordinance, providing 
that the members of either House should throw down their commands, 
military and civil, was introduced into the Commons, 9 December, 
1644. Meantime, by the New Model Ordinance, the Commons had 
directed the Committee of both Kingdoms " to consider of a frame and 
model of the whole militia," recommending an army of 14,000 foot 
and 7600 horse to be " regularly paid from taxes assessed on those 
parts of the country which were suffering least from the war." Sir 
Thomas Fairfax, a young and capable officer unattached to any sect 
or party, was named Commander-in-Chief in place of Essex. The New 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 335 

Model Ordinance passed the Lords 15 February, while the Self-deny- 
ing Ordinance became law, 3 April. No provision had been made 
against the reappointment to office of members of Parliament who 
had resigned, and 10 June Cromwell became lieutenant-general. 

The New Model Army. — It was so difficult to secure volunteers 
for the infantry that 8500 men had to be pressed. The cavalry were 
of a much finer type, while the officers in both branches of the service, 
though some rose from humble rank, were generally of good family 
and godly men. Gradually their zeal, guided by Fairfax and Crom- 
well, welded together an irresistible force, which grew steadily in 
strength and discipline as the King's forces fell more and more into 
weakness and disorder. 

The Battle of Naseby (14 June, 1645). The King a Fugitive. — 
Forthwith, Fairfax and Cromwell started to overcome the King. They 
found him wandering about the Midlands, desirous of joining Mont- 
rose, who was righting for him in Scotland, and yet hesitating to leave 
his base at Oxford. The decisive battle was fought at Naseby, 14 
June, 1645. Charles managed to escape with half his cavalry to the 
Welsh border ; he still had an army in the southwest ; he held many 
strong places; he hoped to bring together his scattered forces, and, 
with the aid of the Irish, to be " in a far better condition before winter 
than he had been at any time since this rebellion began." But, though 
he eluded capture for nearly a year and though some of his supporters 
held out even longer, his cause was doomed. 

Montrose in Scotland (1644, 1645). — For a time Charles rested 
great hopes in Montrose, who, beginning 1 September 1644, had a 
year of triumph, gaining battle after battle. But the Highlanders, 
who composed the bulk of his army, were keener on booty and ven- 
geance against hostile clans than they were on restoring the power of 
the King. After each victory numbers of them would disperse to 
their mountain glens to deposit their spoil. With such an unstable 
following it was impossible to achieve permanent results ; moreover, 
the Covenanters, who opposed him on religious grounds, were steadily 
reinforced by those who were infuriated by the pillaging of his un- 
controllable hordes. At length, 13 September, 1645, he was defeated 
and forced to flee. 

Charles Intrigues with the Irish (1642- 1645). — Charles had also 
counted much on support from Ireland. In order to secure religious 
concessions the Roman Catholics desired to come to terms, while 
Charles was anxious to release for service in England the army which 
the Marquis of Ormonde was commanding against them, and even 
nourished a mad hope of employing Irish troops in England. When 



336 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the Irish finally insisted upon freedom of worship and the repeal of 
the laws rejecting papal jurisdiction, the King, knowing that Ormonde, 
who was a Protestant, would listen to no such terms, sent the Catholic 
Earl of Glamorgan with vague instructions to treat behind the back 
of the Lord Lieutenant. Glamorgan arrived, 25 August, 1645 ; and, 
although the Irish even increased their original demands, he signed 
a secret treaty granting all they asked. A copy of this treaty was dis- 
covered and published and Glamorgan was arrested ; notwithstanding 
Charles's disavowal of this arrangement, he was unable to clear him- 
self from suspicion, nor had he got the least help for all risk he had run. 
The Queen, who had again gone abroad in November, 1644, was equally 
unsuccessful with the Continental Powers. 

The End of the First Civil War (1646). — Without any prospect of 
foreign help, it was only a question of time how long Charles and his 
few remaining adherents could hold out. On 10 July, 1645, his last 
field army was overcome at Langport in the southwest, and it only 
remained to reduce the garrisons and to secure the territories held by 
remnants of the royal forces. When the news of one reverse after an- 
other had reached him, Charles finally left Oxford, 25 April, 1646. The 
Scotch had offered their mediation, and, finally deciding to trust such 
vague assurances as they were willing to offer, he rode, 5 May, into 
their camp at Newark, which he only left as a prisoner. With the 
surrender of Oxford, 24 June, the first Civil War was practically over, 
though a few isolated castles held out for some time longer. 

State of Parties at the Close of the War in 1646. — During the three 
years from the beginning of Charles's captivity to his death, in 1649, 
he was occupied in tortuous and futile intrigues to recover his liberty 
and his authority. The divided state of parties offered him at least 
a prospect of success. He could still count on a small body of English 
Royalists who were ever ready to fight again if they got the chance, 
and he still nourished hopes in the Irish Catholics with whom he was 
constantly in communication. Parliament, which had begun the strug- 
gle in behalf of popular liberties, was pledged to Presbyterianism, 1 
and had of late come to be chiefly concerned with stemming the rising 
power of Cromwell and the Army, mainly Independents and advocates 
of toleration for all Protestant sects. It only widened the breach when 
the Army became convinced of the necessity of doing away with the 
Monarchy. The Scots, whose chief aim was to preserve their religion 
at home and to extend it in England, naturally ranged themselves with 

1 In spite of 150 new members known as the "Recruiters," who had been elected 
to fill the vacancies caused by the desertion of the Royalists, the Presbyterians 
were still in the majority. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 337 

Parliament against the Army. The bulk of the English people were 
anxious for peace. Pushed into the struggle by the fervor of the 
minority, they had undergone much loss and suffering, from the in- 
evitable disorganization of trade, from increased taxes, and, in spite of 
the relatively humane character of the war, from plundering and 
pillaging. 

Parliamentary Intolerance. — Notwithstanding the tireless in- 
trigues of the King, it might have been possible to have effected a 
settlement if the Commons had not failed to realize the need of recon- 
ciling either the Royalists or the Army. To win over the former, it 
was essential to grant them a measure of toleration and to show some 
tenderness in the matter of their estates. Instead of that, the dominant 
party agreed that the " Prayer Book was an abominable idol in the 
land," and f 01 bade it by law, while 2000 of the Anglican clergy were 
expelled from their benefices. Furthermore, certain Royalists were al- 
together exempted from pardon, while hosts of others were punished 
by the total or partial forfeiture of their estates. Regrettable and 
impolitic as was its treatment of the vanquished Royalists, it was the 
height of folly and ingratitude for Parliament to oppose the Army who 
had fought and won its battles. Yet the wrong-headed majority 
made repeated attempts to come to terms with the King, to get rid 
of the Army, and to suppress the sects that Cromwell had fostered. 
Many of the Parliamentary leaders were embittered from the fact 
that they had been excluded from the Army by the Self-denying Or- 
dinance, though they really wanted to cut down military expenses, 
and by persecuting the religious and political extremists, chiefly in the 
Army and among its supporters, they were at least partially sincere 
in their hope to check disorder and confusion, to strengthen their hold 
on the sober Roundhead element, and to placate, somewhat, the mod- 
erate Cavaliers to whom they denied the Prayer Book. 

The Scots Deliver the King to Parliament, January (1647). — While 
the King, since the autumn before his captivity, had been treating 
secretly both with Parliament and the Scots, he refused to concede 
anything more than a toleration for their religion, since like his father, 
he believed that " the nature of Presbyterian government is to steal 
the crown from the King's head." Indeed, he frankly told the Scots 
that he would rather lose his crown than his soul. For this reason, 
and because he refused to agree to Parliamentary control of the Army 
and Navy, the negotiations with Parliament ended in failure. At the 
same time, he alienated the Scots by his unwillingness to take the 
Covenant. As a result, the Scots drew closer to Parliament, and in 
January, 1647, they delivered up the King in return for payment of 



338 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

arrears of pay and of the expenses which they had incurred in the 
war just closed. 

Parliament and the Army. — Parliament, with the King in their 
hands, thought that if they could manage to disband the New Model, 
they might force their terms upon him and secure a Presbyterian 
settlement. The Army refused to agree, except upon their own terms 
— toleration, indemnity for past acts, and arrears of pay — ■ terms to 
which Parliament would not listen, though later they offered a grudging 
concession of arrears. In order to work more effectively, each of the 
regiments of the New Model chose two agents, called " agitators," l 
who, in combination with the council of the generals, acted as a rival 
representative body to Parliament. Since Fairfax had no strong 
religious convictions or ability in statesmanship, the burden of leader- 
ship fell on Cromwell, who from his seat in Parliament and from his 
place in the Army Council, strove to be a peacemaker, urging con- 
cession on one hand and obedience on the other. It was only after 
long hesitation that he made .up his mind to extreme measures, and 
then he acted with his customary decision and energy. 

The Army Secure the King and March to London. — On 31 May, 
1647, ne sent Cornet Joyce and a troop of soldiers, who tore the King 
from his Parliamentary captors and took him to Newmarket, where 
the Army was then quartered. Charles went willingly, for, having 
failed to arrange terms with Parliament, he was glad to try his chances 
with the Army, who after a solemn engagement not to disband until 
they had obtained satisfactory concessions, began to draw toward 
London. They entered the capital, 6 August, still further embittered 
against Parliament, who, under the pressure of a city mob, had re- 
voked such concessions as they had at length reluctantly consented to 
grant. 

The Heads of Proposals (1647). — Meantime, the Army chiefs had 
sought to come to terms with the King, offering to restore him to the 
throne and to accept Episcopacy if he would grant toleration. The 
scheme of the saner element was formulated in the " Heads of Pro- 
posals," sketched by Cromwell's son-in-law, General Ireton, 17 July, 
1647, and later amended by the Army Council. While allowing Par- 
liament adequate powers for the control of the Sovereign and the 
administration of the government, it provided checks against Parlia- 
mentary omnipotence, and outlined a series of reforms by which the 
people should have more voice in public affairs and a more adequate 
representation. Special precautions were taken to safeguard religious 
liberty against Presbyterian intolerance. It was a farsighted, states- 
1 From an old word meaning "to act." The form "adjutator" is erroneous. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 339 

manlike plan, but it was in advance of the times and failed to satisfy 
either party : it was too democratic and too tolerant for the Royalist, 
and too conservative and too balanced for the extremist. 

The Transformation in the Army. — In the debates in the Army 
Council, Ireton took the lead. Cromwell, keen as he was in seeing 
the needs of the moment and swift in action, was not inclined to look 
far into the future. It was only when he came to realize that the re- 
ligious freedom which he and his companions had won at the risk of 
their lives could never be secure so long as Charles Stuart remained 
King, that he made up his mind to dispose of him and of his royal 
office. Ireton and many others saw, long before he did, that Charles 
was only playing parties off one against another until he could 
raise a sufficient force for a second Civil War. At first, the zealots 
in the New Model were chiefly in the cavalry; the infantry, largely 
pressed men and hirelings, contained many men who, although not 
deep grounded in their convictions, were rather inclined to support 
Presbyterianism and Parliament. A number of causes, however, 
tended to alter their temper. For one thing, the denial of their reason- 
able requests alienated them from Parliament. Then the Presbyterian 
chaplains, as a rule, left their regiments to enter the livings from which 
the Episcopal clergy had been expelled, and the preachers who remained, 
together with the officers, exerted a steadily growing influence ; further- 
more, many volunteers flocked in to replace the pressed men, infecting 
with their enthusiasm those who remained. 

Rise of Democratic Opinion in the Army. — The political trans- 
formation was equally striking. Indeed, in this period English demo- 
cratic opinion took rise. Evolved by certain advanced thinkers, it 
was first voiced in the debates in the Army Council, and quickly per- 
meated the whole body. Formulated in plans for a written consti- 
tution which failed to survive, these fundamental ideas of democracy 
— equality of opportunity for every man, and government by the 
people as well as for the people, or universal manhood suffrage — 
after lying dormant for a century and more, came to the front in the 
American and French Revolutions. Extremists declared that they 
would have no more kings or lords — " the meanest man in England," 
they insisted, " had the right to a share in the election of his rulers." 
Since leaders in the battle for liberty had hitherto based their claims on 
constitutional precedents — on the birthright of Englishmen — it marked 
a new and significant departure when Colonel Rainsborough appealed 
to the natural rights of man. " The poorest he that is in England," 
he said, with quaint directness, "hath a life to live as the greatest he. 
And, therefore . . . it's clear that every man that is to live under a 



340 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that 
government." Republicanism and universal suffrage, however, were 
not the ideals of the majority of Englishmen of that day ; fearing that 
only confusion and anarchy would result, many even of the Army 
leaders, with Cromwell in the vanguard, fought strenuously to preserve 
the law of the land. Yet the men whom they condemned as vision- 
aries and fanatics, and who were unable to make their views prevail at 
that time, were contending for principles which are the bone and sinew 
of modern political life. On the other hand, the more conservative 
members of the party of political and religious progress were wise in 
their efforts to hold the radicals in check, for revolutions, unless they 
are carefully guided, are bound to be wrecked by their very excesses. 
As it was, all sorts of queer sects and parties grew and multiplied. 

The " Engagement." — In November, 1647, Charles fled to the 
Isle of Wight where, 26 December, he signed with the Scots, 
a treaty known as the " Engagement," by which he undertook to 
allow a Presbyterian settlement for three years, on condition that the 
Church should, at the end of that period, be regulated by himself and 
the Houses. In return, the Scots agreed to support the King's demand 
for the disbandment of the Army, and, if this were refused, to publish 
a manifesto, as a preliminary to invading England, asserting certain 
royal prerogatives, including the " negative voice " x and control over 
the militia and the great offices of State. It is practically certain 
that Charles had no intention of binding himself permanently by the 
Engagement ; for the moment, however, he was all for the Scots, and 
adopted such an uncompromising attitude toward Parliament that 
they broke off all negotiations with him. 

The Second Civil War (1648). — The King counted on a Royalist 
reaction to support the Scottish invasion, and there was much in the 
situation to encourage his hopes. Among moderate men respect for 
Parliament was steadily diminishing, with some because of its ineffect- 
iveness, with others because of its intolerance ; many more were fright- 
ened at the prospect of Army rule ; while the austerity of Puritanism 
offered a most unlovely prospect to the pleasure-loving Englishman. 
Yet it was one thing to manifest discontent, and quite another to join 
in rebellion; accordingly, the mass of the people, during the Second 
Civil War, " looked on in bewildered neutrality." Presbyterian sol- 
diers in some garrisons declared for the King, and so did the more 
pronounced Cavaliers; but there were no considerable risings except 
in Wales, Kent, and Essex. The result was fatal to the King ; for the 
crisis brought Parliament and the Army together once more and healed 
1 I.e. the royal veto power. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 341 

the breach between Cromwell and the extremists. On his way to 
quell the outbreak in Wales, Cromwell met the Agitators at Windsor, 
where at a solemn prayer meeting, lasting three days, it was resolved 
that : "it was our duty if ever the Lord brought us back in peace, to 
call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for the blood 
he had shed, and the mischief he had done to his utmost, against the 
Lord's cause and the people in these poor nations." Easily suppressing 
the rising in Wales, Cromwell was free to march against the Scots, who 
had crossed the Border, 8 July. They consisted only of extreme Royal- 
ists, for there was another Scotch party who would not fight for a mon- 
arch who refused the Covenant. Cromwell intercepted the invaders 
in Lancashire, and made short work of them in the three days running 
fight of Preston, Wigan, and Warrington, 17-19 August, while Fairfax 
crushed out the revolts in Kent and Essex. All Charles's plans had 
miscarried, and he was soon to meet the fate which the Army leaders 
had voiced in their prayer. 

Pride's Purge. — For the moment, however, the old discord and 
intrigues were resumed. Though Parliament had joined with the 
Army in the face of pressing danger, they still were fearful of religious 
and political radicalism, and were even yet ready to restore the King 
if he would agree to Presby terianism and aid them to suppress the sects. 
When, with this end in view, they resumed negotiations with him, in 
September, 1648, the Army proceeded to act with decision. They 
issued a remonstrance, drawn up by Ireton, declaring that it was im- 
possible to devise terms that would bind the King, and that it was just 
to execute him as a traitor for his attempts to turn a limited into an 
absolute monarchy ; 1 December they removed him to a lonely for- 
tress on the Hampshire coast, and appealed from the existing Par- 
liament " unto the extraordinary judgement of God and his people." 
The House of Commons continued so defiant that, 6 December, 1648, 
Colonel Pride was sent with a force of soldiers who, when the Commons 
appeared for the day's session, turned back those known to oppose the 
Army and arrested those who resisted. The " Rump " that remained 
after Pride's Purge was in no sense a representative body, but merely 
a group of members depending for their places on the support of the 
soldiers. That evening, Cromwell returned from the north, and, from 
this time on, he took the lead. 

The High Court of Justice and the Trial of the King. — The Rump 
soon showed its temper by passing a resolution that, according to the 
fundamental laws of the Kingdom, it was treason in the King to levy 
war against Parliament and the Kingdom. This was followed by 
other resolutions to the effect that whatever was enacted by the Com- 



342 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

mons had the force of law, even without the assent of the King and 
the House of Lords, and, 6 January, 1649, an Act was passed erecting 
a High Court of Justice of 135 persons to try the King, though only 
68 appeared, 20 January, the day the trial opened at Westminster Hall. 
The King, who had in the meantime been brought to London, was 
seated in a crimson chair in front of the bar ; he refused to acknowledge 
the jurisdiction of the court in any way. The charge set forth that : 
" Charles Stuart, being admitted King of England with a limited power, 
out of a wicked design to erect an unlimited power, had traitorously 
levied war against the Parliament and people of England, thereby 
causing the death of many thousands, and had repeated and persevered 
in his offense." Accordingly, he was impeached as a " tyrant, traitor, 
murderer, and a public and implacable enemy of the Commonwealth 
of England." The sentence was finally pronounced on the 27th, and 
Charles, amid cries of " Justice !" and " Execution !" was led out of 
the court. 

The Execution of the King (30 January, 1649). — Charles was de- 
capitated, 30 January, 1649, on a scaffold in front of Whitehall. His 
quiet dignity and courage made a wonderful impression on the multi- 
tude. In his dying speech, he disclaimed all guilt for the Civil War, 
declared against the unlawfulness of his sentence, and said : " For the 
people truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as anybody 
whosoever ; but I must tell you that their liberty and their freedom 
consist in having government, those laws by which their life and their 
goods may be most their own. It is not for having a share in the 
government, sirs, that is nothing pertaining to them ; a subject and 
a sovereign are clean different things." Sincere in his religious and 
political convictions, no doubt, he failed to understand his people. In 
his eyes, those who resisted him were bad subjects and bad Christians, 
against whom deceit and force were legitimate weapons. The execu- 
tion of the King went far beyond the wishes of the majority, and those 
who brought it about made the mistake of trying to cloak their action 
under forms of law. It was not a time for law or pity, but for " cruel 
necessity," since there was no hope of peace until Charles Stuart — 
the incarnation of obstinacy and duplicity — was dead. Many 
troublous years were to follow, and Monarchy and the Church of 
England were to be restored, but owing to the daring act of those grim 
men of 1649, it was not the same despotic Monarchy or the same all- 
powerful Church. 



OUTBREAK OF CIVIL WAR TO EXECUTION OF CHARLES I 343 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Besides the general and special works cited in chs. XXVII-XXIX, 
Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War (4 vols., 1893) ; J. L. Sanford, 
Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion (1858) ; C. H. Firth, The 
House of Lords during the Civil War (19 10). 

Biography. T. Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (best ed. S. C. 
Lomas, 3 vols., 1904), an effectual vindication of Cromwell's sincerity. 
The best modern lives of Cromwell are : S. R. Gardiner (1899) ; C. H. 
Firth (1900); and J. Morley (1900). W. W. Ireland, Life of Sir Henry 
Vane the Younger (1905). E. C. Wade, John Pym (191 2). 

Military and Naval. C. H. Firth, Cromwell's Army (1902) the authority 
on the subject. T. S. Baldock, Cromwell as a Soldier (1899). C. R. Mark- 
ham, Life of Lord Fairfax (1870), anti-Cromwellian. Fortescue, British 
Army. W. L. Clowes, The Royal Navy; Oppenheim, The Royal Navy; 
Hanney, Royal Navy; and Corbett, England in the Mediterranean. 

Church. Wakeman; Hutton; Stoughton; and Cambridge Modern 
History, IV, ch. XII. W. A. Shaw, History of the English Church, 1640- 
1660 (2 vols., 1900), an exhaustive treatment. G. B. Tatham, The Puritans 
in Power, a Study of the English Church from 1640 to 1660 (1913). 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 207-212. 
Gardiner, Documents, nos. 57-85. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

THE KINGLESS DECADE: THE COMMONWEALTH AND THE 
PROCTECTORATE (i 649-1 660) 

The Commonwealth : the First National Republic. — In March, 
1649, the Rump abolished the House of Lords and the office of King 
as unnecessary, burdensome and dangerous, later in the same month 
it named a Council of State to carry on the executive work of the 
government, and 19 May, England was declared to be a Common- 
wealth. Thus the first national republic in the world's history had 
come into being. " In form a democracy," it was in reality " an 
oligarchy, half religious, half military," the creation of a minority 
imposed upon a majority of disaffected subjects. The Anglicans, 
the Presbyterians, and the Roman Catholics wanted a Monarchy, 
with the sects absolutely excluded from power and toleration, while 
the bulk of the people, though indifferent in political and ecclesi- 
astical questions, were hostile to military domination, heavy taxa- 
tion, interruption of business and meddling with their pastimes. 
Even those who upheld the Commonwealth were divided among them- 
selves ; they included religious and political groups of various com- 
plexions, each of whom wanted a freer system, or one more suited to 
their peculiar ideas. The Army, too, whose pay was still in arrears, 
were insistent that Parliament should take steps either to limit its 
own power or fix a date for dissolution. Parliament disregarded the 
demand, and unrepresentative and masterful as it was, there is much 
to be said in defense of its attitude. In the event of its dissolution 
there was grave peril that the Royalists might raise their heads or 
that the extremists might gain the upper hand ; in the one case, another 
civil war was inevitable, in the other, confusion and anarchy. 

The Problems of the New Government. — John Lilburne, " Free- 
born John," was the chief spokesman of the political Levelers and 
of many other discontented ones who demanded more individual 
liberty than the existing government allowed. Twice he was tried 
and acquitted, and once, in the interval, was exiled by a special Act 

344 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 345 

of Parliament. Cromwell — whom Lilburne had once heard declare 
angrily before the Council, " that there was no other way to deal with 
these men but to break them or they will break you " — aroused 
his bitterest ire. " You will scarce speak to Cromwell," he cried, 
" but he will lay his hand on his breast, elevate his eyes and call 
God to record. He will weep, howl, and repent, even while he doth 
smite you under the fifth rib." While Cromwell had no sympathy 
with unrestricted Parliamentary control, he was determined that 
order should be preserved. Thus, when an effort to disband several 
of the regiments led to a series of mutinies, he combined promptly 
with Fairfax in putting them down. Anarchy in England was only 
one of the many problems to be faced. Scotland, Ireland, and more 
than one of the American colonies had declared for Charles II. A 
portion of the fleet was Royalist, and since the attitude of foreign 
powers was also menacing, English ships at sea, English merchants, 
and English ambassadors were in serious peril. Altogether, the new 
Government had undertaken a tremendous and complicated task: 
to set up an adequate central authority in place of Monarchy; to 
prevent the restoration of the Stuarts; to settle the religious ques- 
tion ; to unify three kingdoms ; to maintain the sea power ; to 
secure and extend the colonial possessions, and to safeguard and 
extend the national commerce. Cromwell ere long assumed the 
leadership in all this work and maintained it while he lived. 

The Conquest of Ireland (1649). — The most pressing danger was 
from Ireland, whither Ormonde had returned in 1648, and suc- 
ceeded in uniting the Catholic and Protestant Royalists. After the 
execution of Charles, they proclaimed his son Charles II and secured 
practically all Ireland, except Dublin. In order to meet this crisis, 
Cromwell was sent over as Commander-in-Chief, and in September, 
1649, he appeared before Drogheda, where the enemy were strongly 
fortified. Setting up his siege guns, he battered down the walls, 
took the city by storm, and ordered the garrison put to the sword. 
He has been bitterly condemned for this ruthless bloodshed, though 
in the Irish war no quarter had been given on either side ; moreover, 
eminent generals have justified such single acts of slaughter as a means 
of preventing a protracted war. Cromwell himself deplored the act 
as a melancholy necessity, regarding himself, at the same time, as a 
chosen agent to visit the righteous judgment of God upon the authors 
of the massacre of 1641. Yet, after all has been said, the proceeding 
remains the darkest blot in his career. Within ten months he had 
conquered eastern Ireland, Ormonde's unstable alliance fell to pieces, 
and the backbone of the war was broken. In August, 1650, Crom- 



346 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

well, leaving his generals to conquer the natives in the west, hurried 
home, for the situation in Scotland demanded attention. 

The " Cromwellian Settlement " (1652). — Two years were required 
to complete the subjugation of Ireland, at a cost, from fighting, famine, 
and pestilence, of the lives of a third of the inhabitants. The scheme, 
formulated in 1652 by the Rump, for dealing with the conquered is 
known as the " Cromwellian Settlement." Although the details 
were not devised by him, it was made possible by his victories, it 
met with his approval and was carried out under his supervision. 
The Catholic religion was suppressed, and the Celtic owners were dis- 
possessed of their remaining lands in Leinster, Munster and Ulster, 
receiving nominal compensation in the wild, remote and unfruitful 
Connaught, while their holdings were given to those who had fur- 
nished money for the Irish wars and to the generals and soldiers. 

The Situation in Scotland. — After the crushing defeat of the Scot- 
ish Royalists in 1648, the extreme Covenanters under Argyle became 
dominant. Bitterly opposed to the English Independents and the 
policy of toleration espoused by the victorious army, they offered to 
support Charles II, on condition that he take the Covenant. Al- 
though inclined to Roman Catholicism, the Prince was as indifferent 
to religious as he was to moral principles, so, in his extreme necessity, 
he followed the suggestion of some of his advisers " to promise any- 
thing and break the promise when you can." He had to pay a heavy 
price for his apostasy. He was not allowed to speak in council, he 
had to listen to long sermons, he was prohibited from dancing, card 
playing, and even from walking on Sunday afternoons ; moreover he 
was obliged to bewail his own sins and those of his house, his father's 
hearkening to evil counsel and his mother's idolatry. No wonder he 
declared that he would rather be hanged than ever set foot again in 
that hated land. 

The Invasion of Scotland and the Battle of Dunbar (1650). — Fair- 
fax, who had no sympathy with the policy of the Commonwealth, 
resigned his command in June, 1650. Cromwell, appointed to suc- 
ceed him, was commissioned to invade Scotland, and crossed the 
border 2 2 July. When the Scots rejected his advances, he was forced , 
much against his will, to resort to arms. Frustrated in an attempt 
to take Edinburgh, he was obliged, by sickness among his troops and 
lack of supplies, to retreat to the coast, where, at Dunbar, the Scots 
succeeded in hemming him in between the mountains and the sea. 
Very unwisely they came down from their commanding position, 3 
September, 1650, and offered battle, and were scattered by one of 
Cromwell's irresistible cavalry charges just as the morning sun rose. 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 347 

The Scots Invade England. The Battle of Worcester (1651). — 
Cromwell now advanced and took Edinburgh. When the defiant 
Scots proceeded to crown Charles at Scone, Cromwell, with daring 
strategy, crossed the Firth of Forth, thus cutting his enemies of! 
from the Highlands upon which they depended for recruits and sup- 
plies. Since he left the road to England open, the Scots had no choice 
but to march south across the Border, though the invasion would in- 
evitably arouse the national sentiment of the bulk of the English. 
Cromwell hastened after them, and Charles's army, much worn down 
by English forces which had been harassing his flanks and rear, was 
overtaken at Worcester. There, 3 September, 165 1, a fierce battle was 
fought. Charles, who manfully plunged into the fray, after he had 
for some time breathlessly followed events from the cathedral tower, 
only fled when the last hope was gone. After six weeks of thrilling 
adventures, he made his way to France to wait for better times. 
Worcester fight was Cromwell's " crowning mercy." Scotland soon 
yielded, and it now remained to establish the Commonwealth 
securely in England and to assert its power in the colonies, on the 
seas and abroad. 

The Sea Power of the Commonwealth. — Before the close of 165 1 
the fleet of the Commonwealth, chiefly through the abilities of Blake, 
who had won his spurs as a land commander during the Civil Wars, 
had successfully asserted its dominion of the seas. Prince Rupert, 
who had taken over the command of the royal navy, was able to ac- 
complish little. The island possessions of the Royalists in the Channel 
were forced to yield, and after the news of Worcester, Virginia, the 
Bermudas and Barbados, which had declared for the King and where 
many Royalist exiles had taken refuge, acknowledged the authority of 
Parliament. In the two years from 1649 to 165 1 the navy was more 
than doubled ; and the weapon thus forged was soon to be used, first 
against the Dutch and subsequently against Spain. 

The First Dutch War (1652-1654). — The first Dutch war, result- 
ing from troubles which had been long brewing, broke out in July, 
1652. The causes of friction were commercial and political. In the 
East Indies there was long-standing rivalry which had led to bloody 
encounters ; for instance, in 1623, the Dutch had massacred a body of 
English traders, a deed for which they steadily refused to make com- 
pensation. The English, on their part, refused to recognize the right 
of the Dutch to fish for herring in the North Sea ; against the latter's 
claim that free ships made free goods they insisted on searching their 
ships for Royalist arms ; and they demanded that the Dutch recognize 
the English supremacy in the narrow seas by lowering their colors 



348 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

when ships of the two countries met. The Estates General not 
only rejected an alliance with the Commonwealth, but refused 
its demands to expel the Royalist exiles, although a body of these 
exiles had, in 1649, murdered the English diplomatic representa- 
tive at the Hague ; nor would the Estates proscribe the House of 
Orange, allied by marriage to the Stuarts and openly hostile to the 
new English regime. Finally in October, 165 1, the English aimed a 
blow at the Dutch carrying trade by a Navigation Act providing that 
no goods should be imported from Asia, Africa, or America save in 
English or Colonial ships, or from any European country except in 
English ships or those of the country that produced the goods. 1 In 
the conflict which followed, though the honors were about even in 
actual engagements, the English, on the whole, had the advantage. 

The Growing Opposition to the Commonwealth. — While the 
Commonwealth had. asserted its power by force of arms in all direc- 
tions, the existing arrangement failed to win the approval of the bulk 
of the nation. The Council of State was efficient and honest; but 
the Rump Parliament contained many members who were charged 
with self-seeking and corruption. Then, in order to deal with the 
recent crises, Parliament had not only been obliged to impose heavy 
taxes, but to muzzle the writings of those who opposed their policy, 
and, in general, to resort to very arbitrary measures. Their aus- 
terity added to their general unpopularity : they put a stop to church 
festivals; they closed the theaters; they tried to enforce morality 
by law, and to stifle innocent merriment in a regime of gloom. 

Cromwell Dissolves the Rump (20 April, 1653). — Finally, 2 August, 
1652, the officers of the Army formulated a petition, embodying the 
demands of the more progressive sort and again insisting on arrears 
of pay. When nothing came of it, Cromwell began reluctantly to 
realize that Parliament was as serious an obstruction to the cause 
which he had at heart as Charles had been. Gradually he became 
convinced that the only hope lay in his assuming the executive; 
but, as usual, he proceeded cautiously, until the Rump planned a step 
which helped him to action. The members, instead of providing 
for a general election, framed a bill to prolong their own powers by 
filling the vacant seats in their body with men of whose qualifications 
they should themselves be the judge. Directly he heard the news, 
Cromwell hurried to the House, followed by a guard of soldiers. 
With his hat on his head he strode up and down the floor, and after an 
angry speech in which he overwhelmed them with grave charges, he 

1 This Act, however, which was apparently not very rigidly enforced, was not 
made a pretext for war. 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 349 

snatched up the offending bill and, putting it under his cloak, he com- 
manded the doors to be locked, and hurried away. 

The Nominated Parliament (July-December, 1653). — Immedi- 
ately after the dissolution of the Rump, the Army superseded the 
Council of State by a provisional council with Cromwell at the head. 
Fearing to appeal to the country at large, the new executive deter- 
mined to secure an assembly of godly men of their own way of think- 
ing, and, to that end, they wrote to the Congregational ministers of 
each county asking them to name suitable persons, from which lists 
they made their selections, adding names of their own. Thus, they 
assembled a body to which they handed over the powers of the State 
on condition that, after devising a new scheme of representation, it 
should bring its own sessions to a close within fifteen months. The 
Nominated, Little, or Barebones Parliament, 1 as it has been variously 
called, was intended to be a constituent assembly only; but, com- 
posed of zealous reformers, it chose a Council of State, appointed 
committees to consider the needs of the Church and the nation; 
and proceeded with the work properly belonging to the body it was 
supposed to constitute. Most of its proposed reforms were good 
in themselves, indeed, many of them have since been adopted, 
but they were in advance of the time. So, 12 December, 1653, the 
more moderate members held an early sitting and resigned their 
powers into the hands of Cromwell, while those who resisted were 
expelled by the troops. If the Rump had not been ready to go far 
enough, its successor had gone too far, and aroused the fear that it 
was going to introduce the domination of the sects and radicalism. 

The Instrument of Government. Cromwell made Lord Pro- 
tector (December, 1653). — Upon the overthrow of the Nominated 
Parliament, the Army officers presented a scheme known as the In- 
strument of Government, vesting the supreme power in a single per- 
son, assisted, and to some extent controlled, by a Council and a Parlia- 
ment. The Instrument is notable as the first written constitution 
for governing a nation in modern times and the only one which Eng- 
land has ever had in actual operation. On 16 December, Cromwell 
accepted office as Lord Protector for life. Powers of legislation and 
extraordinary taxation 2 were vested in Parliament, though between 
sessions the Protector and Council could issue ordinances which might 
be afterwards confirmed or disallowed by Parliament. The Protector 
had no power of veto, though he could withhold his assent to a bill 

1 It got its name from Praise-God-Barebone, a leather merchant of London. 

2 A fixed revenue was provided for the ordinary expenses of the army and navy 
and the civil administration. 



350 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for twenty days. It was provided that Parliament should meet at 
least once in three years and that each session should last at least 
five months. The Christian religion as contained in the Scriptures 1 
was to be professed by the nation ; there was to be an established 
Church, but a provision less objectionable than tithes was to be 
made for its support. Full liberty was allowed to believers in Jesus 
Christ, though this was not to extend to " popery or prelacy " or to 
those who disturbed the peace or practiced licentiousness. While, 
pn the whole, the Instrument was " a good attempt to steer between 
the despotism of a single person and a single House," various criti- 
cisms might be urged against it. It was not through any faults in 
its plan, however, that the Instrument failed, but because Parliament 
refused to accept it, insisting, when they came together, that it was 
their function and not that of Cromwell or the Army to construct 
the constitution. 

Cromwell's Aims as Protector. — From 16 December, 1653, to 3 
September, 1654, when Parliament met, Cromwell was in fact if not 
in name Sovereign. Having overcome all who withstood the cause 
of which he had made himself the champion, and standing triumphant 
over his vanquished opponents — the King, the Irish, the Scots, and 
Parliament — he had before him the one supreme task — "of healing 
the rancor engendered by so many years of strife ; of settling a new 
order, political and ecclesiastical, which should rest, not upon mili- 
tary force but upon the willing acceptance of all good citizens." 

The Protector's Religious Policy. — The religious policy which he 
sought to enforce was one which he adopted but did not originate. 
It contemplated an established, non-Episcopal Church, endowed and 
supported by the State, and comprehending all Protestant sects who 
believed in Christ, save those who accepted Bishops and the Prayer 
Book. For those who opposed any establishment the greatest pos- 
sible toleration was to be allowed. Each congregation was to own its 
church buildings and to regulate its own form of worship, and no 
provision was made for church courts or ecclesiastical assemblies. 
Anglicans were forbidden openly to use the Prayer Book, but their 
private worship was winked at except during moments when the 
Government felt itself in danger. Catholics, though still subject 
to the old penalties for saying and hearing mass, were no longer forced 
to attend the parish church, and the penal laws were not rigidly 
enforced. The Jews began to reappear, and, though the feeling, 
economic and religious, was too strong for Cromwell to follow his in- 
clination and grant their petition for a free exercise of their religion, 
1 This meant Puritanism. 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 



351 



he was able to protect them from disturbance ; so that the period of 
his rule is said to mark their return to England. In spite, however, 
of its generally tolerant attitude, Cromwell's was a Puritan regime. 
Its austerity, its exclusion of the Cavaliers from political activity 
and the unfair discrimination in financial burdens kept alive a dis- 
content that was soon to assert itself. 

Cromwell's Foreign Policy. — Cromwell's foreign policy, which now 
began to shape itself, had three main objects : the weakening of the 
Stuart cause on the Continent, the development of England's colonial 
and commercial power, and the formation of a great alliance of the 
Protestant countries of Europe under the leadership of England. 
He succeeded, so long as he lived, in staving off a Stuart restoration, 
also he did much to carry on the old Elizabethan tradition of English 
maritime supremacy which had been so effectively revived under the 
Commonwealth, but, in his third, and what he liked to believe was his 
paramount aim, he was not so fortunate. After the Peace of West- 
phalia, which concluded the Thirty Years' War in 1648, religious 
interests in Europe gave way more and more to those of political 
and commercial aggrandizement. The northern Protestant states, 
which Cromwell aimed to unite, fell to quarreling among themselves, 
and the two great Catholic powers, France and Spain, whom he strove 
to keep apart, made peace in little more than a year after his death. 
Moreover, the Protector himself, in spite of his Protestant zeal, 
mingled with it a worthy but conflicting ambition to enhance Eng- 
land's material advantages. 

Peace with the Dutch (April, 1654). — Deploring the continuance 
of the war with the Dutch, he concluded a treaty of peace in April, 
1654, but his terms were hard and distinctly to England's commer- 
cial and political advantage. The Dutch agreed to strike their flags 
to English ships in the narrow seas, and to accept the Navigation Act ; 
on the other hand, they were to continue to fish for herring in the 
North Sea without payment of rent, and they maintained their own 
views on the right of search. Each country agreed to make com- 
pensation for damages done to the other in the East Indies; con- 
cluded a defensive alliance ; and agreed not to harbor each other's 
rebels, which involved the exclusion of the Stuart exiles from the 
United Provinces. Altogether, the war was a heavy blow at Eng- 
land's greatest trade rival and marked the beginning of the end of 
the Dutch supremacy at sea. 

The Capture of Jamaica (May, 1655). The War with Spain. — 
France and Spain contended with one another for an alliance with the 
Protector. France, to be sure, was the hereditary enemy of England, 



352 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

while her King was a nephew of Henrietta Maria. On the other hand, 
Spain had been the foe who inspired the glorious achievements of the 
Elizabethan seamen, and the Spanish religious and commercial policy 
was still unbearably exclusive. When England asked for freedom of 
religion and trade for her merchants, the Spanish ambassador declared 
that it was like asking for his master's two eyes ; far from making any 
concessions, the Inquisition was rigorously enforced against English- 
men in the Spanish dominions, English settlements in the West Indies 
were persistently harassed, and English ships were intercepted in the 
surrounding waters. Cromwell's reply was to send, in December, 
1654, a fleet and an army bearing orders to strike at the Spanish do- 
minions in the New World and to seize her treasure ships, with the 
twofold object of breaking her colonial monopoly and striking a blow 
at " anti-Christ." Jamaica, practically defenseless, was captured by 
this expedition in May, 1655. In June, Blake, who was protecting 
English trade and pursuing pirates in the Mediterranean, received 
orders to intercept treasure ships on their way to Spain, and vessels 
containing troops and supplies for the West Indies. Not till months 
afterwards, 26 October, 1655, did Oliver declare war. 

The Alliance with France (1655 and 1657). — Two days before the 
declaration of war with Spain, he concluded a treaty with France pro- 
viding for the promotion of commerce, and the exclusion, from each 
country, of the rebels of the other. The treaty between France and 
England was followed by an offensive and defensive alliance, 23 March, 
1657. In June of the next year, the French General Turenne, assisted 
by English troops who fought with rare bravery, captured Dunkirk, 
the best port in Flanders. It was handed over to the Protector, who 
had stipulated for this cession, partly because Dunkirk was one of 
the keys of the Channel, and partly because it was a lair for pirates 
who preyed upon English commerce. 

Results of the Protector's Foreign Policy. — In foreign policy Oliver 
achieved much. He gained for England a high place among European 
Powers, he advanced English commercial and colonial interests by 
striking hard at the monopoly of Spain, and he took his country an- 
other long step toward that naval supremacy which she had enjoyed 
for the last two centuries. His cherished scheme, however, for a great 
Protestant alliance failed. He has been charged, too, with short- 
sightedness in furthering the greatness of France, a growing Power, 
as against Spain which was on the decline ; yet it must be said that 
the decay of Spain was not then fully apparent, while it was the slavish 
policy of Charles II, far more than Oliver's alliance, which contributed 
to the subsequent ascendancy of Louis XIV. A more serious indict- 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 



353 



ment of Oliver's policy is that it took money which the country could 
ill spare ; it diverted the Protector's attention from pressing domestic 
problems, and, by mingling material motives with religious professions, 
he lowered his ideals and stained his prestige as a godly ruler of the 
elect. 

The First Parliament of the Protectorate. — Meantime, the first 
Parliament of the Protectorate had met, 3 September, 1654. Beside 
a small body of Republicans opposed to a strong executive, a stout 
contingent of conservatives had been elected who were set against 
war. While they desired a settled government, they were bent on hav- 
ing one settled by themselves. Cromwell was willing that they should 
alter " circumstantials " in the Instrument, but he insisted that they 
should not meddle with " fundamentals" ; nevertheless, they set about 
to revise the Instrument in such a manner as to obtain Parliamentary 
sovereignty, control over the militia, and religious uniformity rigidly 
restricting freedom of conscience. Consequently, 22 January, 1655, 
at the end of five lunar months, Oliver appeared before them, and after 
a scathing speech proceeded to dissolve the House. It was one of 
the ironies of fate that he who desired above all things peace and heal- 
ing and who had contended against despotism both in King and in 
Parliament, could only preserve at the point of the sword what he 
had struggled to gain for the nation. 

The Rule of the Major-Generals (1655). — The dissension between 
the Protector and Parliament, and evidences of discontent outside, 
encouraged the Royalists to plan a general revolt in March, 1655. A 
single armed rising occurred which was easily suppressed ; nevertheless, 
the unrest continued to be so great that in August the Protector divided 
the country into ten military districts, setting a Major-General over 
each. In addition to keeping order, they were commissioned to en- 
force the Puritan moral code and were most effective in both capacities. 
This increased rigor served only to alienate further the mass of the 
people, in whom the love of amusement was strong. Moreover, the 
Cavaliers were oppressed with singular and special burdens. In addi- 
tion to those who were punished for participation in the recent rising, 
an income tax of ten per cent was imposed on all who were known to 
have taken part against Parliament in the Civil War. When, owing 
to the need for money for carrying on the Spanish war, a new Parlia- 
ment met, 17 September, 1656, the whole country was seething with 
discontent. 

Cromwell made Hereditary Protector (June, 1657). — Very wisely 
the rule of the Major-Generals and the fining of the Cavaliers were 
discontinued. While, as in the previous Parliament, various professed 

2A 



354 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

opponents of the Protector were excluded, there were two leading 
parties, one desiring to make Cromwell hereditary Protector, the other 
to make him King. Cromwell professed to regard the kingly title 
" as a mere feather in the hat " ; but when it was offered him in a 
revised form of the Instrument, known as the Humble Petition and 
Advice, he hesitated ; when he refused, early in May, 1657, it was ap- 
parently only because of the strenuous opposition of the Army. In- 
stead, he accepted the hereditary office of Lord Protector, and, 26 June, 
was inaugurated with regal pomp and ceremony. Most of the other 
recommendations of the Humble Petition were adopted as well, chief 
among them a provision for a second or " other House," whose mem- 
bers should, in the first instance, be nominated by Cromwell. When 
Parliament met again in January, 1658, the power of the Protector was 
found to have been greatly weakened, by the admission of the members 
excluded in the autumn of 1656, and by the promotion of his stanchest 
supporters to the " other House." In the face of intrigues against 
his authority and disputes over the relations between the two Houses, 
he ordered their dissolution, 4 February, 1658. " I think it high time 
to put an end to your sitting," he declared, " and let God be judge be- 
tween you and me." It was destined to be his last Parliament. 

Cromwell's Death, 3 September, 1658. — The last few months of his 
life were marked by growing unpopularity and disappointment. The 
strain of keeping up a large army and a large navy at the same time 
was too much for the nation to bear, while the need for money grew 
more pressing every day. Only Oliver's strong hand could hold in 
check the steadily mounting discontent. His naturally robust consti- 
tution, undermined by fifteen years of titanic labors, broke under the 
burden, and when, in August, he was attacked by an ague and inter- 
mittent fever he realized that his days were numbered : " I would be 
willing," he said, " to live to be further serviceable to God and His 
people ; but my work is done." He died 3 September, 1658. 

Cromwell's Work. — Cromwell's enemies have judged him harshly, 
and long after his death, the view prevailed that, starting as a sincere 
zealot, the taste for power gradually transformed him into a hypocritical 
fanatic. Such a distorted view has not been able to survive the test 
of fact, and now it is possible to picture him more nearly as he really 
was in the light of the problems he had to face. It was his unswerving 
trust in God and his absolute acceptance of every victory which he 
gained in war and in politics, at home and abroad, as a manifestation 
of Divine Providence, that lent color to the hostile view that so long 
prevailed. In spite of seeming contradictions, he pursued consistent 
aims — to strike at despotism under whatever form it was cloaked, 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 355 

royal or parliamentary ; to stem the inrush of anarchy ; and to pre- 
serve the heritage for which he fought. When Parliament proceeded 
to contest the basis of his power, he found himself forced to adopt 
methods more arbitrary than those of the King whom he had over- 
thrown. While more effective as a destroyer than as a builder, he 
achieved many things. He struck a blow at tyranny, royal and eccle- 
siastical, from which it never recovered ; he gave the country an actual 
experience in religious toleration that helped prepare the way for 
the spiritual freedom which it was left to later hands enduringly to 
establish ; he made the name of England respected abroad, and adopt- 
ing the maritime and colonial policy of his great predecessor Elizabeth, 
he carried it a stage further along toward the goal which Great Britain 
has now reached. Under his government, particularly during the 
regime of the Major-Generals, there was rigid repression and minute 
interference with private affairs, and some innocent recreation was 
blighted by the enforced observance of the gloomy Puritan Sabbath. 
While certain of these measures were due to stern political necessity, 
others were in the interests of a high if somewhat dreary morality, 
and the policy, mistaken as it was in many respects, introduced serious 
and sober ideals which have done much to uplift the national character. 

Cromwell, the Man. — Cromwell the man, so simple and human in 
his bearing, was a complex character embodying the most diverse 
traits — at once daring and cautious, hesitant in council and decisive 
in action. Although a religious enthusiast, he was at the same time 
intensely practical in his military and state policy. In his habits of 
life he was the opposite of a " morose and gloomy " ascetic ; he hunted, 
hawked, and was a lover of horses ; he loved his jest and was enthusi- 
astic for games, playing bowls even after he became Lord Protector ; 
he had an ear for music, and scandalized the stricter sort by allowing 
" mixed dancing " at the wedding of a daughter in 1657. But this 
lighter side only appeared at moments in his absorbed and purposeful 
life. In his last prayer he gave thanks that he had been " a mean 
instrument to do God's people some good and God some service." If 
as a ruler he came more and more to subordinate " the civil liberty 
and interest of the nation ... to the more peculiar interest of God," — 
if to that end he was often abrupt and arbitrary, his aims were lofty 
and disinterested. " A larger soul, I think, hath seldom dwelt in a 
house of clay," was the tribute of one who knew him best. 

Richard Cromwell Lord Protector. — Richard Cromwell, whom his 
father had named successor, was a worthy man, of pure life, personally 
popular, but without force and without training or ability in affairs of 
State ; moreover, he had no hold on the Army, whose chiefs desired 



356 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

more control over military affairs than the Government would accord. 
After some wrangling, the old Rump was recalled 7 May, 1659. Though 
originally there had been no intention of overthrowing the Protec- 
torate but merely to " piece and mend up that cracked government, " 
the Rump proceeded to pass a resolution for maintaining a Common- 
wealth " without a single person " at the head, whereupon Richard, 
after a few days of hesitation, resigned. 

The End of the Long Parliament (26 March, 1660). — The Rump 
was as unwilling as Richard's government had been to allow the Army 
to control military affairs, hence its dissolution, 13 October, 1659. 
While the generals were trying to devise some plan of orderly govern- 
ment in which they might have the voice they desired, an unexpected 
figure arose to dominate the situation. This was George Monck, who 
commanded the army in Scotland. He had begun his military career 
fighting for King Charles ; taken prisoner in 1644 by the enemy, he 
had successively served Parliament, the Commonwealth, the two Pro- 
tectors, and the restored Rump, and had shown unusual ability as a 
fighter on the sea as well as on the land. A man of sphinx-like reserve, 
he seemed absorbed in his military duties and indifferent to politics. 
Now he suddenly stood forth as the " champion of the authority 
of Parliament " against the designs of the generals. Apparently he 
cared little whether England was a Monarchy or a Republic; but, 
if we can believe his own professions, he was convinced that she should 
be governed by law rather than by the sword. On 2 January, 1660, 
he crossed the Tweed at the head of his troops. General Lambert, 
one of the Army chiefs, made a vain effort to oppose him ; but there 
was no enthusiasm for the cause of the Army, and, deserted even by 
his own men, he was obliged to give way. Monck marched south, 
carefully evading any public declaration of his intentions. However, 
he at length yielded so far to the demands of the Presbyterians as to 
readmit to the Rump, which had been recalled again 26 December, the 
members excluded by Pride's Purge ; but he informed the body thus 
reconstituted that it must dissolve by 6 May, 1660, at the latest, 
and make way for a free Parliament. Monck was made commander 
of the army of the three kingdoms, and, 26 March, with " many sad 
pangs and groans, " the Long Parliament dissolved itself after an inter- 
mittent existence of nearly twenty years. 

The Recall of Charles II and the Declaration of Breda. — Before 
dissolving, it had provided for a Convention Parliament to meet 25 
April. Royalists were allowed to vote in the elections, though they 
were not eligible to sit unless they had given some proof of affection 
to the Parliamentary cause. About this time, Monck opened negotia- 



THE KINGLESS DECADE 357 

tions with Charles ; realizing that the people were weary of frequent 
revolutions, ax'my rule, and heavy taxes, he may have thought that 
he would gain personally by recalling the King as a means of anticipat- 
ing an inevitable reaction, though it is possible that he had an un- 
selfish desire to restore peace and a settled government. At any rate, 
" while the Restoration was the result of a general movement of opin- 
ion too strong to be withstood," he did more than any other man to 
bring it about. As a result of the negotiations which opened, Charles, 
acting under the advice of Hyde, who was with him in exile, issued 
from Breda a declaration in which he promised : (1) a general amnesty 
for all offenders, save those excepted by Parliament; (2) liberty of 
conscience, according to such a law as Parliament might propose; 
(3) such security for property acquired during the late troubles as 
Parliament might determine ; (4) full arrears to the soldiers according 
to Act of Parliament. Following a futile rising, led by Lambert, the 
Army took an engagement to accept whatever settlement Parliament' 
might make. " Their whole design," wrote Pepys, the famous diarist, 
" is broken . . . and every man begins to be merry and full of hope." 
The Convention met 25 April, 1660, as appointed. After both 
Houses had agreed in a declaration that, " according to the ancient and 
fundamental laws of the Kingdom, the government is, and ought to 
be, by Kings, Lords, and Commons," Charles was proclaimed in 
London. 

Nature of the Restoration and the Results of the Puritan Revolu- 
tion. — Charles landed at Dover, 25 May, 1660. The Restoration 
had at length come as a reaction from excessive Puritanism and Army 
rule. Yet the Revolution had accomplished results which were never 
to be effaced. It had arrested the growth of absolutism; for the 
Monarchy that was restored was destined never again to be, for any 
considerable period, a Monarchy completely independent of Parlia- 
ment. The Established Church, too, was restored ; but it never again 
became the National Church, embracing every subject as such. A 
lusty body of Dissenters had sprung up and multiplied during the recent 
upheaval, and the century had not run its course before many of them 
had obtained a recognized legal status outside the bounds of the 
Establishment. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

See chs. XXVII-XXX. 

Narrative. Gardiner, The History of the Commonwealth and the Pro- 
tectorate (4 vols., 1903). C. H. Firth, The Last Years of the Protectorate, 
1656-1658 (1909). F. A. Inderwick, The Interregnum (1891). Pollard, 



358 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 



Factors in Modem History, chs. IX, X. The Diary of the contemporary 
John Evelyn (best ed. H. B. Wheatley, 4 vols., 1906) throws vivid lights on 
the period. 

Constitutional and special. E. Jenks, The Constitutional Experiments 
of the Protectorate (1890). Gardiner, Cromwell's Place in History (1897). 
G. L. Beer, Cromwell's Policy in its Economic Aspect (1902) valuable for 
this phase of the subject. R. Dunlop, Ireland under the Commonwealth 

(1913)- 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 213-220. 

Gardiner, Documents, nos. 86-105. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 

(i 660-1667) 

The New King and the Restoration. — In spite of the fact that the 
Monarchy and the established Episcopacy were restored under Charles 
II, the old absolutism in Church and State was destined never again 
to prevail. The Puritan Revolution had produced an upheaval 
and an awakening which was bound to leave enduring results, and 
Charles was shrewd enough to sense the situation. To be sure, he 
struggled to make himself supreme, and he ended his reign in a very 
strong position ; but he achieved his aim only by timely concessions. 
He recognized Parliament, and the opinion which it represented, as 
a force which might be manipulated but never dominated. What- 
ever happened, he once remarked, he was determined " never to set 
out on his travels again." 

During the years that Charles was King, neither arbitrary taxa- 
tion nor the system of extraordinary courts was revived. More- 
over, notable gains were made, both judicial and parliamentary. The 
fining of juries was done away with, and a new Act made the writ of 
Habeas Corpus, for protecting the subject against prolonged im- 
prisonment before trial, more of a reality. Parliament asserted suc- 
cessfully its right not only to grant taxes, but also to appropriate 
them for specific purposes ; to audit accounts ; and, by frequent and 
effective impeachments, to hold the royal Ministers, in some measure, 
responsible to itself. In this period, too, modern party organiza- 
tion took rise, and the system of Cabinet government, based upon it, 
showed the first signs of taking shape. Yet, while many good laws 
were passed, bad government continued, numerous traces of abso- 
lutism survived, and much that cried for remedy was left untouched. 
The judges, whose tenure was still during royal pleasure, continued 
servile to the Crown and - tyrannical to the subject ; except by im- 
peachment there was no means of getting rid of those who refused to 
govern according to the will of the majority in the House of Com- 

359 



360 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

mons ; while the King, by long prorogations, avoided meeting Parlia- 
ment for extended intervals, and during the last four years of his reign 
never summoned that body at all. 

The Early Life of Charles II. — Charles II was thirty years old on 
the day that he entered London, 29 May, 1660. He had received 
little systematic instruction from books ; but his life had been a stir- 
ring one, full of harsh and varied lessons in the great school of ex- 
perience. Often out at the elbows during his long years of exile, and 
disappointed, time and again, in his efforts to come to his own, he dis- 
played through all his adversity chiefly the virtue of cheerfulness, 
and continually vexed his grave and learned councilor, Hyde, by his 
unwillingness to work and his loose habits. Charles's early mis- 
fortunes and privations did nothing to build up his character ; they 
only made him more greedy of comfort and amusement when the 
opportunity came. 

His Character and Attainments. — To the end he remained indo- 
lent, fickle, untrustworthy and absolutely devoid of reverence. Al- 
though utterly selfish, he had an easy good nature and charm of 
manner that captivated everyone who came in contact with him, 
and generally was as ready in making promises as he was careless in 
performing them. According to Rochester, one of his boon com- 
panions, " he never said a foolish thing and never did a wise one" ; 
nevertheless, he was keen and persistent in any matter that he thought 
worth the trouble. He had an acute observant mind, an excellent 
memory, and a nimble wit. In person he was over six feet tall, and 
well formed, of dark swarthy complexion, with a cynical eye, a great 
fleshy nose and thick lips. It was only his magnificent physique 
and his devotion to athletic exercises that enabled him to keep his 
health, in view of the excesses in which he indulged. 

His Policy. — He was quite without scruple in pursuing his ends, and 
sharp at profiting by the mistakes of his opponents. Although he 
hated the details of business and was too sensible to believe in the 
Divine Right of Kings, he aimed to keep as free from parliamentary 
control as possible : to that end, he sought to set up a standing army, 
to reintroduce Roman Catholicism, to secure toleration for Dis- 
senters, and allied himself with France. He bribed, flattered, and 
managed, but, fully alive to his royal limitations, he yielded when 
popular opposition proved too strong. Thus, before the close of his 
reign, he gave up all his projects, except the French alliance to which 
he clung tenaciously; with a political cunning rare in history, he 
shifted to the Anglican side, and by adroit politics managed to spend 
his last years free from parliamentary restraint. 



FROM RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 361 

The Supremacy of the Lord Chancellor Clarendon. — The first 
period of Charles's reign was marked by the ascendancy of Edward 
Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who had accompanied his young master 
into exile and rose to become Lord Chancellor. He had many ad- 
mirable qualities: industrious, honest, and fixed in his principles, 
he was a devoted champion of the Church of England and an op- 
ponent of royal absolutism. On the other hand, in spite of an un- 
usual knowledge of men and parties, he was quite incapable of adapt- 
ing himself to changed conditions, and met the usual fate of men who 
try to steer a middle course. He alienated the King by opposing 
his policy of toleration and by frowning on his pleasures, while, at 
the same time, he alienated Parliament by opposing what he regarded 
as their meddling in the details of administration. The Privy Coun- 
cil formed under his leadersdip, June, 1660, was constituted both of 
Cavaliers and Puritans who had worked to bring about the Restora- 
tion. Out of thirty members, twelve had formerly taken sides against 
the Crown ; indeed, both within the Council and outside, there were not 
only party differences but differences between members of the same 
party. Thus courtiers, particularly women, were able to prevail 
by intrigue, and graver gave way steadily to lighter counsels. 

The Convention Parliament (25 April-29 December, 1660). — 
After the recall of the King, the Convention set about to settle the 
government. Strong in the Commons, the Cavaliers dominated the 
Lords. 1 On n June by an Act " for removing all questions and dis- 
putes," the authority of the Convention was formally established. 
Acting henceforth as a legal body, it proceeded to take up the terms of 
the Declaration of Breda. The first to be settled concerned the fate 
of those who had taken part in the late troubles. The King had 
promised a pardon for all save those excepted by Parliament. While 
the Commons wanted to make very few exceptions, the Lords were 
inclined to be less lenient. Through the efforts of Charles and Hyde 
a moderate compromise was adopted, as a result of which, thirteen of 
the regicides were put to death, though some twenty-five more were 
given life sentences. 2 The status of property acquired during the late 
troubles was next taken up. Estates confiscated and sold by the 
State were recovered on the ground that an illegal government 
could give no valid title ; but private contracts were declared legal, so 

1 Although those peers who had fought for Charles I, or who had been created 
by him since 1642, were at first excluded, they all took their seats before June. 

2 One glaring case of injustice was the trial and execution of Sir Harry Vane in 
1662 ; for he had no part in putting the late King to death; moreover Charles II 
had promised to spare his life. 



362 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

that many Royalists who had sold their estates to pay fines or to help 
the King's cause got no redress. The Cavaliers grumbled that there 
was indemnity for the King's enemies and oblivion for his friends. 1 

Disbandment of the New Model and the Settlement of Revenue. — 
Arrears due the army and fleet were paid in full, and the troops were 
dismissed, except three regiments. On various pretexts Charles in- 
creased this force until, in 1662, it numbered 5000 men, the nucleus 
of England's standing army. Another important work of the Con- 
vention was to settle the revenue. An annual income of £1,200,000 
was granted as sufficient for ordinary expenses, but since no more 
than three quarters of this amount reached the royal coffers in any 
one year, it was found necessary, in 1662, to vote new taxes. Mili- 
tary tenures, and feudal dues and services, which had long been more 
vexatious to the subject than profitable to the Crown, were practically 
all swept away, in return for which the King was granted an hered- 
itary excise of £100,000 a year on beer and other alcoholic beverages. 
Such acts and ordinances of the various Parliaments passed since 1642, 
as the Convention did not choose to confirm, were declared invalid ; 
among those reenacted was the Navigation Act of 165 1. 

The Convention Makes no Provision for Religious Toleration. — 
The settlement of religion caused the greatest difficulty. Church 
affairs were in a most disordered and confused state. Within the 
Episcopalian and Presbyterian folds there were a number of moder- 
ates who desired a compromise, who would have welcomed a curtail- 
ment of the powers of the bishops and some modifications in the 
service. The Puritans, however, had been so destructive of beauti- 
ful old churches and their hallowed furnishings, so oppressive and un- 
bending, as well, that the extreme Anglicans, naturally narrow and 
intolerant enough, were determined to allow them no concessions. 
Charles, nominally the head of the Church of England, was entirely 
without religious convictions, though he hated the Presbyterians 
and was inclined toward Roman Catholicism. In the Declaration 
he had promised to cooperate with Parliament in granting such liberty 
of conscience as would not disturb the peace of the Kingdom, a prom- 
ise he was ready, even anxious, to carry out, because, under the guise 
of a general toleration of the sects, it would be possible to reintro- 
duce Roman Catholicism. Nevertheless, as events showed, he was 
not ready to push this policy to the extent of risking his throne. Ex- 
cept for an Act to restore the ejected Episcopal clergy, the Conven- 
tion passed no laws relating to religion. Fearing Charles's Roman 

1 This had reference to the late Act dealing with the regicides, which was called 
"An Act of Indemnity and Oblivion." 



FROM RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 363 

Catholic designs, the moderate Presbyterians lost a supreme chance 
by refusing to combine with the moderate Anglicans in passing a com- 
prehension bill which he advocated, a bill broad enough in govern- 
ment and ceremonies to include both parties. In the forthcoming 
parliamentary election the reactionaries were in the majority. Domi- 
nant Anglicanism put down opposing sects with an uncompromising 
hand ; but it was Parliament and not the Crown who directed the 
policy of repression. 

The Restoration in Scotland. — The Restoration in Scotland was 
brought about by a Parliament which repealed all acts passed since 
1639, reestablished the Episcopal Church, and renounced the Cove- 
nant, which was burned by the common hangman. The Scots had 
chafed at the army of occupation and the dominance of the Inde- 
pendents, but they were soon to learn that the little finger of the new 
Government was thicker than the loins of the old. By the new Navi- 
gation Act, passed in 1660, they lost the equality of the trading privi- 
leges which they had recently enjoyed, and, by a subsequent measure, 
many of their commodities were excluded from England or burdened 
with heavy duties. All this, together with active persecution of 
the Covenanters, soon stirred up the old hostility between the two 
countries. 

The Restoration in Ireland. — The Restoration in Ireland was 
equally fruitful in oppression and discontent. The King was under 
obligation to the Irish Catholics, he sympathized with their aims, 
and he " pitied the miserable condition of the Irish nation." But 
the Cromwellian settlers were in possession of the broad lands, and, 
backed by English anti-Catholic sentiment, were too strong to be dis- 
placed. All that Charles could do was to restore a few estates to 
the greater nobles and to procure a small amount of land for the lesser 
men. To make matters worse, heavy restrictions were imposed on 
Irish commerce. In 1663 their ships were excluded from the Colonial 
trade, and, three years later, the importation of Irish cattle into Eng- 
land was strictly forbidden. 

The Opening of the Cavalier Parliament (8 May, 1661). — The new 
Parliament, which met 8 May, 1661, lasted till 1679, having a longer 
continuous existence than any other in English history. After the 
first outburst of loyalty was over, friction with the Crown began soon 
to develop. Having restored the King without the aid of foreign 
intervention, Parliament was determined to rule ; many of the mem- 
bers resented the King's leaning toward Roman Catholicism and 
toleration for the sects and the exercise of the dispensing power which 
it involved ; not a few were disquieted by his attempts to increase 



364 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the standing army and by his alliance with France, and looked askance 
at the royal profligacy and the splendor of the Court, not so much 
on moral grounds, as on account of the expenditures which they 
necessitated. Moreover, the country squires were discontented by 
falling rents, while the recent land settlement had satisfied neither the 
Puritan speculators nor the Cavaliers who had been forced to sell 
out. 

The Corporation Act (1661). — Parliament at first showed its hot and 
masterful temper by passing a series of measures strengthening the 
power of the restored Monarchy. Then, with the aid of the Bishops 
now restored to their seats in the House cf Lords, it proceeded to 
frame an ecclesiastical policy which, in most respects, ran directly 
counter to the intentions of Charles, and which resulted in transferring 
the control of Church affairs from the King to Parliament and the 
Bishops. This was accomplished mainly by a group of four Acts 
popularly known as the " Clarendon Code " x — though the Chan- 
cellor was by no means responsible for all of them — which excluded 
Dissenters from public office, from any share in the Establishment, 
and imposed other grave disabilities upon them. The Corporation 
Act, December, 1661, provided that no man could hold office in a cor- 
porate town unless he took the sacrament according to the Church 
of England, renounced the Covenant, and declared that it was un- 
lawful, under any circumstances, to bear arms against the King. 

The New Act of Uniformity (1662). — When Convocation produced 
a revision of the Prayer Book even more distasteful to the Puritans 
than its predecessors, Parliament accepted it, and 19 May, 1662, 
passed an Act of Uniformity providing that, on and after St. Bar- 
tholomew's Day, 2 the revised Book should be read in all the churches, 
and that all ministers who refused, or who had not received their 
holy orders by Episcopal ordination were to be deprived of their bene- 
fices. Schoolmasters also were required to conform to the Book, 
and both classes were further required to declare the illegality of tak- 
ing up arms against the King. On the day appointed, nearly 2000 
clergymen resigned their livings rather than sacrifice their convic- 
tions. Many of the most able men of the Kingdom, in order to main- 
tain themselves and their wives and children, were forced to toil as 
laborers or to depend upon charity. The Act marks an epoch in 
English religious history. For nearly a century, the Nonconformists 
had sought to secure alterations in the government, doctrine, and 

1 They were: the Corporation Act, 1661 ; the Act of Uniformity, 1662; the 
Conventicle Act, 1664; and the Five Mile Act, 1665. 

2 St. Bartholomew's Day was 24 August. 



FROM RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 365 

ceremony of the Church and to remain within the fold ; henceforth 
the majority sought to secure freedom of conscience outside. Sepa- 
ration rather than comprehension became their aim. Years of per- 
secution, however, were to follow before they even partially effected 
their purpose* 

The Conventicle Act, 1664, an d tne F* ve Mile Act, 1665. — Hav- 
ing defeated an attempt on the part of the King to soften the rigor 
of the Act and to introduce toleration by means of the dispensing 
power, Parliament proceeded with its ecclesiastical legislation. By 
the " Act against Seditious Conventicles," 1664, it was forbidden 
for five or more persons, exclusive of members of a family, to hold 
meetings for religious worship, where the Established forms were 
not used. The penalty was imprisonment for the first and second 
offenses, and transportation for the third. Persons who returned to 
the country were liable to be put to death. The Quakers seem to 
have been the chief sufferers. Pepys, who saw several dragged through 
the, streets, noted in his diary : " I would to God they would conform, 
or be more wise and not be catched." In 1665 followed the equally 
cruel Five Mile Act, which provided that no Nonconformist minister 
was, for the future, to teach in any school, or to come within five 
miles of any city or corporate town unless he had taken an oath that 
it was unlawful to bear arms against the King, and had pledged him- 
self that he would not " at any time endeavor the alteration of gov- 
ernment in Church and State." This measure was peculiarly malev- 
olent, because, during the Great Plague which visited London in 
this year, many of the regular clergy fled, leaving the dissenting min- 
isters to care for the sick and dying. However, since the chief 
strength of Puritanism was in the towns, it was felt that it would be 
unusually dangerous to leave them a free hand at this time. 

The Significance of the Clarendon Code. — These penal laws, 
mercilessly though somewhat intermittently enforced, sowed bitter 
seeds of hatred between the Dissenters and the governing authorities. 
Presbyterianism lost the preeminence it enjoyed during the early 
months of the Restoration, and even outside the Established Church 
ceased to play the leading role among the Protestant sects. Natu- 
rally democratic, the excluded bodies now became more so, partly 
out of increased resentment toward the aristocratic privileged classes, 
partly because those among them who were desirous of political 
influence hastened to conform, leaving only the extremists in the 
ranks. Dissent became more and more confined to the lower 
and middle classes. However, as time went on, numbers grew 
wealthy through trade and productive enterprise, and combined with 



366 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the more liberal Anglicans to demand toleration and other pro- 
gressive measures. 

Charles' Foreign Policy. The Portuguese Marriage, and the 
Approach to France. — In his foreign relations as in his ecclesiasti- 
cal aims Charles developed a policy quite at variance with Parlia- 
ment and with Clarendon. Ready to attach himself to the highest 
bidder, he turned first to the thrifty Dutch, who seemed to offer the 
best prospects for a loan; but the passage of the Navigation Act 
destroyed any chance of help from that quarter. Next, he looked 
about for a bride, and finally negotiated a treaty with the King of 
Portugal for a marriage with his sister Catharine of Braganza. By 
this alliance and the accompanying dowry, England obtained Tangier, 1 
Bombay, 2,000,000 crusados in money, together with commercial 
privileges and freedom of conscience for English merchants. The 
bride's failure to bear the King a male heir brought about a bitter 
struggle toward the close of his reign, yet, in spite of neglecting her 
shamefully, he loyally resisted the strong pressure which was brought 
upon him to divorce her. 

Very early in his reign Charles adopted the policy of a close alliance 
with France, which he maintained, except for brief intervals, till his 
death. While his chief motive was to secure French subsidies, other 
reasons were not without weight: particularly he was desirous of 
extending English trade, and counted on French aid in breaking the 
colonial monopoly which Spain still retained and in humbling the 
Dutch, the greatest sea power of the time. This policy of uniting 
with England's ancient enemy, to be sure, had originated with Crom- 
well ; but he would never have tolerated Louis's Catholic aggres- 
sions, to which for some years Charles lent his favor ; moreover, he 
would have dominated the alliance instead of playing the part of a 
subordinate pensionary. 

The Second Dutch War (1665-1667). — The commercial greatness 
of England which Charles sought to foster was bound to arouse the 
hostility of the Dutch. Furthermore, there still existed many out- 
standing points of friction. For example, the English Court hated 
the Republican faction which had obtained control in the United 
Provinces, while the trading companies of the two countries were 
constantly fighting; the Dutch refused compensation for certain 
English ships which they had seized, nor would they restore one of 
the East India Spice Islands awarded to England in 1654. Among 
the acts which precipitated the crisis, was Colonel Nicoll's seizure, 
in May, 1664, of New Netherlancl, which Charles had granted to his 
1 It was abandoned to the Moors in 1684. 



FROM RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 367 

brother, the Duke of York, over a year previously. The Dutch replied 
with one reprisal after another, until war was finally declared, 4 March, 
1665. If the professions of the King may be believed, he was pushed 
into hostilities by public opinion and the eagerness of his brother. 

The Sad State of the English Navy. — It is possible that Charles, 
while desiring to fight at a fitting opportunity, may have desired 
delay owing to the ill-prepared state of the navy, which at any rate 
was soon manifest. Even if the system of administration was not as 
bad as has sometimes been represented, nevertheless many of the 
officials were idle and corrupt, and, owing to the poor food and un- 
certain pay, sailors were so reluctant to enlist that it was necessary to 
resort freely to impressment. As a result, the crews were most unruly 
and so discontented that many who were taken prisoners by the Dutch 
entered the service of their captors. Much was subsequently done 
by Charles and James to improve the state of the navy; for they 
were both keenly interested, and had an efficient and devoted servant 
in Samuel Pepys ; but it did not come in time for the second Dutch 
war. 

The Opening Events of the War (1665). — The primary object of 
each combatant was to protect its own shipping and to inflict all 
possible damage on the shipping of the enemy, for neither side had a 
sufficient army to effect anything by land. In the first serious encounter 
which occurred, 3 June, 1665, off Lowestoft, 1 the Duke of York gained 
a decisive victory for the English, though the Dutch, after being 
put to flight, managed to regain their own shores in safety. While 
the English had proved their superiority in fighting, the events of the 
remainder of the year counterbalanced their signal success. Short- 
age of men and supplies and the last and one of the worst visitations 
of the Plague, which raged in London during the summer, all helped 
to account for this. Charles, in the meantime, had allied himself 
with the warlike Bishop of Minister, who invaded the Dutch frontier 
in September, a gain that was more than offset by the entrance of 
Louis XIV into the war on the side of the Dutch, in January, 1666. 

The Fighting in 1666. — Louis's intervention and the possibility 
of a French attack frightened the English into dividing their fleet, 
with the result that Monck 2 was roughly handled by a superior force 
under De Ruyter in the Four Days' Battle, 1-4 June, 1666, fought be- 
tween North Foreland and Dunkirk. Monck and Prince Rupert, 
in their turn, defeated De Ruyter off North Foreland, 25-27 July, 
after which they chased the Dutch home, ravaged their coast, de- 

1 Sometimes called the Battle of Solebay. 

2 Created Duke of Albemarle at the Restoration. 



368 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

stroyed towns, and capture much shipping. Lack of provisions, which 
kept the English from remaining continuously at sea, and storms, 
prevented further naval engagements. Moreover, the Bishop of 
Minister having made peace in April, the land operations ceased as 
well. By autumn, both sides were ready for peace: the Dutch be- 
cause they wanted a free hand to resist the encroachments of Louis 
XIV, who had only aided them in order to keep the combatants 
evenly balanced while he sought to secure Spanish lands on the Nether- 
land border which he claimed in right of his wife ; the English be- 
cause they could not longer stand the expense, particularly since the 
Plague in London had been followed by a disastrous fire. 

The Peace of Breda (27 July, 1667). — With peace in sight, Charles 
was unwilling to spend money on strengthening and refitting the fleet, 
and so threw away such advantages as had been gained. Profiting by 
this inaction, De Ruyter entered the mouth of the Thames, passed up 
the Medway and took, burned, and scuttled sixteen vessels, inflicting a 
loss that was great and a shame that was immeasurable. Fortunately 
the Dutch did not feel strong enough to remain, so they withdrew to 
the mouth of the Thames, where they occupied themselves for a time 
intercepting commerce. Before they could do any more damage the 
local forces were called out, and the coast and ports put in a state of 
defense. Peace was concluded at Breda, 21 July, 1667. Fearing the 
designs of Louis XIV, the Dutch agreed to comparatively favorable 
terms. In their chief concession — to leave New Netherland in the 
hands of the English — they yielded more than they realized, for this 
territory included the present New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. 

The Plague, the Fire (1665-1666). — England emerged from the 
struggle in an extremely crippled condition. The Plague, in the 
summer and autumn of 1665, carried off 70,000 from London alone, 
and, during the following spring, spread through the southern and 
eastern counties. It was the first visitation for over thirty years and 
proved to be the last. The great London fire which followed, raged 
for five days, 2-7 September, 1666, during which interval it is esti- 
mated that at least two thirds of the population were unroofed. 
In rebuilding the City, the streets were made broader and straighter, 
and the houses with their overhanging upper stories, which cut off 
the air and sunshine, disappeared. A newer London arose, less pic- 
turesque, but more healthful and spacious than the old. 

The Growing Discontent, and the Attack on Clarendon (1667). — 
The three disasters — the Plague, the Fire, and Dutch in the Medway 
— were regarded as signs of Divine wrath at the corruption and 
inefficiency of the Government. Among the credulous lower and 



FROM RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 369 

middle classes, the Fire was attributed to the machinations of the 
" Papists" and the French, who were thought to have caused it by 
throwing " fire-balls " into the City ; it was expected that a general 
massacre would follow, and Catholics and Frenchmen were mobbed 
in the streets. In general the situation was gloomy enough, what 
with a lazy dissipated King, a dearth of money, and " no reputation 
at home and abroad." The first victim of the vague but intense 
and increasing discontent was Clarendon. Charles, anxious to be 
rid of him, was glad to make him the scapegoat. Men of all classes 
looked with envy to the lofty height to which he had risen, and longed 
to see him overthrown, while many, indeed, nourished actual griev- 
ances against him. He was blamed, with scant justice, for the sale of 
Dunkirk to France in 1662, and for the disasters of the late war which 
he had opposed. The country gentry hated him for opposing the 
Irish Cattle Act,- and the Dissenters were infuriated against him as 
the reputed author of the cruel " Code " directed against them. 
His austere ideals were a constant reproach to Charles and the more 
dissolute and frivolous courtiers, while his old-fashioned and pompous 
bearing offered them endless opportunity for raillery. His chief diffi- 
culty, however, was his attempt to hold an untenable ground between 
the Crown and Parliament. While Charles was anxious to be quit 
of him on less worthy grounds, it is only fair to say that he had come to 
realize it was futile to attempt to retain a Minister to whom Parlia- 
ment was so unalterably opposed. 

His Impeachment and Flight. — In August, 1667, the faithful old 
servant was dismissed from his office of Chancellor; in November 
the Commons presented articles of impeachment against the fallen 
Minister, charging him among other things, with corruption, with 
intent to introduce arbitrary government, and with treachery dur- 
ing the late war. While these extreme charges were unjust, there 
were many serious counts against the Chancellor, besides the fact 
that he was out of harmony with the attempt of Parliament to super- 
vise the administration. In the summer of 1667 he had advised the 
King to delay calling Parliament, and in the meantime, to raise sup- 
plies on his own authority ; he had arbitrarily imprisoned the op- 
ponents of the Government ; and he has been accused of first teaching 
Charles to seek money from France. On the King's advice he fled 
to the Continent. He died at Rouen in 1674. 

Parliamentary Gains in the Control of Finances. — The financial 
situation continued to be very disturbing. The moneys granted 
proved insufficient to meet expenses. Cries were raised of corruption 
in high places, and the King was accused of diverting huge sums for 



370 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

his private pleasures. While he was extravagant enough, the root of 
the trouble lay deeper : supplies were voted so tardily and collected 
so grudgingly that the Government was obliged to anticipate by 
borrowing ; and the prevailing high rate of interest cut into revenues 
that at best were hardly adequate even for legitimate expenses. 
Niggardly as the Commons were, they were wise in keeping a tight 
hold on the purse-strings, and made notable gains during the Clar- 
endonian regime. In a grant, made in 1665, a clause was inserted that 
the moneys voted should be used only for the purposes of the war. 
Suggested by a wily royal adviser to prevent the goldsmiths from claim- 
ing any portion for debts due to them, this marks another important 
step toward the practice of appropriation of supplies. Two years 
later, in the spring of 1667, after a sharp and prolonged struggle, 
the King made the important concession of appointing a committee 
of Parliament to audit accounts. One issue raised in this period was 
settled, 3 July, 1678, when the Commons carried a resolution that all 
bills of supply should originate in their House, and that such bills 
" ought not to be changed or altered by the House of Lords." From 
that date the Lords have never made a serious attempt to originate 
or amend a money bill. In spite, however, of these evidences of the 
growing strength of the Commons, Charles, directly his old mentor 
was disposed of, proceeded to collect about him a body of Ministers 
of his own choice and to develop a policy quite at variance 
with Parliament's, a policy which he struggled for some years to 
maintain. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Besides Trevelyan, Ranke, Lingard, and Cambridge Modern 
History already cited, Richard Lodge, The Political History of England, 
1660-1702 (1910). Macaulay, History of England (illus. ed. C. B. Firth, 
6 vols., 191:4) gives a brief survey of the reign. 

Constitutional. In addition to Taylor, Taswell-Langmead and Hallam, 
A. Amos, The English Constitution in the Reign of Charles II (1857) and 
W. C. Abbott, "Long Parliament of Charles II," English Historical Review 
(January-April, 1906). 

Contemporary. Samuel Pepys's Diary (most complete ed. H . B . Wheatley, 
9 vols., 1893-1899). Evelyn, Diary. G. Burnet, The History of My Own 
Time (ed. O. Airy, the reign of Charles II, 2 vols., 1897-1900) in spite of 
some partisanship and inaccuracies, an indispensable authority. 

Biography. O. Airy, Charles II (1901), an admirable biography and a 
good survey of the reign. Violet Barbour, Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington 
(1914). A. Browning, Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby and Duke of Leeds 
(1913). Lady Burghclere, George Villiers, Second Duke of Buckingham 



FROM RESTORATION TO THE FALL OF CLARENDON 371 

(1903). W. D. Christie, Life of the First Earl of Shaftesbury (2 vols., 1871), 
a scholarly vindication. H. D. Traill, Shaftesbury (1888), a brief sketch. 
T. H. Lister, Life of Edward, First Earl of Clarendon (3 vols., 1838) ; has 
not been superseded by the recent Life by Sir Henry Craik (2 vols., 191 1). 
A. C. Ewald, Life and Times of Algernon Sidney (2 vols., 1873). Helen C 
Foxcroft, Life and Letters of George Savile, First Marquis of Halifax (2 vols., 
1898). Foxcroft and Clarke, Life of Gilbert Burnet (1907). A. Fea, King 
Monmouth (1902). H. B. Irving, Life of Lord Jeffreys (1898), an apology. 
Roger North, The Lives of the Norths (ed. A. Jessopp, 3 vols., 1890), a 
classic. 

Special. G. B. Hertz, English Public Opinion after the Restoration (1902). 
C. B. R. Kent, The Early History of the Tories (1908). Seeley, British 
Policy. A. T. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power on History, 1660-1783 
(15th ed., 1898), an epoch-making work. A. W. Tedder, The Navy of the 
Restoration (19 16), an excellent study. 

Church. Hutton ; Wakeman ; and Stoughton. 

Scotland and Ireland. Works already cited. For further reading on 
Scotland and Ireland see Lodge, 487-471. Cambridge Modern History, V, 

825-837. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 221-226. C. G. 
Robertson, Select Statutes, Cases and Documents (1904), pt. I, nos. I-IX; 
pt. II, no. I. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

FROM THE FALL OF CLARENDON TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES II 

(1667-1685) 

Charles Seeks to Make Himself Absolute (1667). — Charles took 
advantage of the fall of Clarendon to carry out a design which he had 
been cherishing for years — to establish himself as an absolute Mon- 
arch. To that end, he applied himself with renewed energy to the 
four means by which he sought to accomplish his purpose : to build- 
ing up the standing army; attaching the Dissenters by offering the 
toleration which Parliament refused to grant ; restoring Roman 
Catholicism; and securing a closer alliance with the French King, 
to whom he looked for supplies, and, in case of need, for troops. The 
obstacles, however, proved so formidable that he had to follow a 
very crooked course, and, before many years had passed, to alter his 
plans profoundly. In sensing the situation at the proper moment 
and in the means which he adopted to meet it, the King, who appeared 
to most of his subjects as a good-natured and witty trifler, proved 
himself to be one of the most cunning politicians of the century. 

The " Cabal" (1667-1673). — In the meantime, until the turning 
point of his policy, in 1673, ne governed with a body of intimate coun- 
cilors known as the " Cabal." It formed an inner circle of the Privy 
Council, and its members, who were consulted by the King singly or 
collectively, or in groups of two or three, were responsible to him 
and not to Parliament. While such Cabals, even under that name, 
were not unknown in English history long before the body in question 
came into existence, some have derived the word from the initial 
letters of the names of its leading members — Clifford, Ashley, Buck- 
ingham, Arlington and Lauderdale. 1 Ablest of them all was Anthony 
Ashley Cooper, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1661 
to 1672, when he was created Lord Chancellor and Earl of Shaftes- 

1 In reality it is derived from a Hebrew word cabala, which meant a "secret," 
hence it came to be applied to a party or faction engaged in a secret design, and 
later, to a group of secret councilors. Charles's body, however, is the most famous 
of them all. 

372 



FROM FALL OF CLARENDON TO DEATH OF CHARLES II 373 

bury. He was a born agitator and demagogue, a forerunner of the 
modern party leader ; yet, with all his ambition and his turnings against 
men and parties, he was ever consistent in the pursuit of his two ideals 
— civil liberty and toleration for all Protestants. He was himself a 
freethinker. The Duke of Buckingham was a man of engaging man- 
ners and not without accomplishments, but was vain, unsteady, and 
ever striving for powers in the State which he was incapable of using. 
Though he espoused the cause of the Dissenters for a time, he was not 
only devoid of religious opinions but a libertine to boot, perhaps the 
worst of all the dissolute set who surrounded the King. Lauderdale 
was a former Covenanter who devoted himself chiefly to Scotch affairs 
with the design of making the Crown supreme in that country. While 
Charles used all these men in the development of far reaching plans 
which, if they had been carried to completion, would have destroyed 
Protestantism and popular liberty in England, the " Cabal," as such, 
never enjoyed his full confidence, to say nothing of dominating him 
as Clarendon had done. 

The Secret Treaty of Dover (1670). — The English were embittered 
at the French King for taking the Dutch side in the late war, and 
apprehensive of his growing power as well. Nevertheless, Charles 
soon came to terms with Louis XIV ; for, to his mind, the French alli- 
ance was closely bound up with the introduction of Roman Catholi- 
cism and the revival of the old monarchial power. In pursuance of 
this design, the famous Treaty of Dover was concluded with France, 
22 May, 1670. Only two of the Cabal were present, and the terms 
long remained a secret. They were, in substance : that Charles, in 
return for an annual grant during the period of hostilities, agreed to 
join Louis in making war on the Dutch, and to assist him in securing 
the inheritance which he claimed — through his wife, a daughter of 
Philip IV of Spain — in the Spanish Netherlands. Furthermore, 
and this was the secret part, the English King, in consideration of a 
sum of money, was, at a fitting time, to declare himself a Roman Cath- 
olic, and in case Charles's subjects resisted, Louis was to send troops 
to aid him. Though Charles was inclined to declare his conversion 
forthwith, the French ambassador persuaded him that such a step 
would strengthen the hands of the Dutch as champions of Protestant- 
ism, whereas, if the English were kept in ignorance of their Sovereign's 
change of faith they would continue to regard them merely as trade 
rivals. So, of the two objects contemplated in the Treaty, that of the 
destruction of the Dutch was thrust into the foreground. Since the 
negotiations leading up to the secret Treaty were known to all the 
Ministers, Charles commissioned Buckingham to negotiate a sham 



374 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

treaty, concluded in February, 167 1, which was practically the same 
as that of the previous spring except for the provision concerning 
religion. Meantime, Charles by nursing Parliament in the delusion 
that a Triple Alliance — concluded with the Dutch and Swedes in 
1667 — still held, secured large sums for the purpose of rendering it 
effective. Had he stood loyally by the Dutch, the designs of Louis 
XIV might have been checked and later costly and devastating wars 
might have been avoided. 

The Declaration of Indulgence (1672-1673). — The religious situ- 
ation was such as to cause " all Protestant hearts to tremble." On 15 
March, 1672, the King issued a Declaration of Indulgence, suspending 
" all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesiastical against whatsoever 
sort of Nonconformists or recusants." Although the Declaration only 
granted to Catholics liberty of private worship, while all Protestant 
sects were to be allowed to worship in public, men suspected it was 
issued mainly in the Catholic interest. Nor did it allay the suspicions, 
particularly of the Presbyterians, when the jails were opened and hun- 
dreds of Quakers and other Dissenters were released, although a large 
body of the Nonconformists sent the King a deputation to express 
their gratitude. When Parliament met, in February, 1673, the opposi- 
tion was so intense, that Charles, in return for a grant of money which 
he sorely needed, announced, 8 March, that he would cancel the 
Declaration. 

The Test Act and the Break-up of the Cabal (1673). —To clinch 
their victory, Parliament passed the famous Test Act providing that 
all holders of civil and military office must receive the sacrament ac- 
cording to the Church of England and take an oath declaring their 
disbelief in transubstantiation. That test excluded Roman Catholics 
and conscientious Dissenters for over a century and a half. 1 The im- 
mediate result of the Test Act was the break-up of the Cabal Ministry, 
though Arlington and Buckingham managed to hold on till 1674, and 
Lauderdale till 1680. Shaftesbury, the lifelong friend of religious 
liberty, who had been one of the instigators of the Declaration, but 
who, on gaining an inkling of the real purport of the Treaty of Dover 
and the King's Catholic designs, had reversed his policy and had lent 
his support to the Test Act, was dismissed from the office of Lord 
Chancellor, and became the most active leader and organizer of the 
opposition party forming against the Court. The anti-Catholic party 
had renewed cause for apprehension when the King's brother James, 
Duke of York, whose first wife, Anne Hyde, had died the previous 
year, married, in the autumn of 1673, Mary of Modena, who had been 
1 Some Nonconformists did not scruple to qualify by taking the sacrament. 



FROM FALL OF CLARENDON TO DEATH OF CHARLES II 375 

destined for a nun. The nuptials were brought about in the teeth 
of a Parliamentary address, praying that the Duke should not wed 
any person but of the Protestant religion. 

The Third Dutch War (1672-1674). — Parliament shared also in 
the growing opposition to the Dutch War which had resulted from 
the Treaty of Dover, and which was now drawing to a close. At the 
outset the war had been popular, for the English, as yet unaware of 
Charles's Catholic designs, welcomed the chance of French aid to crush 
their commercial rivals and avenge the invasion of the Medway. 
While the two countries were still at peace and while De Witt, the 
Grand Pensionary, was making every effort to avert a conflict, Charles 
ordered an attack on a Dutch fleet from Smyrna as it passed up the 
Channel. This inexcusable act of bad faith, which deservedly failed, 
led to a declaration of war four days later, 17 March, 1672. The 
situation seemed very serious for the Dutch. In the previous war 
the English victories at sea had been barren of results, because of their 
inability to follow them up by land attacks. Now with the armies 
of Louis operating on the frontier, they had every prospect of crushing 
their opponents. Neither side, however, was well prepared, and the 
first battle off Southwold Bay, 1 28 May, 1672, was indecisive. An 
attempt made by the allies, later in the season, to land on the Dutch 
coast was frustrated by the Dutch Admiral, with the help of his 
superior knowledge of the foggy, sandy shores. 

The Close of the War. — The next year, Prince Rupert succeeded 
the Duke of York, who had to give up his command in consequence 
of the Test Act. Several engagements proved as indecisive as that 
off Solebay. The feeling between the French and English in the allied 
fleets became intense. Increasing numbers of Englishmen, who had 
already begun to fear the designs of Louis XIV more than the com- 
mercial rivalry of the Dutch, became convinced that their sailors were 
being used to fight the battles of the French, and it was the common 
opinion in London that " unless this alliance with France be broken 
the nation will be ruined." Since the Dutch were torn by party 
strife, both sides were ready to come to terms. So a treaty was signed 
at London, 9 February, 1674, 2 by which the Dutch again acknowledged 
the honor of the flag and restored New York which they had captured 
in the previous July. 

The Turning Point in the Policy of Charles. Danby made Lord 
Treasurer. — With the passage of the Test Act and the close of the 
Third Dutch War, Charles quietly dropped his design of making Eng- 
land Catholic. Sir Thomas Osborne (1631-1712) succeeded Clifford 
1 Or Solebay. 2 Known as the Peace of Westminster. 



376 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER ERITAIN 

as Lord Treasurer, in 1673, and was created Earl of Danby the follow- 
ing year. A devoted supporter of the royal prerogative, he was op- 
posed to Dissenters, to Catholicism and French ascendancy, and showed 
great financial ability, though he was unscrupulous in filling his own 
pockets and in attaching supporters by bribery and patronage. While 
he was not the first to employ financial corruption in Parliament, he 
organized the system and extended it to the rank and file. Working 
with Danby, Charles readily went to the lengths of deserting the 
Catholics for the High Anglicans, and of consenting to the persecution 
of the Nonconformists; nevertheless, except for brief intervals, he 
continued in the pay of France till his death, though, after the peace 
with the Dutch, he never gave Louis any active support, receiving his 
subsidies in return for neutrality. 

The Beginning of the Modern Party System. — It was during the 
fight against Danby and the Court policy, in the session of 1675, that 
the Country Party, which had been taking shape for some years, was 
definitely organized under Shaftesbury in the Lords and by William 
Sacheverell in the Commons. Built on the principles of parliamentary 
supremacy and toleration, it soon came to be known as the Whig Party, 
a name which it bore until well into the nineteenth century. It sur- 
vives to-day in the present Liberal Party. While Danby was the first 
to organize a Government machine, his opponents put on a permanent 
footing one of the two great modern political parties. The center of 
activity of the Country Party was the Green Ribbon Club, founded 
in 1675, and, during the next few years a very busy organization it 
was, spurred by the feverish energy of its president, Shaftesbury. 
Anti-government men of all sorts gathered at its meetings, there 
petitions were drawn up, and thence speakers, agents and pamphlets 
were sent to spread their views throughout the city and country. 

The Succession. The Marriage of William of Orange and Prin- 
cess Mary, 1677. — The question of the succession was gradually be- 
coming acute. In 1676, James, Duke of York, brother and heir of the 
King, became a professed Roman Catholic, whereupon there began a fa- 
mous struggle, which came to a head two or three years later, to exclude 
him from the throne. The Protestant interest scored a victory when 
the King, in spite of the fact that he was in the pay of France, agreed, 
on zealous pressure from Danby, that Mary, 1 the eldest daughter 
of James and his first wife Anne Hyde, should marry William of Orange. 
The marriage, which had already been discussed in 1674, was celebrated 
4 November, 1677. Charles's motives were : to force more money from 

1 She had been brought up a Protestant, though her mother died in the Church 
of Rome. 



FROM FALL OF CLARENDON TO DEATH OF CHARLES II 377 

Louis by coquetting with his enemy, as he had once before at the time 
of the Triple Alliance ; to strengthen himself with his Anglican sup- 
porters ; and to obtain from Parliament supplies of money and men 
by a threatened demonstration against the Power which they hated. 

A Tortuous Foreign Policy. — The course of English foreign policy 
and the relations between Charles and his Parliament were most tor- 
tuous and complicated. At times the King, in order to strengthen 
his army and to secure supplies from the Commons, was threatening 
war with France ; yet, all the while, he was treating with his old pay- 
master, now breathing defiance, now promising to dissolve his Par- 
liament, always with the view of making the best financial terms pos- 
sible. While Parliament voted him considerable sums to assist his 
Dutch son-in-law against the encroachments of Lcuis XIV, there was 
generally a strong opposition against him. Many, and not without 
reason, distrusted Charles's sincerity, fearing the use to which he might 
put the men and money which he sought, others wanted to get rid of 
Danby, and, sad to say, not a few had been corrupted by French gold. 
The aim of Louis XIV in subsidizing the Opposition x was to strengthen 
the party opposed to Danby, and, while the session lasted, to keep 
Charles so embroiled that he could not carry out his threat of inter- 
vening in behalf of the Dutch. When, in spite of his bribes and in- 
trigues, the English King finally prepared to send a force to assist 
William of Orange, Louis was obliged to sign a peace with the Dutch 
at Nymwegen, 10 August, 1678. While Charles gained nothing by 
the actual terms of the peace, the events which led up to it had greatly 
strengthened his position. He had increased his standing army and 
he had drawn large sums of money both from Parliament and Louis, 
by playing one against the other. 

Titus Oates and the " Popish Plot." — Such was the situation when 
startling disclosures of Titus Oates, an unscrupulous informer and 
liar, threw England into a violent panic. The anti- Catholic frenzy 
aroused by the so-called " Popish Plot " gave the Country Party a 
momentary ascendancy which they failed to maintain because of their 
unbridled violence. Titus Oates was the son of a Baptist formerly a 
chaplain of one of Cromwell's regiments. Deserting his father's 
faith he had first taken orders in the Church of England, and then, in 
1677, joined the Church of Rome. His motives were base: either 
to obtain profitable employment as an agent in Catholic intrigues, or 
to sell their secrets to the English Protestant party. Already, in the 
course of a checkered career, he had been found guilty of false witness 

1 It was estimated at one time that more than two thirds of the members were 
in the pay either of Charles or Louis. 



378 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and of offenses even more loathsome. During brief residences at 
two Jesuit colleges abroad, from each of which he was successively 
expelled, he learned, through scraps of conversation, that Charles II 
was thought to stand in the way of the Romanist conversion of Eng- 
land for which he had once striven so zealously ; that Catholic hopes 
were now centered on his royal brother; that Coleman, secretary 
first of the Duke and later of the Duchess of York, was busy corre- 
sponding with the French Jesuit, Pere la Chaise, and that a Jesuit con- 
gregation had been held in London in April. Thus scantily equipped 
he went to London, where he worked up his story from such raw ma- 
terials as he had gathered. It was, in substance, that there was a 
hellish plot to fire the City, to rouse rebellion in Ireland, to invade 
England with a French and Irish army, to massacre the Protestants, 
and to murder the King. 

The Murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey (1678). — These disclos- 
ures were read before Charles and the Council, and a copy of the charges 
was put in the hands of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, a justice of the 
peace, who, though a Protestant, was intimately acquainted with 
Coleman and other prominent Roman Catholics. In spite of the fact 
that Oates was twice caught in falsehood and contradiction during 
his examination before the Council, an investigation was set on foot 
which resulted in the discovery of Coleman's correspondence with 
Pere la Chaise. This was the only evidence that could be found to 
support the story of Oates. In view, however, of the intrigues with 
France, partly known and partly suspected, the people were ready to 
believe anything; in consequence, when, 17 October, 1678, the dead 
body of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey was found in a ditch, north of 
London, their fears mounted to a panic. The mystery of Godfrey's 
death has never been solved. 

Causes Promoting Belief in the Plot. — A review of the years im- 
mediately preceding will show that Oates, though he told a lying story, 
had some ground to work upon; in other words, that there was to 
some extent a real as well as a sham plot. Charles, by the Treaty of 
Dover, had entered into a definite engagement for the Catholicizing 
of England. When the turn of events caused him to abandon these 
designs, and particularly after he had given his sanction to the marriage 
of William of Orange and had allied himself to the Dutch, Catholics 
at home and abroad, far from giving up hope, began to look to his 
brother to accomplish the work which he had deserted. While they 
worked earnestly at their plan of converting the country and to secure 
the succession of James, there is no proof that they ever plotted to 
murder the reigning King. Though party leaders on both sides sought 



FROM FALL OF CLARENDON TO DEATH OF CHARLES II 379 

to make use of the " Plot " for their own ends, Shaftesbury was the 
most active of all in fomenting the excitement. Oates gave him the 
weapons he sought, to fight the succession of James and the Catholic 
line. His zeal was amazing in procuring informers and in hounding 
them by threats or bribery or whatever means proved most effective. 
Sad to say, all too many, high in public affairs, were deluded or un- 
scrupulous enough to fan the flames of popular frenzy. 

Charles's Share in the Responsibility. — Charles must bear a heavy 
share in the responsibility for the whole matter. By his manifest 
favor to Catholics in the early part of the reign and by his intrigues 
with France, he had placed himself in a position such that he could not 
make light of the whole affair without laying himself open to suspicion. 
So, though he did not believe a word of the Plot and even declared to 
his intimates that he regarded the chief informers as liars and rogues, 
he remained passive, letting events take their course. He suffered 
innocent men to go to their death on the testimony of rascals, and even 
permitted Oates, the arch-villain of them all, to lodge in splendor at 
Whitehall and to receive a large weekly pension from the privy purse. 
Finally, when he came to realize that Shaftesbury and his party were 
aiming, with the aid of Oates and his kind, to force him to divorce his 
Queen and to exclude his brother from the throne, he roused himself, 
dashed their plans and fought them with amazing ability and determi- 
nation during the rest of his reign. Yet, before that happened, he had 
allowed his subjects, whom his father had once described as a " sober 
people," to pass through a stage of madness which was an abiding 
disgrace to him and to them. 

Parliament Imposes New Tests upon Roman Catholics (1678). — 
Parliament met 21 October, 1678, and continued in session till 30 
December. Its first step was to hurry through a resolution that " there 
has been and still is, a damnable and hellish plot contrived and carried 
on by Popish recusants, for the assassinating and murdering of the 
King, and for subverting the Government, and rooting out and destroy- 
ing the Protestant religion." None dared dissent, for fear of being 
thought implicated. Fear rose to panic. Elaborate precautions were 
taken against fire, men went about armed, and the Protestant " flail " 
was invented, a handy little club for striking suddenly a threatened 
assailant. The City and the royal palace were guarded with troops 
and cannon. The prisons were filled with suspects, and, while their 
trials were proceeding, measures were framed to exclude Catholics 
from the Government. A new test, passed 28 October, obliged mem- 
bers of both Houses to take the oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance 
and subscribe to a declaration that worship according to the Church 



380 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of Rome was idolatrous. One commendable achievement of this 
session was in forcing Charles to disband the standing army which the 
Commons protested was raised " for an imaginary war." 

The Victims of the Plot. — For months the trials of those accused 
of participation in the Plot went on. Coleman was the first to die, 
and upwards of twenty more met the same fate ; most of them guilt- 
less of any crime except that of being Roman Catholics and attempt- 
ing to propagate their faith. The judges were brutal and biased, the 
witnesses told what they knew to be lies, but, it must be said, the pro- 
cedure was no more unfair than it had been for a century and more. 
In constant fear of danger from without, of treason and rebellion from 
within, with no adequate police or military force, the Government 
saw no safety except in swift ruthless convictions. Thus the law courts 
were concerned not so much in saving the innocent as in making ex- 
amples of those who seemed guilty. While the Popish terror was at 
its height, the courts as well as the places of execution were threatened 
by howling mobs, so that the judges could acquit no one without the 
greatest risk to their own safety. The turn of the tide came in July, 
1679, when the Chief Justice, acting on a hint from the Crown, with- 
stood popular clamor and declared the acquittal of the Queen's physi- 
cian, whose case was bound up with that of his royal mistress. More 
trials there were ; but they grew fewer and fewer, though two victims 
of high rank remained yet to be sacrificed to the popular fury. In 
December, 1680, Lord Stafford, an aged peer of the notable family 
of Howard, was sent to the block, and, in the ensuing summer, he was 
followed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, the last of 
the accused to suffer. 

The Fall of Danby (1678-1679). — Meantime, Danby had fallen 
and the Cavalier Parliament was no more. The Lord Treasurer was 
overthrown by the combined hostility of the Shaftesbury party and 
the French King. The agent was a disappointed office-seeker, who, 
moved by revenge and a bribe from Louis XIV, disclosed instructions 
which he had received from Danby to offer the dissolution of Parlia- 
ment in return for a French loan. Parliament started to impeach the 
Lord Treasurer forthwith. In was urged in vain that, disapproving 
of the proposal, he acted solely in accordance with the royal orders. 
Next, Charles tried to save him by proroguing and then dissolving Par- 
liament. The new Parliament, which met 6 March, 1679, resumed 
the attack. Ultimately the impeachment was withdrawn, he was 
convicted under a bill of attainder and committed to the Tower, 
where he remained for nearly five years. Danby's case is of great 
political and constitutional significance ; it marks another step in 



FROM FALL OF CLARENDON TO DEATH OF CHARLES II 381 

the process of calling Ministers to account, and established the 
principle that a royal pardon was no bar to an impeachment. 

The "Habeas Corpus Act" (1679). — This Parliament which dis- 
posed of Danby secured notable gains to the subject in connection with 
the writ of Habeas Corpus. Notwithstanding the Petition of Right, 
repeated instances of arbitrary imprisonment occurred after the Res- 
toration. One bill after another was introduced, but it was not till 
1679 that an Act was passed, mainly through the efforts of Shaftes- 
bury, to make the execution of the writ more effectual. Hitherto, 
the jailer had not been bound to make an immediate return, and he 
might avoid giving up a prisoner by shifting him from prison to prison. 
Moreover, it was not clear whether any but the Court of King's Bench 
could issue the writ, or whether a single judge could do so during the 
long vacation. The Act of 1679 provided that any prisoner held for 
a criminal charge must, on the issuance of the writ, be brought before 
the judge within a specified time to decide whether he should be dis- 
charged, released on bail, or held for trial. Henceforth, the writ might 
be obtained from any court, while, during the long vacation, a single 
judge might issue it. Furthermore, except in special cases, persons 
could not be imprisoned beyond the seas, and the writ was to run in 
the counties palatine and other privileged jurisdictions. Evasions 
were punished by heavy fines. Even yet the remedies were still in- 
adequate. A judge might require bail too excessive for the prisoner 
to obtain, jailers might make a false return, and the provisions applied 
to criminal cases only. The first abuse was remedied by the Bill of 
Rights, the two latter by an act of 1816. 

The First Exclusion Bill (1679). The Whigs and Tories. — Charles 
ratified the Act in order to placate the Opposition, who were bent on 
excluding the Duke of York from the succession. A bill for that pur- 
pose passed the Commons, and he only prevented it from going to the 
Lords by proroguing Parliament, 27 May, 1679. That body did not 
meet again till the autumn of 1680. During the interval the struggle 
raged furiously. In general, Charles played a waiting game, hoping 
by repeated prorogations to keep Parliament in check or to drive the 
Opposition to violence. Petitions poured in from all parts of the coun- 
try, begging him to call Parliament. These were answered by coun- 
ter-petitions from his supporters, declaring their abhorrence of such 
petitions. The names " petitioners " and " abhorrers " came to be 
applied to the two great parties, who, however, soon received their 
more enduring names of " Whigs and Tories." l 

1 '" Whig" is thought to be a shortened form of " Whiggamore," a name applied 
to the Scotch covenanting party, from "Whiggam," the cry by which they en- 



382 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Second Exclusion Bill (1680). The Oxford Parliament (1681). — 

Truly these months were a " crazy time everywhere." The Duke of 
Monmouth, one of Charles's natural sons, a weak, erring young man 
as charming in manners as his reputed father, had gained some popu- 
larity by suppressing a Presbyterian rising in Scotland, and Shaftes- 
bury, disappointed of forcing Charles into a divorce and a Protestant 
marriage, aimed to prove that Monmouth was the legitimate fruit of 
a secret marriage, and thus to set him in place of the Duke of York 
as heir to the throne. When Parliament met, in October, a second 
Exclusion Bill was introduced. Passing the Commons, it was defeated, 
chiefly by the eloquence of Lord Halifax, who favored Charles's plan 
of a Catholic succession with limitations, whereupon, the Houses were 
prorogued, and finally dissolved, in January, 1681. The King's last 
Parliament met 21 March, 1681, at Oxford; for he dared not allow it 
to assemble in London. The Whigs, greatly in the majority and backed 
by bands of armed followers, were determined to force through their 
exclusion measure, and to set up a Protestant Association to govern 
the country under Monmouth. Charles, in order to secure his sup- 
porters against attack, had the road to Oxford lined with armed men 
and made other preparations for defense. Moreover, he secured an- 
other large grant from Louis, and, when the Opposition again re- 
fused to accept a bill of limitations, he put an end to the session after 
eight days, the members dispersing with " dreadful faces and loud 
sighs." Charles's waiting policy had been crowned with success, the 
Whigs had over-reached themselves by their own violence, and never 
again, while he lived, were they to recover their lost ascendancy. Their 
leaders kept up the struggle, but their following was a body of desperate 
agitators, not a popular political party. 

Flight and Death of Shaftesbury. The Royal Attack on the Munici- 
pal Corporations. — Loyal addresses came pouring in from all sides, 
couched in the most abject and fulsome language. The Tory doctrines 
of non-resistance and absolute devotion to absolutism now became all 
the more fashionable by way of reaction against the Whig notions 
which had dominated the last three Parliaments. Charles was now 
ready to assume the aggressive. The first blow was aimed against 
Shaftesbury, who was charged with plotting against the King and with 
attempting to set up a republic. Although the grand jury refused to 
bring in a true bill against him, the fiery popular leader, after a year of 
furious agitation and busy intrigues, fled to Holland in December, 1682, 

couraged their horses, though some derive it from a word meaning "sour whey." 
"Tory" originally meant an Irish outlaw. It was first applied by Oates to those 
who disbelieved in the Plot, and passed from them to the opponents of the Exclusion. 



FROM FALL OF CLARENDON TO DEATH OF CHARLES II 383 

where he died the following January. The Middlesex jury who had 
thus defied the royal will was appointed by the London sheriffs who, 
in their turn, were chosen by the City, where the Whig element remained 
strong. Accordingly, Charles, in order to revenge himself and at the 
same time to gain control of the government of London, had a writ of quo 
warranto brought in the King's Bench calling on the City to show why — 
by what warrant — it should not forfeit its charter, on the pretext that 
it had abused its privileges. In June, 1683, the judges rendered a de- 
cision that the charter should be forfeited. Nevertheless, it was pro- 
posed that the charter might be retained on certain conditions, the 
most important being that the election of the chief officials should be 
submitted for royal approval. When the City refused to submit to 
this arrangement, Charles proceeded to appoint men of his own choice. 
He next extended the attack against other municipalities. His ob- 
ject was not only to increase his supporters in influential centers, but, 
since many corporations chose the parliamentary members from their 
borough, to strengthen his party in the House of Commons in the event 
of another session. Some resisted, some surrendered voluntarily when 
suit was brought against them ; altogether, nearly seventy charters 
were forfeited or remodeled. Meantime, the Duke of York had re- 
sumed office in violation of the Test Act, and the persecution of Dis- 
senters had been resumed. 

The Triumph and Death of Charles (1685). — Charles was now tri- 
umphant. The country was prosperous and trade was flourishing; 
the furious partisanship of the Whigs, the dread of another rerolution, 
and the King's adroitness in giving up his Catholic designs and in 
playing his adversaries until they had risen to the bait had left 
him supreme. Yet he had won at a tremendous sacrifice. For the 
sake of French gold he had acquiesced tamely in Louis XIV's plans of 
ascendancy, which caused untold misery to generations to come. 
Happily he did not live to enjoy long the repose which he had so basely 
gained. He was stricken with apoplexy, 2 February, 1685, and only 
survived four days. Witty to the last, he apologized to those about 
him for being " such an unconscionable time in dying." In his last 
hours he was received into the Church of Rome. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Lodge; Trevelyan; Cambridge Modem History; Ranke; 
Lingard ; and Macaulay. 

Constitutional. Sir J. F. Stephen, History of the Criminal Law (3 vols., 
1883), I, 325 ff. for judicial procedure in the seventeenth century. 



384 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Biography. Lord John Russell, Life of William Lord Russell (4th ed., 
1853). Anonymous, Adventures of James II (1904), very sympathetic as 
regards James. 

Special. John Pollock, The Popish Plot (1903), the authority on the 
subject ; pt. IV deals with the procedure in the treason trials. 

Contemporary. J. S. Clarke, The Life of King James the Second, "col- 
lected out of memoirs writ of his own hand" (18 16). 

For further works relating to this chapter see Chapter XXXII, above. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 228-232. Robert- 
son, Select Statutes and Cases, pt. I, nos. X, XI, pt. II, nos. II- VII. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

* 

JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" (1685-1688) 

Strength of the Monarchy at the Accession of James, in 1685. — 

Charles, though lazy, dissipated, and unprincipled, was tactful and 
wary, and left his brother in a position of unusual strength. The Whig 
opposition was crushed and discouraged ; the municipal corporations 
were under royal control ; France stood in need of the friendship of 
the English King, while the Dutch, the Protestant princes of Ger- 
many, and Spain, the Empire, and the Papacy, all of whom dreaded 
French ascendancy, courted his alliance. Moreover, James, during 
the first few months of his reign, steadily strengthened his position : 
he obtained an ample grant from Parliament and, in order to face a 
rebellion which was easily suppressed, he secured a large standing 
army. Had he been content with the religious situation as Charles 
had left it, he. might have ruled long and successfully, but his rash am- 
bition to reestablish the Church of Rome alienated even the most 
devoted of his supporters, the Tory High Churchmen, drove them into 
the ranks of the opposition, and led to his overthrow. 

Personal Traits of the New King. — James was nearly fifty-two 
years old. 1 During twelve years of exile he had seen service both in 
the French and the Spanish armies. Then, and afterwards as a naval 
commander in the Dutch wars, he had shown himself to be brave and 
not without ability. Also, as Lord High Admiral, he had, in the 
teeth of great obstacles, proved an enlightened administrator, fond of 
details, and, for a man who lived at Court in those days, compara- 
tively free from vices of drunkenness and gambling. But here his 
virtues ended. He was dull and obstinate, ready to sacrifice every- 
thing for the advancement of his Church. Much of the cruelty 
charged to him may have been due to the agents whom he trusted, 
but a chief duty of rulers should be to choose worthy servants and up- 
right counselors ; James's failure to do this was a main cause for his 
downfall. 

1 He was born, 14 October, 1633. 
2 c 385 



386 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The First Measures of the Reign. — From his very accession, 6 
February, 1685, he celebrated mass with open doors, though he dis- 
armed the apprehension of the bulk of his subjects by declaring to 
the Council that he would make it his endeavor " to preserve the Gov- 
ernment in Church and State as it is by law established." Many 
Catholics and Quakers 1 were released from prison; but the penal 
laws were rigidly enforced against the bulk of the Dissenters. Gates, 
already under sentence of perjury, received a flogging from which it 
is a marvel that he survived.- In addition, he was sentenced to 
prison for life and to be pilloried five times a year. 

Parliament Meets and Grants James a Fixed Revenue. — Parlia- 
ment, which met 19 May, 1685, readily granted to James for life, 
the revenues of the late King, together with certain additional duties, 
which, added together, gave him about £1,900,000 a year, a sum which, 
considering that he was a thrifty Monarch, abundantly sufficed for 
his ordinary needs. Less pliable in religious matters, Parliament met 
the King's proposal to remove the tests excluding Catholics from office 
by insisting that the anti-Catholic laws be strictly enforced. Such 
was the situation when news came that Monmouth had landed on the 
south coast. Pausing only to pass an Act of Attainder against him 
and to set a price on his head, the Houses adjourned, July 2. 

The Exiles. Argyle lands in Scotland. Failure and Execution. — 
Following the final triumph of Charles, crowds of bitter-tempered 
exiles had fled to the Low Countries. Their hopes centered in Mon- 
mouth, who, until his father's death, had been content to shine as a 
social leader at the Hague. Next to him in importance was the Earl 
of Argyle, head of the great clan Campbell and son of the famous 
covenanting leader who had been executed after the Restoration. 
Egged on by the busy plotters, Monmouth and Argyle were induced to 
attempt simultaneous invasions of England and Scotland. Argyle, 
who started in May, finally reached the land of his own people on the 
west coast ; but, owing to dissensions, desertions, inadequate supplies, 
and lack of enthusiasm for the cause, he failed miserably. His forces 
were scattered, he himself was captured and taken to Edinburgh where, 
30 June, 1685, he was beheaded, meeting his fate with lofty resigna- 
tion. 

Monmouth's Rising and Its Failure (1685). — Meantime, 11 June, 
Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis. There, at the market cross, a 
Declaration was read which charged James with all manner of horrid 
and unlikely crimes — such as burning London, strangling Godfrey, 

1 They were persona grata with the Sovereign because passive resistance was 
one of the tenets of their religion. 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 387 

and poisoning his late brother — and stated that the young Duke had 
come to deliver the land from popery and tyranny and to submit 
his claims to a free and lawful Parliament. The peasants in the coun- 
try round about pressed eagerly to join him ; but the gentry held aloof. 
At Taunton, Monmouth, contrary to his promise, proclaimed himself 
King. He soon had to reckon with a royal army, composed partly 
of regular troops and partly of local militia, which encamped, 5 July, 
at Sedgemoor in the Somerset marshes. Here they easily repulsed a 
night attack and scattered the Duke's raw levies, fighting valiantly, 
but poorly mounted on cart-horses, and many of them armed only 
with scythes tied on poles. The battle of Sedgemoor was the last im- 
portant battle fought on English soil. Monmouth, who fled when 
he found the battle was going against him, was discovered two days 
later, hiding in a ditch, disguised as a shepherd. Although he pled 
abjectly for his life, it proved of no avail. He was beheaded 15 
July, 1685. Monmouth's popularity among the peasants of Somer- 
set and Dorset amounted to veneration. Refusing to believe that 
he was dead, they cherished for years the hope that he would re- 
appear to lead them. 

4t Kirke's Lambs " and Jeffreys' " Bloody Assize." — The venge- 
ance of James was swift and terrible. First, Colonel Kirke with his 
regiment of "Lambs " l butchered scores without trial, enriching 
himself, however, by sparing those from whom he could extort money. 2 
In the infamous " Bloody Assize," held by Judge Jeffreys in 
the autumn, more than 300 were hanged, drawn and quartered, and 
800 more were transported. For generations there were spots in the 
countryside that the natives would not pass after nightfall, from the 
gruesome memories preserved of bodies swinging in chains and of 
heads and quarters fixed on poles. During the trials, Jeffreys, who 
afterwards boasted that he had hanged more traitors than any of his 
predecessors since the Conquest, roared, swore and joked at the 
trembling victims in a way that made his name a terror for years to 
come. All that can be said for him is that he was only a degree worse 
than the typical judge of the century, and that, owing to a painful 
malady, he drank so heavily that he was scarcely ever sober. Some 
have tried to excuse James from responsibility for the acts of his brutal 
judges, but to those who appealed for mercy he showed himself harder 
than the marble chimneypiece in his audience chamber, and he not 
only rewarded Jeffreys with the Lord Chancellorship on his return 

1 So called from a device on their banner representing the Lamb of God. 

2 Of late the view has been gaining ground that the charges against Kirke may 
have been exaggerated. 



SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

from the West, but honored him with his fullest confidence through- 
out the reign. 

The Turning Point in the Reign. Foreign Relations. — In spite 
of the hatred smoldering in the west, the power of James seemed un- 
assailable. He had crushed and overawed those who dared to rise 
against him. The Church and the bulk of his subjects were still 
loyal, he had an adequate regular revenue, and a strong standing 
army. Nevertheless, the autumn of 1685 marked a decisive turn in 
the tide of his affairs. The situation abroad and the execution of Mon- 
mouth, followed by a long succession of follies, led to his downfall 
within the space of three years. His connection with Louis XIV was 
most unfortunate; for while he gave the French King no active 
assistance, he received subsidies from him and was popularly sup- 
posed, at home and abroad, to be a partner in the French King's de- 
signs of establishing an ascendancy on the Continent, bound to be 
stoutly resisted by Catholic as well as Protestant rulers. Not only 
was James hampered by an unpopular ally, but also, by putting Mon- 
mouth out of the way, he removed a great cause of dissension between 
his opponents, some of whom supported the late Duke as the suc- 
cessor to the English throne. Now all parties united for William 
of Orange. So, when James began to make it clear that he was bent 
on reintroducing Catholicism into England, the ground was prepared 
for an irresistible conbination — European and English — against 
him. Such being the situation, it was most unfortunate for the pros- 
pects of James that Louis, in October, 1685, revoked the Edict of 
Nantes, which, in theory at least, had protected his Huguenot sub- 
jects for over a century. Many of them took refuge in England, and 
the tales they told revived the terror which had somewhat subsided 
after the discrediting of Oates and his gang. What Louis had done 
in France James might do in England. 

James Breaks with his Parliament (November, 1685). — It was at 
this unfortunate juncture that James began to show his hand. He 
had three measures which he was determined to put through : to 
maintain intact the standing army, which had been increased from 
6000 to 20,000 in consequence of Monmouth's rising; to obtain the 
repeal of the Test Act, for the purpose of retaining a number of Catho- 
lics who already held office in the army and to make it possible to put 
others in military and civil positions ; and, finally, to repeal the Habeas 
Corpus Act, which prevented him from dealing summarily with those 
who were disposed to resist his authority. Parliament, which met 9 
November, vigorously opposed these projects. This so angered the 
King that he prorogued the Houses before they had passed a money 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 389 

bill to pay for the expenses incurred in suppressing the recent insur- 
rection. He also dismissed from office many who had voted against 
his measures. Parliament never met again during the reign. 

James's New Counselors. — The chief power soon fell into the hands 
of Lord Sunderland. While, perhaps, not so black as he is usually 
painted, he was inordinately ambitious, never hesitating to change 
his politics or his religion whenever he thought he saw a chance to 
advance his interests. Though he did not profess himself a Roman 
Catholic till the summer of 1688, he attached himself, not long after 
James broke with Parliament, to a small group of extremists whose 
policy was decidedly French and Jesuit. Among them were Father 
Petre and Richard Talbot, the latter commonly known as " lying 
Dick Talbot," a crafty intriguer who masqueraded as a jovial roisterer. 
The ill-advised designs of those men and a few more who joined with 
them, were a source of grave apprehension to the moderate Roman 
Catholics, especially to the nuncio and the vicar apostolic whom the 
Pope had sent over to restrain the zeal of James, and to counter- 
act the intrigues of France. 

The Case of Sir Edward Hales (June, 1686). — James awakened 
concern by one rash act after another. Since Parliament had refused 
to sanction the repeal of the Test Act, he determined to render it 
void by filling offices in spite of its restrictions. However, in order 
to give his procedure a show of legality in the eyes of subjects, he de- 
cided to extort from the judges a decision in his favor. Four who re- 
fused to do his bidding were replaced by others more pliant. To bring 
the case before the courts, the coachman of Sir Edward Hales was 
employed to start suit against his master for holding a commission 
in the army, contrary to the Test Act. Eleven of the twelve judges 
decided that, notwithstanding the provisions of the Act, he was en- 
titled by a royal authorization to hold office. Thus fortified, James, 
in July, admitted four Roman Catholics to the Privy Council. More 
startling still, he proceeded to invade the two strongholds of Angli- 
canism, the Church and the Universities. He issued dispensations 
enabling Roman Catholics to hold ecclesiastical benefices, he ap- 
pointed to the Bishopric of Oxford one who was a Roman Catholic 
at heart, and made a professed Romanist Dean of Christ Church ; 
moreover, Jesuit chaplains were introduced at University College, 
where they set up a press for printing controversial pamphlets. 

The Court of Ecclesiastical Commission (July, 1686). — It was 
necessary, if the King was to control the Church, to have a means 
of punishing those who refused to obey him. To that end, he revived 
what was in substance the Court of High Commission, which had been 



390 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

abolished by the Long Parliament and which had not been restored 
at the Restoration. James called his body the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
sion, and insisted that it differed from the tribunal suppressed by 
Parliament, in that its jurisdiction was confined to the clergy. The 
first work of the Commission was to deprive Henry Compton, Bishop 
of London, of the administration of his See, because he had refused 
to suspend the Dean of Norwich, who had preached against a royal 
proclamation aimed to silence controversial sermons denouncing 
" Popery." 

Popular Excitement and Opposition. — By virtue of a wholesale 
issue of dispensations, Roman Catholic chapels were set up all over 
the country, and a church and school for Jesuits was installed at the 
Savoy Palace. In November, 1686, the new Royal Chapel was 
opened at Whitehall " with a world of mysterious ceremony." Monks 
and friars in their religious garb appeared again in the streets of 
London, and so alarmed and enraged the people that riots were of fre- 
quent occurrence. In order to overawe the unquiet, 13,000 men of 
the standing army were quartered on Hounslow Heath ; but the camp 
became a great resort for Londoners, who flocked there on Sundays, 
and the soldiers came to share more and more in the sentiments of 
the citizens. From the pulpits throughout the land sermons were 
preached against " Popery," while floods of pamphlets defending the 
Protestant faith issued from the press. In spite of the growing op- 
position and of the reproaches even of the Pope and the moderate 
Roman Catholics, the King went on stubbornly, and the situation 
grew more and more tense. 

The Situation in Scotland under Charles II. — In Scotland, too, 
there was grave discontent. The Restoration had been welcomed 
because of aversion to Cromwell's military rule and the domination 
of Presbyterians. Yet the result had been disappointment. The 
Scots had changed governors, but arbitrary government continued 
in a form more cruel and oppressive than ever before and became 
corrupt as well. The Presbyterians were kept down rigidly and the 
Episcopalians were mere creatures of the Government. Trade and 
commerce, too, suffered because of the Dutch wars and the abolition 
of the free trade existing under the Commonwealth and the Pro- 
tectorate. By an Act passed in 1663, known as the " Bishops' Drag- 
net," heavy fines were imposed on all who did not attend the parish 
church. Those who remained obdurate, and they were mainly cen- 
tered in the southwestern counties, suffered cruelly at the hands of 
the King's dragoons, who were quartered in their houses and who ruth- 
lessly searched out and broke up their " field conventicles." A 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 391 

rising of some of the more desperate in 1666 only resulted in harsher 
measures of repression. After a bloody carnival of execution and 
torture, milder measures were tried, but when, in consequence, con- 
venticles began to multiply again, the authorities reverted to a policy 
of systematic coercion. 

The Rising of the Covenanters (1679). — A crisis came in the year 
1679 with the murder of Archbishop Sharp, whom the Presbyterians 
detested as a treacherous deserter from their cause, and as a blood- 
thirsty persecutor. Then followed another revolt which was only 
crushed with the defeat of the insurgents at Bothwell Bridge, 22 June. 
In December, the Duke of York was sent to Scotland to govern the 
country, and, during the period of his regime, there began a policy of 
suppression which ultimately alienated the mass of Scotsmen from 
his cause. His military agent, John Graham of Claverhouse, who at 
first was occupied mainly against the fanatical extremists in the south- 
west, gained the name of " bloody Clavers," though modern writers 
are inclined to think the charges against him have been exaggerated. 

Scotland in the Reign of James II. — The accession of James was 
marked by even greater severity against the Covenanters than had 
been employed under Charles II. Not content with renewing the 
law which made the taking of the Covenant treason, the Estates 
slavishly passed an Act providing that all persons, preachers or hearers, 
proved to have been present at a Conventicle were to be punished 
with death and confiscation. When, however, the King sent them a 
letter recommending the repeal of the penal laws against " his inno- 
cent subjects, those of the Roman Catholic religion," they returned 
such a hesitant answer that he closed the session, and proceeded to 
carry out his policy by means of the Privy Council : he annulled the 
tests, he allowed Roman Catholics to worship in public, and removed 
from office those who opposed his will. This aroused such a storm that 
he, forthwith, issued letters of indulgence allowing to Presbyterians 
the same privileges which he had accorded to Roman Catholics. In- 
stead, however, of increasing his supporters and allaying dissatis- 
faction, as he had hoped, the measure was fatal for James's power in 
Scotland: for it led to the return of many Presbyterian preachers 
of the extremer sort who organized an opposition which expelled 
him from the throne of Scotland. 

James's Irish Policy. — In Ireland, where there was a Roman 
Catholic majority, the aims of the King were more far-reaching. 
He designed to make the old faith dominant and to employ the Irish 
as an instrument in his efforts to bring about the conversion of the 
two neighboring Kingdoms, and he had good ground on which to work. 



392 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

To be sure, in spite of the restrictions on the wool trade and the 
cattle export, the country had prospered since the Restoration; for 
the restrictions had not been enforced, while the linen industry had 
flourished. But the trade shackles were galling; the Episcopal 
Church had power and revenues in inverse proportion to its size, and 
the bulk of the land, as well as the political power, lay in the hands 
of the English and Scotch colonists. The native Irish yearned to 
recover the possessions of which they had been deprived, and the 
Catholic extremists aimed at ascendancy. Irish affairs were in the 
hands of the Commander of the army, Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyr- 
connel, who was made Lord Lieutenant in 1687. 

The First Declaration of Indulgence (4 April, 1687). — In Eng- 
land, James, finding after preliminary examinations, or "closetings," 
that there was little prospect of securing a Parliament that would 
support his cherished policy of repealing the tests and the penal 
laws, determined to proceed on his own authority. So, April, 1687, 
he published a Declaration of Indulgence granting to all his subjects 
the free exercise of their religion, suspending the execution of all 
penal laws in matters ecclesiastical, and removing all oaths and tests 
for the holding of military and civil offices. The High Church Tories, 
struck with amazement and terror, thereupon began to make overtures 
to their old enemies, the Dissenters. All they could offer, however, 
was remote and uncertain, while the relief tendered by James was 
immediate. On the other hand, his proffered relief was not only un- 
sanctioned by Parliament but coupled with concessions to the Roman 
Catholics. The result was a split in the Nonconformist ranks. A 
minority accepted gratefully. 1 The majority, including such men as 
Baxter and Bunyan, stoutly refused. 

Dykevelt's Mission to England (1687). — It was about this time 
that many began seriously to look to William of Orange as their cham- 
pion against James and Roman Catholicism. Chosen by the Dutch 
to be Commander-in-Chief and Stadholder in the critical year 1672, 
his guiding aim was to check the growth of France in order to pre- 
serve the liberties of his people, and his main reason for desiring the 
crown of England was that he might secure English resources to aid 
him in his great work. Hitherto, he had held aloof from English 
politics, but now while not yet ready to strike, he undertook to pre- 
pare the way for a possible intervention by sending an envoy, Dyke- 
velt, under the cover of a special mission to the English Government, 
to sound the opposition leaders. Dykevelt, during his brief stay, 

1 The King's chief agent in attaching them to his cause was William Penn, a 
sincere, if somewhat ill-advised, advocate of toleration. 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 393 

strove busily to ingratiate himself with all classes. He assured 
High Churchmen of his master's friendship for Episcopacy and the 
Book of Common Prayer ; he held out to Nonconformists the pros- 
pect of toleration and comprehension ; and to Roman Catholics the 
repeal of the penal laws. 

The Royal Attack on the Universities. — James, on the other 
hand, was continually making enemies for himself. One of the rash- 
est steps in his headlong course he took when he ventured to attack 
the Universities, who were traditionally as hostile to Roman Cathol- 
icism as they were devoted to Monarchy. While Cambridge did 
not escape the inroads of his Romanizing aggression, the bitterest 
struggle was waged at Oxford, where James insisted upon putting in a 
candidate of his own as President of Magdalen College. When the 
Fellows, to whom the right of election belonged, refused to admit 
the legality of the proceeding, they were ejected, September, 1687, 
and declared incapable of holding any ecclesiastical benefice, while 
Magdalen was for a brief period turned into a Roman Catholic semi- 
nary. Oxford was thrown into a state of defiant excitement, and 
subscriptions were raised all over the country for the victims of the 
royal wrath. 

James's Attempt to Pack a Parliament (1 687-1 688). — Realizing that 
the existing Parliament was unalterably opposed to his policy, James 
had finally dissolved it in July, 1687. 1 Nevertheless, since he still de- 
sired to secure parliamentary sanction of his abrogation of the tests 
and the penal laws, he made preparations to pack a body pledged to do 
his will. With that end in view, he caused the municipal corporations 
to be again remodeled ; for the High Church Tories put in by Charles 
opposed his policy. He appointed sheriffs from his own creatures, 
and he ordered the Lords Lieutenants to question the magistrates of 
their respective counties as to how they would act in the event of a gen- 
eral election. In some places he even went so far as to quarter troops. 
Promises of support, with the alternative of dismissal, were also exacted 
from officials in all the public departments. One poor customs house 
officer declared that he obeyed for fourteen reasons, a wife and thir- 
teen young children. In general, however, the result was most dis- 
couraging to James ; nearly hah theLords Lieutenants refused to carry 
out the royal orders and had to be dismissed, while the great majority 
of those questioned would give no further assurance than that, if 
elected, they would obey their conscientious convictions, or if voters, 
would cast their ballots only for men whose views agreed with 
their own. 

1 It had never met since the autumn session of 1685. 



394 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Second Declaration of Indulgence and the Protest of the Seven 
Bishops (April-May, 1688). — On 27 April, 1688, James reissued his 
Declaration of Indulgence, and followed it by an Order in Council, 
published 7 May, commanding the clergy to read the Declaration on 
two successive Sundays and directing the bishops to distribute copies 
throughout their dioceses. By way of reply, Archbishop Sancroft 
called a meeting at Lambeth Palace on the evening of 18 May, where 
he drew up a petition, in which it was declared, with great professions 
of loyalty, that the Declaration was illegal and that the petitioners 
could not be parties to its public reading during divine service. It was 
signed by the Archbishop and six of the assembled Bishops, after which 
the six Bishops crossed the Thames and delivered it to the King at 
Whitehall. James was furious. " This is a standard of rebellion," he 
cried, and repeated the phrase over and over again, while the Bishops 
protested that they were no rebels. That night the petition was 
printed, and circulated rapidly throughout the city and country. How 
it happened no one knows ; for the audience with the King was private. 
The excitement grew in intensity, and, when Sunday came, the Decla- 
ration was read in only four of the hundred churches in and about 
London. By the following Sunday a few more clergymen had been 
whipped into line ; but in most cases the congregation got up and left 
to avoid hearing the hated Declaration. Although Sunderland recom- 
mended moderation, the King, on the advice of Jeffreys, ordered the 
Bishops to be tried for libel. Meanwhile, they were committed 
to the Tower. As they passed down the Thames, crowds in boats 
thronged the river, and others ran along the banks crying : " God 
bless your lordships." Even the soldiers who conducted the 
prisoners asked their blessing, while those off duty drank their 
healths. 

The Birth of the Prince (10 June, 1688). — On Sunday, 10 June, 
while they still awaited their trial, a son was born to King James. This 
contributed more than any other single event to precipitate the crisis 
soon to follow, for, hitherto, many had consoled themselves with the 
thought that James's daughter and heir Mary was a Protestant. Now 
the prospect of an endless Roman Catholic succession suddenly loomed 
up. A story was at once started that no child had been born to the 
Queen, but that the little Prince, now proclaimed as such, had been 
secretly introduced into the Queen's chamber and passed of! as the 
royal heir. While the tale was generally believed, there is little doubt 
that that charge of trickery was absolutely baseless. However that 
may be, the popular leaders now made up their minds, when a fitting 
moment came, to send for William of Orange. 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 395 

The Trial of the Seven Bishops (June, 1688). — When the day fixed 
for the trial of the Seven Bishops arrived, the excitement had spread 
everywhere from Scotland to Cornwall. They were charged with 
having produced " a false, malicious, and seditious libel." Fortu- 
nately for the cause of liberty, their counsel were forced to abandon 
technicalities, and proceeded to prove that the paper in question was 
not false, malicious, nor a libel, but a respectful petition setting forth 
facts known to be true, and delivered privately into the hands of the 
King with no intention of stirring up strife. The jury remained closeted 
from nightfall until six o'clock the next morning before they reached 
an agreement. As they left the court after their verdict of acquittal 
had been announced, the people surged around them, crying : " God 
bless you! " " You have saved us all to-day." The city and the 
country, as the news spread, rang with shouts of joy. Even the soldiers 
in Hounslow Heath cheered lustily. The Opposition had won a great 
victory on the broad constitutional grounds that James's exercise of 
the dispensing power was illegal, and that his subjects had the right 
of petition against it. 

The Invitation to William (30 June, 1688). — All distinctions of 
politics and religious were, for the time being, merged in a general 
combination against the King. Many, even of the High Church 
clergy, who during their supremacy, had argued that the laws of God 
as well as the laws of man demanded unquestioning obedience to the 
civil authority, were now ready to contend: " that extreme oppres- 
sion might justify resistance . . . and the oppression which the nation 
suffered was extreme." Others, who shuddered at the notion of active 
resistance, were ready to go as far as passive resistance, asserting, that 
in view of his late acts, they were not bound to obey the King. Such 
was the state of the public mind when, 30 June, 1688, the day of the 
acquittal of the Seven Bishops, a letter signed by seven of the leaders 
of both parties was sent to William of Orange, inviting him to Eng- 
land and assuring him that nineteen twentieths of the people would 
rally to his support and that the army of James was full of disaffection. 

William's Declaration. — William, however, realized that the under- 
taking bristled with difficulties. If he crossed the Channel as the 
champion of Protestantism, the Catholic powers of the Continent 
might turn against him. However, he was able to reassure them by 
emphasizing the danger of an Anglo-French ascendancy. With regard 
to England, if he landed without an army he was very likely to meet the 
fate of Monmouth. On the other hand, English patriotism might re- 
sent an invasion of foreign troops. Concluding that the latter was the 
less serious danger, he prepared an army and a fleet. In order to pre- 



396 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

pare the way for his coming, he caused a Declaration to be published 
in which he rehearsed James's violation of the fundamental laws, his 
favor to Roman Catholics and his oppression of Protestants. Dis- 
claiming any thought of conquest, he declared that he was going to 
submit the issues at stake to a full and free Parliament. 

James's Belated Concessions. — James, awaking at last to the gravity 
of the crisis, made a belated effort to conciliate the Tories who had 
once been so devoted to him. In the last weeks of September, 1688, 
he reversed one after another of his late unpopular acts : he reinstated 
Bishop Compton, abolished the Ecclesiastical Commission, and agreed 
to restore the forfeited municipal charters, as well as the Lord Lieu- 
tenants and various magistrates whom he had dismissed. It was 
felt, however, that these belated concessions were only drawn from 
him by the impending danger, while, even yet, he refused to give up 
his dispensing power or to remove his Catholic supporters from mili- 
tary and civil office. 1 

William's Landing at Torbay (5 November, 1688). — William, having 
been delayed (or days by adverse weather, at length succeeded in land- 
ing, 5 November, at Torbay, on the coast of Devonshire. From Torbay 
he marched to Exeter, which he selected for his first headquarters. 
Although the magistrates tried to close the gates against him, crowds 
flocked to welcome him as a deliverer. James hastened to Salisbury, 
whither he had sent his army to face the invaders. On his arrival, 
he found the situation most discouraging ; for, heartened by the de- 
fection of men in higher station, the western counties had risen, and 
the gentry who had joined William at Exeter had bound themselves 
together in a formal organization to secure their liberties and religion. 
The North, too, was up in arms. James, in order to stem the tide, was 
keen for bringing on an engagement at once ; but he was suddenly 
taken with a hemorrhage of the nose which kept him inactive for three 
days. When he recovered, he was so disheartened by rumors of trea- 
son among his officers that he decided to retreat. The flight of John 
Churchill, his most efficient general, was a crushing blow, all the more 
so, because Churchill's wife, an ambitious intriguer, had the King's 
second daughter, Princess Anne, under absolute control. The re- 
treat and the constant desertions demoralized the army. Fearing 
for his capital, James hastened back to London, where he found that 
Anne herself had already fled from Whitehall. " God help me," 
cried the unhappy Monarch, " my own children have forsaken 
me." 

1 Yet very wisely he did get rid of Sunderland, who, in spite of his brazen as- 
surances, was suspected of treasonable correspondence with the invaders. 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 397 

The Flight of James (11 December, 1688). — In his extremity, James 
issued writs for a Parliament to meet 13 January, 1689. Also he ap- 
pointed a commission of three to treat with William, in the meanwhile, 
and issued a proclamation granting full pardon to all who were in arms 
against him. This was merely to gain time. Already he had made 
up his mind to escape, and hastily made preparations for flight. His 
first care was to send the Queen and the little Prince safely out of the coun- 
t ry ; after this he annulled the writs for the promised Parliament , destroy- 
ing those which had not yet been sent out. On the morning of 11 
December he rose at three o'clock, was rowed a short distance down the 
Thames in a wherry , dropping the Great Seal in the river as he proceeded, 
and boarded a hoy which he had engaged to transport him to France. 

His Capture and Second Flight. — The news of his flight aroused a 
storm of excitement, and, that night, lawlessness broke loose. Roman 
Catholic chapels were sacked and burned, private houses were attacked, 
and the residences of foreign ambassadors even were not spared. 
Suddenly, in the midst of the confusion, the rumor spread that James 
had been caught by a band of fishermen in search of plunder and escap- 
ing Jesuits. William was grievously disappointed; but he quickly 
made up his mind that, without making it too evident, a second chance 
to escape must be pressed upon James. So he was removed from 
Whitehall, whither he had been taken, to Rochester. There the house 
in which he lodged was left unguarded in the rear so that he was able 
to slip out through the garden to the banks of the Medway. Thence 
he was rowed down the river in a skiff until he found a fishing smack 
which conveyed him to France. Louis XIV received both James and 
his Queen with great ceremony and hospitality, lodged them at St. 
Germain and provided them with an ample revenue, vowing that ere 
long he would restore them to their throne. 

William's Arrival in London (18 December, 1688). — William, on 
his arrival in London, was waited on by numerous deputations. 
Though some extremists pressed him to declare himself King forth- 
with, William remained true to the promise in his Declaration to settle 
the government in a parliamentary way. As a preliminary step he 
summoned the lords spiritual and temporal, the members who had 
sat in the House of Commons in the reign of Charles II, 1 and a deputa- 
tion of the London magistrates. This body advised William to assume 
the provisional government and to call a convention to effect a per- 
manent arrangement. 

1 The members from the first and only Parliament of James were excluded be- 
cause the remodeling of the corporations had interfered with the free choice of 
the electors. 



398 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Convention and the Settlement of the Succession. — The Con- 
vention, which met 22 January, 1689, framed, after some discussion, 
a resolution declaring : " that King James, having endeavored to 
subvert the Constitution of the Kingdom by breaking the original con- 
tract between King and People, and, by the advice of Jesuits and 
other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and hav- 
ing withdrawn himself out of the Kingdom, had abdicated the Govern- 
ment and that the Throne had thereby become vacant." This clumsy 
and illogical resolution was adroitly designed to suit all parties : the 
reference to the original contract was framed for the Whigs, who be- 
lieved that the Government was a contract between the King and his 
subjects, and that a Sovereign who broke the contract by the abuse of 
power could be deposed; the reflection on the Jesuits was for the extreme 
Protestants ; and the assertion regarding the abdication, for those Tories 
who held that subjects had no right to depose their Sovereign. When 
the resolution was finally adopted after a long, hot debate, it was 
decided that William and Mary should be joint sovereigns with the 
administration in the hands of William. 

The Declaration of Right. — Next it was necessary to determine 
the conditions upon which the crown should be conferred. The result 
was the Declaration of Right, which, like its two great predecessors 1 
deals not with vague general principles, but more particularly with 
actual grievances of the last two reigns, which are to be safeguarded 
against for the future. After enumerating the recent attacks made by 
James on the Protestant religion and the laws and liberties of the King- 
dom, it declared : that the pretended power of suspending laws and 
of dispensing as it has been exercised of late, that the court of Eccle- 
siastical Commission and other courts of a like nature, that levying 
money without consent of Parliament, were all illegal ; that it was the 
right of subjects to petition the King, and that all prosecutions for such 
petitioning were illegal ; that maintaining a standing army, except by 
consent of Parliament, was illegal ; that election of members to Par- 
liament ought to be free ; that freedom of speech, debate or proceed- 
ings in Parliament ought not to be impeached in any court or place 
outside the two Houses ; that excessive bail ought not to be required, 
nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments in- 
flicted ; that jurors in cases of high treason ought to be freeholders ; 
and that, for amending and preserving the laws, Parliaments should 
be held frequently. The Declaration concluded by settling the crown 
upon William and Mary, and upon the heirs of Mary, Anne and William 
respectively. Mary arrived from Holland, 12 February, and the new 

1 The other two being Magna Carta (1215) and the Petition of Right (1628). 



JAMES II AND THE "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" 399 

Sovereigns were proclaimed 13 February, 1689, in the presence of shout- 
ing crowds. 

The Peculiar Character of the Revolution of 1688. — Thus ended 
the " Glorious Revolution." Although, so far as possible, every ancient 
form had been complied with, it was, from the strictly legal standpoint, 
a real revolution. The Convention which settled the crown on William 
and Mary was not properly a Parliament, for it had been summoned 
by no royal authority. To be sure, the new Sovereigns later declared 
it a legal body ; but since they were its creatures, their assertion could 
not make it such. Nevertheless, defective as were its proceedings 
when viewed in a purely legal light, the Revolution can be justified, 
both from the issues at stake and from the moderation with which the 
movement was conducted. Macaulay, in his classic work on this 
period, has pointed out that it was a " preserving " not a " destroying " 
revolution, in which all parties joined — Whig and Tory, Churchmen 
and Dissenters — to preserve the fruits of the Reformation and the 
Puritan Revolution, to maintain Protestantism, the supremacy of 
Parliament and the freedom of the subject. The fundamental laws 
were not changed but defined and secured ; the old line of Kings, how- 
ever, was set aside, and thus a final blow was struck at the theory of 
Divine Right. Never since the expulsion of James II has there been 
a revolution in England. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Macaulay, History of England, in spite of its obvious faults, 
remains the classic treatment of the subject. Sir James Mackintosh, Re- 
view of the Causes of the Revolution of 1688 (1834) contains a large collection 
of documents in the appendix. 

Biography. Viscount Wolseley, Life of Marlborough (vols. I, II, 1894), 
an apology for Marlborough, left uncompleted at 1702. 
, For further references see Chapters XXXII, XXXIII above. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 233-234. Robert- 
son, Select Statutes, pt. II, 1103. VIII, IX. 



CHAPTER XXXV 

PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND v' . 

Characteristics of Seventeenth-century England. — The period 
from 1603 to 1688 is crowded with incident and notable achieve- 
ment. It opened with a struggle of Parliament against the attempt 
of the first Stuart to maintain and strengthen the Tudor absolutism 
in Church and State, a struggle which culminated in civil war result- 
ing in the defeat and execution of a King, the temporary overthrow 
of Monarchy and Episcopacy, and the establishment of a republic. 
The experiment proved premature, and was followed by the restora- 
tion, both of the Stuarts and the Established Church. Nevertheless, 
the Puritan Revolution had not been in vain ; henceforth, in spite of 
occasional reassertions of absolutism, Parliament became, more and 
more, the supreme power in the State, while Dissent not only sur- 
vived and flourished, but obtained, before the close of the century, 
a substantial if imperfect legal recognition. The party system began 
to take shape and distinct gains were made in law reform. A stand- 
ing army was established, while the navy grew and obtained a really 
effective organization. Long strides were taken in the direction of 
commercial and colonial ascendancy. Manufactures became more 
varied and wealth increased, together with new comforts and lux- 
uries. Coal was introduced in place of charcoal ; tea and coffee ap- 
peared ; travel and communication were fostered by coaches and 
packet boats, and amusements multiplied. The newspaper came into 
being, and the spread of printing, together with the growth of the 
party system, resulted in myriads of caricatures and satires. There 
was a striking development in political and economic thinking, as 
well as in religious and philosophical speculations. Literature, 
while not reaching the heights of the wonderful Elizabethan Age, 
was interesting and varied, manifesting new and striking tendencies. 
Mathematical, physical and physiological sciences showed a marked 
advance. Such are some of the features of this complex and throb- 
bing age. 

400 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 401 

Regulation of Trade and Manufactures under James I and Charles I. 

— While the monopolies and privileged companies fostered by James 
I and Charles I have been severely attacked, there is little doubt that 
both these Monarchs aimed, in some degree at least, to regulate the 
economic life of the nation in the interests of the whole, to main- 
tain high standards of production and to keep the subject employed 
as well. Such national regulation, however, was difficult to enforce 
effectively and impartially, while, moreover, the Stuarts mingled 
with their zeal for the public welfare a tendency toward favoritism 
and a proneness to utilize their grants as sources of revenue. Thus 
the system tended to abuse of privilege, to the curbing of healthy 
competition, and to the discouragement of those outside the pale. 
Men of ability and enterprise were excluded from trade, especially 
with foreign markets, or joined the ranks of the interlopers. 

Industrial Situation under the First Two Stuarts. — Neverthe- 
less, the period was one of material progress rather than decline. 
Foreign refugees nocked to the country, the population increased, 
old industries developed and new ones were introduced, though, under 
a freer system than that of company control, there might have been a 
far greater advance. The silk manufacture began to nourish, yet to 
nothing like the extent noticeable after the influx of French Hugue- 
nots which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. 
The cutlers of Sheffield had been incorporated in 1624, but what is 
now a city cf half a million and the chief center of the cutlery in- 
dustry of the world, was then the possession of a manorial lord who 
leased the furnaces to the manufacturers. The total population 
scarcely exceeded two thousand, a third of whom were dependent on 
charity. There was a great opposition to the smelting of iron ore be- 
cause of the enormous quantities of charcoal required, which exhausted 
the forests and threatened the supply of timber for shipbuilding. 
Although one Dud Dudley devised and patented a successful process, 
his efforts were frustrated by rivals, and little was done toward apply- 
ing the method of smelting till the following century. Coal, which 
was beginning to be employed extensively for fuel in London, was 
brought by boat from Newcastle and hence was known as sea coal. 
The wool trade was practically stationary until after the Restora- 
tion. In order to encourage the home consumption an Act was 
passed for burying in wool ; nevertheless, there was complaint 
that many persisted " in adorning their deceased friend's corpse 
with fine linen, lace, etc., though so contrary to our own true 
national interest." In spite of the opposition of the wool interests, 
calicoes, chintzes, and muslins were imported from India, while in 

2D 



402 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

1676, Flemish immigrants introduced the art of calico printing into 
England. 

The Period of the Civil War, the Commonwealth and the Pro- 
tectorate. — The Civil War and the disorders that followed naturally 
interrupted trade, yet less than might be expected. The return of 
the Jews under Cromwell gave considerable impulse to business, 
and the protests of London merchants against them were based, ap- 
parently, rather upon commercial jealousy than religious intolerance. 
Although the judges decided that the law did not permit them to live 
in England, Cromwell admitted them on his own authority. Charles 
II, who refused to reverse the Protector's policy, allowed them to open 
a synagogue in London. 

Trade during the Restoration. — Systematic supervision of trade 
and industry on the part of the Sovereign, which ceased with the 
personal government of Charles I, was not revived at the Restoration. 
Henceforth, commercial regulation belonged largely to Parliament. 
Some new companies were founded ; but, in general, encouragement 
took the form of tariffs and bounties rather than special privileges 
to " particular groups " of subjects. The cessation of rigid super- 
vision led to some falling off in the quality of goods ; but that was 
counterbalanced, to some degree, by competition and the use of 
trade marks. On the other hand, there was a general increase in 
trade, especially the carrying trade. The Navigation Acts were only 
partly responsible ; for they were not vigorously enforced, nor were 
the Dutch outstripped by the English until they had been exhausted 
by the wars of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. 
Many other factors account for the great colonial and commer- 
cial expansion of the post-Restoration period. Charles' marriage 
brought to the country Bombay, together with increased facilities 
of trade with the other Portuguese possessions. Spain granted to 
England the privileges of the most favored nations ; also, treaties 
were made to protect the Levant trade from Turkish pirates, and, 
though humbling to national pride, proved effective. 

Colonial Expansion. — The Elizabethan Age was one of discovery 
and exploration ; the Stuart period marked the beginning of colo- 
nization. Although the Dutch still overshadowed the English in 
the East, notable steps in advance were taken. In the reign of James 
I, the Persian trade was first " enterprised " by English merchants, 
and a commercial treaty with the Great Mogul extended English 
commerce in India, while, before the close of the century, the East 
India Company was securely established at Bombay, Calcutta, and 
Madras, and the Royal Africa Company had flourishing possessions 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND * 403 

on the Gold Coast and at other points on the Continent of Africa. 
In America, several of the West India Islands were acquired, and all 
but one of the thirteen American colonies l were established. While 
Spain and Portugal were mainly concerned with the search for pre- 
cious metals, and while the French devoted themselves to founding 
trading posts and missionary stations, the English, if not free from 
delusions of their time, were the first to establish the policy of home 
building in the New World. 

Agriculture under the First Two Stuarts. — Under the Stuarts 
the agricultural progress, so marked during the reign of Elizabeth, 
promised to continue. The rise in prices, due to the increase of pre- 
cious metals and the growing demand for food, had intervened to check 
the turning of arable land into sheep pasture, and, with the prospect 
of increasing profits from corn and meat, renewed energy was de- 
voted to improving conditions of tillage and reclaiming waste lands. 
The efforts of cultivators were quickened and guided by resourceful 
writers on agriculture, who suggested more scientific care of cattle and 
poultry as well as improved methods of treating the soil. Much was 
learned from the Italians about irrigation and the utilization of water 
meadows. Rotation of crops by the planting of turnips and clover 
was urged as a substitute for fallow 2 ; potatoes and carrots began to 
be cultivated, and increasing attention was paid to orchards and 
gardens. It was in this period that the task of draining the fens 
in the Eastern Counties was first seriously indertaken, though since 
Roman times, occasional attempts at reclamation had been made, 
especially by the monks who lived on the islands dotting the watery 
and boggy expanse. The enterprise was interrupted during the 
Civil War and, while resumed during the Commonwealth, met with 
various set-backs. Some of the work was badly done by " mounte- 
bank engineers, idle practitioners, and slothful impatient slubberers," 
though the greatest difficulty came from the " riotous letts and dis- 
turbances " of the natives, who received no compensation for their 
rights of turf cutting, fowling, fishing, hunting and pasture, and it 
was not till after the lapse of a century and more that the results of 
their destruction were repaired. 

The Period of the Civil Wars and the Restoration. — The agri- 
cultural progress of the first forty years of the century was checked, 

1 Georgia in 1733. 

2 Apparently first introduced in the reign of James I from the Palatinate ; turnips 
had the additional advantage that they could be used to feed cattle over the winter. 
Formerly most of the live stock had been killed and salted. But turnips and clover 
did not come into general use until the eighteenth century. 



4 04 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

to a large degree, by the war. The period of the Commonwealth 
and the Protectorate was marked by a revival, to which Cromwell con- 
tributed by his enlightened support. Another period of stagnation set 
in under Charles II. Many facts beside the blighting effects of the 
war explain why the early promise of the century was not fulfilled. 
For one thing, most of the writers who urged wise and necessary im- 
provements proved to be failures in practice, so that their example 
did not inspire confidence. Then the system of common tillage and 
open fields, which, in spite of the enclosure movement, still survived 
in large parts of the country, was an obstacle to individual enter- 
prise. Moreover, the Cavalier estates had been heavily embarrassed 
by the sequestrations and other exactions from which they had suf- 
fered during the Civil War, while those of the other party who had 
acquired their lands were uncertain of their tenure after the Restora- 
tion. Landlords were unprogressive, grasping, and niggardly in ad- 
vancing capital, tenants were discouraged from making improvements 
when the only prospect was increased rent or eviction in the interest 
of the landlord or of some one who would offer a higher bid. Then 
roads were bad and canals as yet non-existent, so that new ideas spread 
slowly, and the producer was as yet limited to local markets. The 
great development in agriculture was not to come for almost a cen- 
tury. 

Roads and Travel. — Traveling was not only difficult but dan- 
gerous. On dark, moonless nights the traveler stood in grave danger 
of losing his way in the unenclosed heaths and fens that, in many 
parts of the country, lay on either side of the road. If he managed 
to keep a straight path, he was, in wet seasons, constantly liable to 
mire his horse or his coach, and sometimes his progress was alto- 
gether cut off by floods. The coach from London to Oxford — a dis- 
tance of fifty-four miles — took two days of thirteen hours each. 
Great was the amazement of the good people of the time when, in 
1669, a " flying coach " was started which made the journey between 
six a.m. and seven p.m. of the same day. In spite of storms of op- 
position at the great risk involved in going at such a reckless speed, 
flying coaches, which averaged fifty miles a day in summer and 
thirty in winter, were started, before the close of the reign of Charles 
II, from most of the chief towns south of York and east of Exeter. 
Many still traveled by post horses rented at various inns along the road. 
The coaches were great lumbering affairs, drawn by four or six horses. 
There were stage wagons for merchandise ; though, on the by-roads, 
and even on the main highways in the North and West, goods were 
transported on the backs of pack-horses. 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 405 

Highwaymen. — To add to the woes of the traveler, there were 
the highwaymen who infested the roads in every direction, espe- 
cially those which led to London. Men made their wills before under- 
taking a journey, and started out with pistols in their holsters, blun- 
derbusses in their coaches, and often guarded by armed attendants. 
Some of the outlaws of the period were almost as famous as the leg- 
endary Robin Hood. 

Inns and Ale Houses. — Happily, English inns were famous for 
their plenty, comfort and good cheer. The larger ones were equipped 
with monstrous supplies of beef and mutton, hogsheads of ale, cellars 
of wine and well stocked stables. Besides, there were many of the 
humbler sort " with the cleanly swept brick floor, with the ancient 
ballads stuck on the walls, with the linen fragrant with the scent of 
lavender, with the open fire and the snowy curtains, and every material 
detail savoring of comfort and repose. ..." There were also, in 
rural villages, simple alehouses whither the natives, from the squire 
to the humblest toiler, came to talk and to doze. 

Social Classes. — The gradations of classes in rural England were 
the nobility ; the country gentry, who possessed broad acres ; the yeo- 
men, or small freeholders ; the tenant farmers, and the agricultural la- 
borers. In addition there were the country parsons who occupied a 
somewhat anomalous position. While class distinctions were deeply 
rooted and most folk died in the station in which they were born, there 
was a degree of close friendly association. High and low often mingled 
in the village schools and the grammar schools of the market towns. In 
cases where the sons of nobility and gentry were educated at home by 
tutors, boys of lesser rank were admitted, not infrequently, as com- 
panions or pages to share their studies. After this preliminary training 
the noble and the wealthy, and even a favored few of the lesser sort, 
might proceed to the great endowed schools such as Eton, Winchester, 
and Westminster. Many of the elder sons, after painfully strug- 
gling with the elements of learning, settled down at once upon their 
estates with a stock of knowledge not much in excess of the humble 
clodhopper. Others were sent with a tutor to make a grand tour of 
the Continent. Others, again, before traveling abroad, went for a 
time to Oxford or Cambridge. At the Universities there were marked 
distinctions of rank ; for the teaching and clerical professions were re- 
cruited largely from the middle class, from the sons of farmers and 
tradesmen. Numbers had to earn their own way, as servitors, or 
" sizars," making the beds, sweeping the chambers and performing 
other menial duties for the affluent gentlemen commoners. Not a 
few of the younger sons of the gentry found a career in the law or 



406 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

medical professions, although some took holy orders. The former 
went to London to reside for a specified number of terms at the Inns of 
Court or to enroll in the College of Physicians and walk the hospitals. 
Others sought service in the Continental wars or engaged in commerce, 
either in the City or in the neighboring provincial town. These 
latter formed a link between the landed and the trading classes. 
Frequently, they married rich tradesmen's daughters, while, on the 
other hand, merchants who had become wealthy bought estates and 
set up as country gentlemen. 

The Nobility and Country Gentry. — During the Stuart period 
the bulk of the older nobility, especially of the soberer sort, remained 
comfortably on their estates, where they lived in ample leisure, mainly 
occupied in hospitality and the pursuits of the chase, leaving the 
votaries of pleasure and the climbers to seek their diversion or to push 
their fortunes at Court. The rural gentry, with a few shining ex- 
ceptions, were rude in their manner of life, prejudiced and often illit- 
erate. Few left home save at the most infrequent intervals, while 
such fragrants of book learning as they had acquired were soon for- 
gotten amid the business and pleasures of their rural seclusion — man- 
agement of land and cattle, dickering at market, riding and hunting, 
and huge dinners, washed down by copious potations of ale ; they had 
no newspapers or periodicals, and little opportunity for meeting men 
of affairs and information. Nevertheless, ignorant and uncouth as 
they often were, they had a pride of family, which, if it made them 
overbearing and impatient of contradiction, impelled them to cherish 
high standards of honor. It was from this class that the justices of 
the peace were recruited, and their experience and responsibility were 
bound to develop self-reliance and executive capacity. 

The Yeomen and the Farmers. — Next below the landed gentry 
were the yeomen and the tenant farmers. The former were free- 
holders who tilled their lands with the help of a few servants and 
laborers. They were a sturdy class, many of them Dissenters, who 
with the city tradesmen went far to counterbalance the Toryism of 
the squirearchy and the country parson. Toward the close of the 
period, however, they were already on the road to extinction ; for the 
large landowners and the well-to-do city merchants, anxious to 
found estates, were beginning to buy them out. The farmers, who 
hired their lands, with holdings averaging from 40 to 50 acres, formed 
a body almost as numerous as the freeholders. Competition was 
keen, rents were high, and they were destined to go the way of the 
freeholders, to give place to tenants of large holdings and capitalist 
cultivators. 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 407 

The Clergy. — There were, in the Restoration period, about 10,000 
clergy of the Church of England, four fifths of whom received an 
income of not more than £50 each. While there was a great difference 
between the bishops and town clergy, on the one hand, and the do- 
mestic chaplains and country parsons, on the other, the poverty 
and menial status of the latter probably has been exaggerated. Many 
there were, no doubt, with large families in poor parishes, who had 
to eke out their scanty stipend by working small farms, who, with 
few or no books, denied the advantages of travel, and deprived of 
uplifting associations, were in a state not far above the peasants of 
their flocks. There were, too, chaplains who were household drudges, 
for whom the cook or the lady's maid was thought a fitting match. 
On the other hand, there were many younger sons of gentlemen, or 
even nobles, who sought a career in the Church ; not a few of the 
seventeenth-century poets were rural clergymen, and a long list of 
works on divinity will testify to the erudition of many others. 
Certainly, there are few periods in English history when the clergy 
exercised more influence than during the interval between the Resto- 
ration and the death of Anne. 

The Agricultural Laborers. — Out of an estimated population of 
5,000,000 about one half, including their families, were laborers and 
small cotters. They lived on intimate terms with the small farmers 
and yeomen who employed them, and, if unmarried, they ate at the 
farmers' tables, sharing in all except puddings and special delicacies. 
Yet their state was a miserable one. Wages were low, though supple- 
mented to some extent by surviving rights on the common lands, by 
the domestic system of spinning and weaving, and. the employment 
of the women in the fields at harvest time. They had no fresh meat 
during the greater part of the year, no wheaten bread and as yet no 
tea or coffee. Sanitary conditions were still worse. Their houses 
were still mere hovels with walls of mud and roofs of thatch, with 
rarely more than a single chimney and no glazed windows. They 
slept crowded together in stuffy rooms ; the advantages of bathing 
and fresh air were not yet understood, and both the atmosphere and 
the water were contaminated by sewage and refuse. The plague did 
not cease its visitations till 1665, infant mortality was appalling, and 
medicine was only emerging into a science. 

Prevalence of Superstition. — Many superstitions were rife, some 
of them cruel and terrifying. Even at the close of the century the 
bulk of the people still believed in witches — malicious, spiteful old 
women who had sold their chances of future salvation and had leagued 
themselves with the devil, creatures who blighted the crops and 



408 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

maimed the cattle of their neighbors and held nightly revels in cellars 
and larders. They were supposed to ride on broomsticks, and to be 
attended by familiar spirits in the form of toads and cats. While in 
Elizabeth's time, the laws against witchcraft were the mildest in 
Europe, a new and ferocious Act followed the advent of James I, 
and during the century thousands of poor creatures were executed. 
Thanks to the good sense and humanity of Cromwell, the persecu- 
tion was abated during the Commonwealth, and was not resumed 
after the Restoration with anything like the old rigor, though many 
continued to nourish the delusion. If witches were the victims of 
popular superstition and hatred — though they were often sought 
for their charms to ward off diseases and, in the case of lovers, to 
win the affections of some coy village damsel — alchemists, astrologers, 
and fortune tellers, many of them thieves and sharpers, throve upon 
the prevailing credulity. 

Counterbalancing Charms of the Age. — On the other hand, many 
current beliefs illumined the pervading monotony with touches of 
poetry. Men told of the lubber fiend, or Lob-lie -by-the-fire, who 
came down the chimney after the household was asleep, swept the 
floors and did all manner of work if placated by a bowl of cream by 
the fireside. It caused pleasant shudders to think that ghosts haunted 
the churchyards, that goblins peopled the fields after nightfall, and 
that fairies sported in the dark recesses of the forests. Moreover, 
there was much that was picturesque and charming about the 
life of the period. Except for London, there were no crowded cities, 
and the teeming factories with their ceaseless din and smoke were 
as yet far in the future. People, even in the provincial towns, were 
surrounded by orchards and gardens, they were within sight of field, 
wood, and stream. All this, together with the picturesque and grace- 
ful architecture — the rambling manor houses, the quaint homes of 
the lesser folk, and the spacious inns — lent a variety and beauty to 
life which was reflected in the songs and verses of the period. Be- 
fore and after the gloomy interval of the Puritan regime, ancient games, 
festivals and pastimes flourished. At Christmas the Yule log was 
burned and all classes indulged in brave feasting. There were pretty 
ceremonies, as for instance, on May Day, when, in the early dawn, 
the youths and maidens went to the woods and fields and wove gar- 
lands to hang on doors and windows. There was cockfighting, and 
bullbaiting, wrestling, and football played with inflated bladders of 
swine, and there were masks and pageants. 

The North Country. — The balance of wealth and population was 
still in the south. The northern counties were scantily inhabited, 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 409 

poor and wild. Peel towers continued to be used as refuges, and 
manor houses were built of stone and fortified. Judges on circuit 
were usually accompanied by a strong bodyguard. Parishes kept 
bloodhounds to protect property, and local taxes were levied to main- 
tain bands of armed men. 

The Towns. — Except for London, which had a population of 
not far from half a million, there were, so late as the Restoration, 
only four towns with more than ten thousand inhabitants. Small 
as they were, the provincial towns were far more important social 
centers than they are to-day. The great county families resorted 
to them instead of to London for pleasure as well as for business. 
While the assizes, the quarter sessions and the markets occupied the 
early part of the day, the evenings were made gay with balls and 
all sorts of social activities. Owing to the restrictive policy of the 
gilds and the apprentice laws, excluding the unskilled labor from 
the rural districts, the population of the towns was a picked one. The 
gild system, inadequate as it was to meet the growing needs of the 
country, was not wholly without advantages. It kept up the standard 
of production, and not only furnished skilled workmen but provided a 
means of education when schools were few and costly. Where the 
apprentice had a churlish, avaricious master his lot was sad indeed, 
what with long hours, hard words and beatings, but under happier 
circumstances, he had the blessings of a sympathetic home train- 
ing. After his seven years of service he began work as a journeyman. 
Often he prospered sufficiently to set up in business for himself, or 
he might marry his master's daughter and take over the very craft 
or trade to which he had been bound. But, outside the old centers, 
the gilds were giving way more and more to the domestic system, 
especially in the cloth industry ; more and more, in the villages and 
through the countryside, spinners and weavers were working in their 
own cottages. Moreover, some towns were wise enough to slacken 
their restrictions. Particularly by welcoming Huguenots — and 
here London was in the vanguard — they gained an advantage which 
France threw away. 

London. — London at the close of the seventeenth century was, 
with the possible exception of Amsterdam, without a commercial 
rival in the world, as well as the center of the social, political, and 
intellectual life of England. Its aspect was very different from to- 
day, when the great army of those who have business in the City go 
every night to the suburbs and the adjoining country. In those days, 
even the wealthy merchants occupied houses surrounded by walled 
gardens, which have long since given place to crowded streets, banks, 



410 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

shops, and warehouses. Artificers and tradesmen lived with their 
famiUes and apprentices over or behind their shops. The London 
of the Restoration had few or no suburbs, and most of the now fash- 
ionable West End consisted of fields and orchards with here and there 
a great nobleman's estate. Outside the City walls were the " liberties," 
a region of slums where the poor, the wretched, and the criminals 
were herded together in miserable hovels in dirty alleys. The City 
streets were narrow and crooked; the overhanging upper stories of 
the buildings on either side presented a quaint appearance, but cut 
off fresh air and sunlight. The rebuilding which followed the Great 
Fire of 1666 led to improved sanitary conditions at the sacrifice of 
medieval picturesqueness. However, a touch of varied charm was 
preserved in the signs which designated different houses — num- 
bers would have been of very little help, since few coachmen, chair- 
men, or porters could read. The pavements were wretched, and the 
gutters, clogged with decayed vegetables and animal refuse, became 
raging torrents during rainy weather and flooded the streets with 
watery filth. This was splashed upon the pedestrian by pass- 
ing coaches and carts, so that " taking the wall " was a much sought 
privilege which caused many a fight. The street venders kept up 
a constant din, crying their wares, and the air was choked with the 
smoke of sea coal which arose from the fires of brewers, dyers, soap- 
boilers, and lime-burners. Mixed with fog it often enveloped the City 
in almost impenetrable gloom. At such times, as well as at night, it 
was dangerous to be abroad, what with the slippery, foul and un- 
even pavements, the countless thieves and cut-throats, and bands of 
roistering young men of fashion who took delight in attacking and 
mauling peaceful citizens. Although dueling, which came in at the 
beginning of the century, was a custom much to be deplored, it had 
the merit of superseding, to some degree, the custom of seeking re- 
venge against an enemy through hired assassins and bullies. Mur- 
ders and robberies were alarmingly frequent under the shroud of 
darkness. Until the reign of Charles II the only lights came from 
links, lanterns and torches, borne by pedestrians or their attendants. 
Finally, an enterprising person obtained an exclusive patent for 
lighting the City, placing a light at every tenth door between the hours 
of six and twelve ; but only on moonless nights and during the season 
from Michaelmas to Lady Day. A metropolitan police force was as 
yet undreamed of ; the decrepit constables who served by day, and 
the night watch, largely composed of superannuated and feeble men, 
afforded little protection. Prosecutions often failed because witnesses 
dared not appear for fear of the vengeance of the criminal classes 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 411 

who ran riot through the City. The apprentices were a particularly 
turbulent element. In their pretended zeal for liberty, frequently 
a mere cloak for lawlessness, they were often on the rampage, cudg- 
eling those who came in their way, and even pulling down buildings, 
so that sometimes even the soldiery had to be called out to suppress 
them. They led in the prejudice of the London rabble against for- 
eigners, particularly Frenchmen, who were jeered at, pursued by cries 
of " French dog " and " Mounzer," and pelted with stones and filth. 

Whitefriars, Paul's Walk, and Whitehall. — Noisy, disorderly 
and dirty as were the other quarters of the City, there was one dis- 
trict, on the western edge, that was particularly unsavory and horrid. 
It was known as Whitefriars, from the site of an old Carmelite mon- 
astery. Once a sanctuary for criminals, it still retained the privilege 
of protecting debtors from arrest, and was the haunt of abandoned 
wretches of all sorts. Officers sent to make arrests were, at the cry 
of " Rescue ! " set on by furious mobs, so that it often required troops 
to execute a warrant. Between the hours of eleven and twelve in 
the forenoon and three and five in the afternoon, " Paul's Walk," 
the central aisle in the Cathedral, was still the haunt of business and 
pleasure. Venders of wares, lawyers seeking clients, and beaux, 
exhibiting their fine raiment, wandered up and down, filling the 
sacred place with buzz of profane conversation. The Court at White- 
hall was a center of politics, gayety and dissipation. Those who had 
claims to press, or who sought offices, together with the gay liber- 
tines who were boon companions of the " Merry Monarch," thronged 
at his levees. The galleries of the palace were filled with curious 
crowds watching him " at his meals or as he and his courtiers and 
mistresses gambled or danced in the evening." They listened eagerly, 
too, for scraps of news about affairs, foreign and domestic, and greedily 
devoured such crumbs of gossip and scandal as they were able to get 
hold of. 

Coffee Houses. — What was learned at the royal palace was 
spread rapidly through the coffee houses which filled the places of the 
newspapers and public meetings of later times. Originating in the 
sample room of a Turkey merchant about 1652, coffee houses, in the 
teeth of stubborn opposition, multiplied so rapidly that there were 
three thousand in the City and suburbs before the close of the cen- 
tury. Becoming centers for political discussion, they soon aroused 
the suspicion of the Government. Charles II, in 1675, ordered them 
to be closed ; but the popular opposition was so intense that the order 
was revoked within two weeks, on the promise of the landlords to do 
their best to stop seditious talk and the circulation of libelous books 



4 I2 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and pamphlets. There were coffee houses for all classes, profes- 
sions, and shades of opinion, to say nothing of clubs founded by 
Cavaliers and Puritans respectively. 

The Newspaper and the Post. — Although newspapers, or rather 
newsbooks or pamphlets, began to appear about the middle of the 
century, news was chiefly circulated by coffee houses and news- 
letters 1 until after the expiration of the Licensing Act in 1695. Postal 
arrangements were still very primitive and inadequate. The mail 
bags were carried on the backs of horses who traveled by day and 
night at an average of five miles an hour. Ordinarily, the mails 
went and came on alternate days ; but, in the remote districts, letters 
were not received or dispatched more than once a week. Rates 
were very high, averaging twopence for a single letter for eighty miles 
and increasing with the weight and distance. When the Court was 
traveling from place to place, arrangements were made for a daily 
service with London. In the reign of Charles II, regardless of the 
outcries of the porters, a London penny post was established with a 
delivery six or eight times a day in the City and four times in the 
suburbs. 

Dress, Food, and Recreations. — In dress as in many other things, 
there was, after the Restoration, a decided revolt against the sim- 
plicity of the Puritan regime. Periwigs appeared for men, and women 
of fashion began to paint their faces and to adorn them with black 
patches ; they also adopted the practice of wearing vizards, or masks, 
on occasion, and, with their features thus concealed, grew more bold 
in their conduct. There was an inordinate rage for gambling, and 
all sorts of new card games came in after the return of Charles II. 
Among the pleasure resorts, Vauxhall Gardens, with a great hall for 
promenading and dancing and arbors for dining, was the most popular 
if not the most respectable. There was such an excess of eating and 
drinking, and medicine had made so little progress, that the fashion- 
able found it good, at certain periods, to take the waters and live on 
restricted diet. Bath was the most famous health resort, though 
its elaborate social code, fine buildings, and elegant appointments 
did not come till after the advent of Beau Nash in 1705. The ordi- 
nary London citizen contented himself with Epsom, where for the 
past hundred years and more the Derby races have been held. There 
were many fields near the Capital where the lesser folk, particularly 
the apprentices, went for walks on evenings and holidays. In con- 
trast to the upper classes, the working people kept very early hours, 

1 Written by City hacks to country magnates and to the inns of provincial towns 
and villages. 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 413 

beginning the day at six or seven, dining at one, and going to bed at 
sunset. 

Anglican Theology. — The drama, the choicest of the choice prod- 
ucts of Elizabethan literature, began to decline at the end of the 
reign of James I, and, notwithstanding the appearance of poetry of 
enduring note, the remainder of the century was preeminently an 
age of prose : the growing Puritan spirit developed acute religious 
controversies, and pressing political problems claimed the energies 
of active minds. The Bible, in the magnificent King James version, 
became the dominating influence among the graver folk, high and 
low alike. It fostered independence of thought and stimulated the 
imagination even of the common man and prompted him to noble 
forms of expression, while it furnished a literary model of singular 
dignity and beauty for the man of letters, and provided an arsenal of 
weapons for the controversialist. Both in political and theological 
discussions there are hosts of names, some furious partisans only to 
be remembered in connection with the questions of the day, others 
whose productions have survived as literary classics. 

The Latitudinarians. — In theology the golden mean was repre- 
sented by the " Latitudinarians," who, clinging to the " sweet rea- 
sonableness " of Hooker, aimed to emphasize the essentials of faith 
and to minimize minor differences of dogma and Church policy, and to 
harmonize Divine revelation with nature, reason, and experience. 
Taking its rise in Holland, Latitudinarianism was promulgated 
chiefly by a small group of broad-minded thinkers who, on the eve 
of the Civil War, gathered round Lord Falkland, in his country house 
near Oxford. Their views were eagerly welcomed by numbers of 
moderate men who sought a middle way. Outside this group was 
Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), who owed his early advancement 
to Laud and was a pronounced Royalist. His Liberty of Prophesying 
was intended to secure religious freedom against spiritual tyranny, 
though he is chiefly remembered for his Holy Living and Holy Dying, 
rare among devotional works for its profound human appeal and the 
splendor of its style. " Quaint old Tom Fuller " (1608-1661), be- 
loved in his own day and by generations of readers in after times, 
for his sprightly wit and playful fancy, was among those who sought 
to steer a moderate course. His peculiar charm is best manifested 
in his Worthies of England. 

The Latitudinarian tradition was continued by the " Cambridge 
Platonists," a small body of scholars at the University who, oppos- 
ing the " sourness and severity " of the extreme Puritans on the one 
hand, and materialism on the other, advocated a sort of Christian 



414 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Platonism. They were mystics whose philosophic temper was held 
in check by spiritual humbleness. In the troubled days of the Inter- 
regnum and in the first years after the Restoration, the teaching 
and influence of the Cambridge Platonists was almost the one oasis 
in the educational aridity which prevailed at the Universities, where 
the students had to depend rather upon themselves than their tutors. 1 
The principles of the early Latitudinarians and the Cambridge Pla- 
tonists were preserved and developed by a long line of post-Restora- 
tion divines. As a body, the Latitudinarians enriched English the- 
ology with much good literature, they stood for peace in an age of 
bitter controversy, and for a toleration that was strange alike to the 
Laudians and their opponents. Moreover, they furnished examples 
of holy living only equaled by the best among the Puritans. 

Philosophy. — Among the speculative thinkers of the period, the 
two greatest names are Thomas Hobbes (i 588-1 679) and John Locke 
(1632-1 704). Hobbes, during his long and busy life, produced various 
works on ethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy. His chief 
contribution was the Leviathan (published 1657), in which he likens 
the State to the fabulous sea monster in the book of Job, and then to 
a mortal god who exercises absolute control over the subject. This 
power, in his opinion, rested upon an original social compact 2 be- 
tween the people to obey the Sovereign in return for peace and protec- 
tion against war and anarchy — the natural state of mankind. In 
addition, he insisted upon the complete subordination of the Church 
to the State. His doctrines were such as to expose him to furious 
attacks from the extremists of both the opposing camps. The Parlia- 
mentarians were alienated by his absolutism, while the Royalists, with 
their notions of the Divine Right of kings, would not accept his ex- 
planation of the origin of government. Moreover, he was denounced 
as an atheist who conformed to the Church of England merely be- 
cause it was established by the State. However, his political theories 
have had far-reaching consequences. They were taken up by Rous- 
seau and the French Encyclopedists who furnished the intellectual 
preparation for the French Revolution, while, furthermore, they pro- 
foundly influenced the English Utilitarians who contributed so much 
to popular progress during the nineteenth century. The mouthpiece 
of the Tory absolutists was Sir Robert Filmer, whose Patriarcha, or 

1 The pursuit of learning, however, as distinguished from teaching, was far from 
dead, particularly at Cambridge, since the University furnished many distinguished 
members to the Royal Society, which began to flourish early in the reign of Charles II. 

2 An ancient doctrine, long dormant, which had been recently revived by Hooker, 
Grotius, and others. 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 415 

The Natural Power of Kings Asserted, was first published in 1680, 
twenty-seven years after the author's death. While agreeing nat- 
urally with Hobbes as to the supreme authority of the State, he sought 
its origin in the power of the patriarchs beginning with Adam, from 
whom the Divine Right of kings is derived by hereditary descent. 
But the only political thinker of the century to compare with Hobbes 
was Locke, a man of astonishing versatility. He drafted a constitu- 
tion for the Carolinas; he had a share in the restoration of the 
coinage ; he practiced medicine ; and, according to John Stuart Mill, 
he was the " unquestioned founder of the analytic philosophy of the 
mind." His . writings include four letters on Toleration; two 
Treatises on Civil Government ; and an Essay Concerning Human 
Understanding. His political treatises are at once a reply to Filmer 
and a defense of the Revolution of 1688. Accepting the views of 
Hobbes as to the origin and end of government, he went beyond 
him in insisting upon the supremacy of the legislature as the voice of 
the people ; the responsibilty of the prince to the subject ; and the 
right of resistance when the governors of the State failed to observe 
their trust. 

Economic Theory. — While the seventeenth century marked a 
considerable output of economic writing, most of the works were 
written for practical purposes and paid little attention to principles. 
Political economy as yet had no independent name ; it was regarded 
merely as a branch of statecraft and business. The writers on the 
subject were, as a rule, merchants or politicians concerned with in- 
creasing the power, the treasure, the fisheries, and the shipping of the 
country. Chief among them was a group which was principally 
engaged in defending the privileges of the East India Company. 
Sir Josiah Child (1 630-1 699), who managed the affairs of the Com- 
pany in the time of Charles II and James II, advanced many steps 
beyond his predecessors in economic thinking. He recognized that 
gold and silver were only commodities themselves though used as a 
measure of other commodities, and, while he defended monopoly 
on the ground that it made for national power if not for national 
wealth, he realized the commercial advantages of free trade. Though 
he succeeded in grasping some of the fundamental principles of polit- 
ical economy, he was primarily a shrewd, experienced business man 
who treated the subject as an art rather than a science. His slightly 
older contemporary, Sir William Petty (1623-1687) — a pioneer in 
advocating the use of statistics in economic 'Studies — really contrib- 
uted more toward exposing the fallacies of mercantilism. But per- 
haps the most advanced thinker among seventeenth century econo- 



4 l6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

mists was Nicholas Barbon (1640- 169 8), who anticipated Adam Smith 
— the creator of modern political economy and the first great apostle 
of free trade — in defining such fundamental terms as the true nature 
of wealth. He further prepared the way for his great successor by 
developing the argument that restriction of imports meant restriction 
of exports as well. 

Scientific Progress. — The early part of the seventeenth century 
was marked by two notable scientific achievements — the inven- 
tion of logarithms by John Napier (15 50-16 17) and discovery of the 
circulation of the blood by William Harvey (1578-1657). These 
advances, however, were in striking contrast to the survival of popu- 
lar superstitions, such as the belief in witchcraft shared by many 
eminent men, while scientific learning continued long in disrepute. 
Sir Walter Raleigh " was notoriously slandered to have enriched a 
school of atheism because he gave countenance to chemistry, to practi- 
cal arts, and to curious mechanical operations, and designed to form 
the best of them into a college." The study of mathematics was 
not only much neglected but abhorred as a diabolical pursuit, so that 
when, in 16 19, a professorship of geometry and astronomy was in- 
stituted at Oxford, many of the gentry refused to send their sons to 
the University lest they might be " smutted by the black art." But 
the dawn was beginning to break. Bacon did much for the ad- 
vancement of experimental science, though more by what he suggested 
than by any achievements of his own. Then the work of Galileo 
and Kepler on the Continent in time produced its effect in England. 
A new scientific era was heralded by the establishment of the Royal 
Society for the promotion of " Physico-Mathematical Experimental 
Learning." Really started in 1645, it was incorporated under its 
present name in 1662. A distinctive feature of the Restoration was 
a new rationalism, a new scientific temper. Charles II and his boon 
companion, the versatile Buckingham, toyed with chemistry. The 
National Observatory was built at Greenwich, and signs of advance 
were manifested in various fields. Robert Boyle (1627-1691), 
one of the founders of the Royal Society, and " the father of modern 
chemistry," established the relation between volume and pressure 
of gases known as Boyle's Law. The great scientific genius of the 
age, however, and one of the greatest of any age, was Sir Isaac 
Newton (1641-1727), who made no less than three contributions 
to human knowledge — the discovery of the law of gravitation, 
the theory of fluxions or differential calculus, and the compound 
nature of white light. The former discovery, his supreme achieve- 
ment, was made in 1666 and announced in his Principia in 1687. 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 



417 



Altogether, much was being done to wring secrets from " nature's 
close reserve." 

Prose Literature. — In pure literature, the age is remarkable for a 
few rare products of scholarly leisure, as delightful in form as they 
are learned in content. Among them is the Anatomy of Melancholy 
of Robert Burton (1577-1640)^ monument of erudition, abounding 
in fantastic reflections on men and things, and, strangely enough, 
considering the subject, permeated with whimsical humor. Sir 
Thomas Browne (1 605-1 682), a physician of Norwich, was a many- 
sided scholar who ranged over wider fields even than Burton. In 
his Religio Medici, his Enquiries into Vulgar Errors, and his Urn 
Burial, he displays not only vast knowledge and richness of imagina- 
tion, but a pomp and magificence of diction rarely equaled in litera- 
ture. Izaak Walton (1593-1683), an unpretentious London iron- 
monger, had a love of nature, a genius for friendship, a sweet simplic- 
ity and a cheery humor which are reflected in his Compleat Angler 
and in his lives of Hooker, and other contemporaries. John Bunyan 
(1628-1688), a humble self-educated tinsmith, while a prisoner in 
Bedford jail, wrote his immortal Pilgrim's Progress (1678), which 
stands among the world's great allegories. With a unique gift for 
direct, vivid narration and realistic character protrayal, as well as 
an inspired understanding of the spiritual needs and hopes and fears 
of the people among whom he lived, he embodied them in enduring 
form in a work which is at once a sublime religious tract and a fore- 
runner of the modern novel. 

Non-Dramatic Poetry. — While, as a whole, not so distinctive as 
the prose, the poetry of the period is noteworthy both in volume and 
character, and altogether too varied in type to be comprehended within 
any single generalization. John Donne (1573-163 1) and George Her- 
bert (1 593-1 633) were the earliest and leading representatives of the 
" Fantastic School " who essayed the formidable task of employing the 
poetic medium for interpreting profound metaphysical and religious 
problems. If, by their " conceits " or far-fetched images and analogies, 
they heightened the obscurity of their themes, and tended to become 
extravagant and bizarre, nevertheless, we owe to them passages of rare 
beauty, flashing light on spiritual aspiration and experience. While 
none of them were Puritans, the Puritan influence goes far to explain 
their earnestness and intensity. Then there were " essayists " in verse, 
who anticipated the prosaic poetry of the eighteenth century ; also 
there was a group of Cavalier poets who flourished, at the court of 
Queen Henrietta Maria, men of notoriously profligate lives, and whose 
verse was mostly on amatory subjects ; and, finally, there were pas- 



41 8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

toral poets who continued their Spenserian tradition. Chiefly to be 
remembered of these latter is Robert Herrick (1591-1674). After a 
Bohemian youth he retired to a country parsonage where he wrote 
exquisite verses breathing forth the sweet air of the English country- 
side, reflecting the simple pleasures of rustic folk and ennobled at times 
with touches of delicate religious sentiment. In view of the prose 
and lyric poetry which appeared about the middle of the century, 
it cannot be said that either Puritanism or the Civil Wars stifled 
literary production. 1 

John Milton. — The finest flower of Puritan culture was John Mil- 
ton, in whom the influences of the Renascence and the Reformation 
were strangely mingled; for he combined finished classical scholar- 
ship with a profound and reverent knowledge of the Bible. As an 
undergraduate at Cambridge he began to write Latin verses, and in 
1629, the year in which he took his degree, appeared his splendid Ode 
to the Nativity. This was followed, in 1632, by V Allegro and II 
Penseroso, which contrast in exquisite lines the joyous mood of morn- 
ing with the sadness of evening. The next year came his masque, 
Comus, a hauntingly beautiful double allegory of the perennial 
struggle of virtue against vice and of the pending conflict of the two 
parties in the State. His next notable publication was Lycidas, 
an elegy on the death of a college friend. Here, in the form of a pas- 
toral saturated with mythical lore and perhaps the most perfect poem 
in the English language, he fiercely attacked the corruptions of the 
existing Establishment. As the Civil War approached he became 
increasingly serious, and, turning from poetry to prose, argued for 
religious and political freedom in language of harsh or impassioned 
eloquence. His Areopagitica (1644) is a noble plea for the liberty 
of the press, and his Defensio pro Populo Anglicano is regarded as the 
finest defense of the Commonwealth ever penned. While his prose 
writing is marred by want of method, by bitter partisanship, and 
occasionally by over-elaboration, his glowing enthusiasm for liberty, 
guided by Divine order, and the loftiness and magnificence of his best 
passages give his work a value far beyond any practical importance 
it may have had. From his youth up, he had contemplated the dedi- 
cation of his poetic talents to the production of a great religious epic. 
After the Restoration, living in retirement, embittered by the failure of 
the cause he had espoused, by unhappy domestic experiences, by poverty 

1 Samuel Butler (1612-1680), during the years from 1663 to 1668, published his 
Hiidibras, in which, detailing the adventures of a Puritan knight and his squire 
after the manner of Don Quixote, he bitterly ridicules the intolerance and hy- 
pocrisy which he seems to regard as typical of the party. 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 419 

and blindness, he completed, between 1663 and 1667, his sublimest 
literary achievement, Paradise Lost. The vastness of the design 
and the marvelous harmony of the blank verse give it a place among 
the highest productions of the world's literature. Yet it is one of the 
works which all too many are content to admire from afar, rather than 
to read, and Milton received for it just £10. Paradise Lost, which 
deals with the temptation and fall of man, was followed in 167 1 by 
Paradise Regained, which tells of man's redemption through Jesus 
Christ. 

John Dryden (1631-1700). — The representative man of letters of 
the Restoration period was John Dryden, poet laureate and histo- 
riographer (1670-1689), who reflects in his verses his varying political 
and religious views; in them he bewailed the death of Cromwell, 
he welcomed the Restoration, he attacked the " Papists," he warmly 
defended Anglicanism, and, eventually, becoming converted to the 
Roman Catholic faith, he denounced the Church he had discarded, 
and eulogized the one he had adopted in one of his outstanding works 
— The Hind and the Panther, 1686. The best that can be said of him 
is, that after the Revolution of 1688, he made no attempt to gain the 
favor of the new Government by repudiating Roman Catholicism. 
His highest achievements were in satirical verse, a domain in which 
he has no peers among English writers. His keen and dexterous 
thrusts at his opponents have " damned them to everlasting fame." 
The best known of his political satires are Absalom and Achltophel 
and the Medal, directed mainly against Shaftesbury. He was, 
in addition, a busy and productive playwright, though not so pre- 
eminent in this field. His aim was to cater to the Court and the 
town, who, influenced by the French taste acquired by the Cavaliers 
in exile, craved novelty and scorned the great products of the Eliza- 
bethan and Jacobean age. 

The Drama. — While the first thirty years of the century witnessed 
a constant succession of excellent plays, well acted and enthusiasti- 
cally received by the public, a decline began to set in even during the 
decade preceding the Ordinance of September, 1642, closing the theaters. 
This was due, in some degree, to the aggressive hostility of the Puri- 
tans, who turned the soberer folk against the playhouses, and forced 
the dramatic authors to appeal more and more to the classes, both 
among the fashionable and the rabble, who were bound by no scruples 
of taste or morals. In the Restoration drama — one of the various 
manifestations of extravagant revolt against the recent Puritan regime 
— ■ the Elizabethan spirit which the reign of the saints had helped to 
kill, was not revived. As in so many other fields, a new era of ex- 



4 20 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

periment began. Tragedies in heroic couplets and prose comedies 
of wit and manners — both form and content markedly influenced 
by French models — took the place of the older tragedies and romantic 
comedies in blank verse. The French models were frequently im- 
moral enough; but transformed into English dress, or rather un- 
dress, they were, all too often, insufferably coarse and cynical. For 
this Charles II and his courtiers were, to a large degree responsible, 
by making sensuality and cynicism the mark of a fine gentleman. 
The comedies, disagreeable as most of them are, have great histor- 
ical value as reflections of contemporary life, especially of the upper 
classes in London, and because the prologues and epilogues were used, 
particularly by Dryden, for airing political animosities. Queen Mary, 
setting her face against the prevailing tendency, did something toward 
purifying the drama, and Jeremy Collier registered a vigorous pro- 
test in his Short View of the Profaneness and Immorality of the Eng- 
lish Stage, 1698. Dryden admitted the justice of the rebuke, but im- 
provement was slow. Real reform only came with the sentimental 
comedy initiated by Richard Steele. 

Art, Architecture, and Music. — While pride of ancestry prompted 
many to employ Dutch and Flemish artists to execute family portraits, 
and while there were collectors, including Charles I, of no mean repute, 
there was, nevertheless, no general appreciation of art among seven- 
teenth-century Englishmen. Nor, except in miniatures, were there 
any native portrait painters of real note. Of foreign artists in England, 
the most famous were Rubens (15 77-1640) and Vandyke (1 599-1641). 
The former, during a brief sojourn, painted several portraits and re- 
ceived an order for the decoration of Whitehall. The latter remained in 
England most of the time from 1632 till his death. He was appointed 
Court painter and executed several fine pictures of Charles I and his 
family, as well as of prominent men of the time. Cromwell, who was 
fond both of music and painting, had an official painter, though, in 
addition, he gave his patronage to the more famous Peter Lely (1618- 
1680). Charles II inherited none of his father's taste for art, but Lely 
became his Court painter and is famous for his portraits of the royal 
favorites. 

In architecture, the century was dominated by Inigo Jones (1573- 
1652) and Christopher Wren (1632-1723). This fact marks a signifi- 
cant departure from the traditions of the Middle Ages, when the style 
and not the man was the distinguishing factor. Jones was profoundly 
influenced by the Italian Palladio, notable for his composite adaptation 
of the ancient Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian forms. Almost no new 
churches were built during the first half of the century ; but Jones did 



PURITAN AND CAVALIER ENGLAND 421 

much in the way of restoring ecclesiastical edifices and public buildings. 
Wren, his famous successor, was active as an architect from 1663 to 1718. 
The fire of London gave him an opportunity to rebuild St. Paul's, as 
well as about fifty parish churches. Chief among the other works of 
his long and busy life is the Royal Hospital at Greenwich. Unfortu- 
nately, his two principal buildings do not show him at his best ; for 
St. Paul's was not completed according to his original designs, while 
Greenwich Hospital was decidedly marred by the architect who suc- 
ceeded him. 

With the striking exception of Cromwell, the Puritans were notoriously 
hostile to music. Charles II, in contrast to his indifference to other 
forms of art, was an enthusiastic patron of music, and Henry Purcell 
(1658-1695), recognized as England's greatest musical genius, came to 
the front in his reign. His famous grand opera Dido and Eneas (1675) 
was the first ever written to an English poem ; but his supreme 
achievements were in Church music. 

Final Summary of the Period. — Thus, aside from epoch-making 
political events, the century was a notable one. It witnessed the later 
plays of Shakespeare as well as those of Ben Jonson, and hosts of other 
dramatists ; the writings of Milton, and of innumerable poets besides ; 
compositions in stately prose of men of letters and divines ; treatises 
on political philosophy, trade, and economics ; and, what was big in 
future results, the foundation stones of empire were laid in America 
and in India. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

General Conditions. Traill, Social England, IV. Trevelyan, England 
under the Stuarts, chs. I, II, an admirable picture of the life of the upper and 
lower classes in the early Stuart period. Macaulay, I, ch. Ill, a famous 
description of conditions in the Restoration period. W. E. Sydney, Social 
Life in England, 1660-1690 (1892). 

Social and Industrial. Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce. 
Unwin, Social and Industrial Organization. Rogers, Agriculture and Prices, 
V, VI. W. A. Hewins, English Trade and Finance, chiefly in the Seventeenth 
Century (1892). Elizabeth Godfrey, Home Life under the Stuarts (1903) 
and Social Life under the Stuarts (1904). A. H. Hamilton, Quarter Sessions 
from Elizabeth to Anne (1878) relates chiefly to Devonshire. Lady Verney, 
Memoirs of the Verney Family (4 vols., 1892-1899). H. B. Wheatley, 
Samuel Pepys and the World He Lived In (1880). » Rose M. Bradley, The 
English Housewife in the XVII and XVIII Centuries (19 13). Eleanor 
Trotter, Seventeenth Century Life in the Country Parish (19 19). 

Literary and Intellectual. Moody and Lovett ; Taine ; Jusserand and 
Cambridge History of Literature. Lodge, Political History, ch. XX. Cam- 



422 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

bridge Modern History, IV, ch. XXVI, V, chs. Ill, VI, XXIII (bibliographies 
IV, 948-950, V, 775-779, 799-808, 903-910). E. Dowden, Puritan and 
Anglican (1900). Masson, Milton; the standard work. There are short 
Lives of Milton by Mark Pattison (1879, 1906) and Sir Walter Raleigh 
(1900). See also Macaulay's essay on Milton. Saintsbury, Dryden (1881, 
1902). 

Religion and Church. Hut ton and Wakeman as above. J. Hunt, 
Religious Thought in England (3 vols., 1870). J. H. Overton, Life in the 
English Church, 1660-1714 (1885). Babington, Mr. Macaulay's Character 
of the Clergy (1849). Tatham, The Puritans in Power. Cambridge Modern 
History, chs. XI, XXIV (bibliography, 838-839, 911-917). 

Contemporary. Pepys's Diary; Evelyn's Diary; R. Baxter, Narrative 
of the Most Memorable Passages of His Life and Times (ed. M. Sylvester, 
1696) ; and George Fox, Journal (1694, ed. W. Armistead, 2 vols., 1852) 
a great spiritual autobiography. 

Political philosophy. Sir Robert Filmer, Patriarcha, or the Natural 
Power of Kings (1680, ed. 1903, introd. by Henry Morley). Thomas Hobbes, 
The Leviathan (ed. A. R. Waller, 1904). John Locke, Two Treatises on Civil 
Government (1903, introd. by Henry Morley). G. P. Gooch, Political 
Thought in England from Bacon to Halifax (1914). H. J. Laski, English 
Political Thought from Locke to Bentham. (Home University Library.) 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW DYNASTY AND THE OPENING 
OF THE GREAT WAR. WILLIAM AND MARY (i 689-1 694) 

The Significance of the Reign of William and Mary. — ■ The re.'gn 
of William is significant from the fact that, as " the champion of Prot- 
estantism and the liberties of Europe against French ascendancy," 
he plunged England into a whirlpool of European war and diplomacy 
from which she emerged as the leading Colonial and Sea Power of the 
world. The internal progress of the period is also noteworthy. Fun- 
damental constitutional questions were defined and settled : the order 
of succession was regulated in the Bill of Rights and in the Act of Settle- 
ment which supplemented it ; a Toleration Act was passed ; the Na- 
tional Debt was funded ; the Bank of England was established ; the 
censorship of the press came to an end ; procedure in treason trials was 
reformed ; and Cabinet and party government began to take modern 
shape. This last point is of peculiar importance, because the machin- 
ery of the English Cabinet and party system is the most perfect which 
has yet been devised for speedily and peacefully voicing the will of 
the people and because it is the system which has been adopted, with 
more or less variation, by the chief European governments in recent 
times. It is essentially a government by an executive committee of 
Parliament whose members represent and are responsible to the ma- 
jority party of the House of Commons, which, in its turn, represents 
the qualified voters of the country. 

The Reaction against William (1689). — In spite of the joy mani- 
fested at his accession, a reaction against William soon set in. It was 
due, partly to the King's own character and policy, partly to the nature 
of the situation. He was cold and unsympathetic, he loved Dutch- 
men and Dutch ways, he distrusted Englishmen and chafed at his 
necessary residence in England as a joyless exile. Patient and courageous 
in great matters, he was irritable and impatient of opposition in little 
things, while his manners left much to be desired. Then his policy 
was a disappointment to the Whigs who had led the movement to place 

423 



424 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

him on the throne ; for he was no friend of popular liberty and had 
ousted James primarily to break up the royal alliance with France and 
to secure English resources for his great work. Furthermore, he had 
to face a most difficult situation ; for impelled by a common fear of 
James, the most diverse elements had combined momentarily to sup- 
port him. Truly, Englishmen and Dutchmen, Whigs and Tories, 
Churchmen and Nonconformists made strange bedfellows. The Eng- 
lish and the Dutch were old trade rivals who had been three times at 
war within half a century. The Whigs stood for a limited monarchy 
and toleration, and had old scores to settle with the party who had op- 
pressed them during the reign of Charles II and the early years of 
James II. The Tories, who stood for Divine hereditary right and an 
exclusive Establishment, directly the excitement was over, came to be 
ashamed of the part they had taken in expelling the Lord's anointed. 
Many of the Whigs, too, were dissatisfied, some because they felt them- 
selves insufficiently rewarded, others because their advice in ordering 
public affairs was neither sought nor heeded. Although the really 
disaffected were in a minority, they were so vociferous and busy that 
they might have caused serious trouble but for the fact that Louis XIV, 
by undertaking to restore James by force, and with the aid of the 
dreaded Irish into the bargain, forced the moderates of both parties to 
cling to William. In selecting his first Ministry, he sought to balance 
parties, though in view of the critical situation abroad, and the partic- 
ular interests which he had at stake, he took charge of foreign affairs 
himself. 

The Mutiny Act (1689). — The mutiny of an English regiment at 
Ipswich, in the first year of the reign, led to the passage of a measure 
which was bound, in any case, to have come before long ; since, accord- 
ing to the existing law, there were no adequate means of dealing with 
such crises. The Mutiny Act, which began by declaring courts mar- 
tial and military discipline illegal, conferred upon William the author- 
ity to provide for the exercise of such extraordinary jurisdiction for 
six months. Later the Act was regularly renewed, but never for longer 
than a year. It is now called the Army Act. 

The Toleration Act (1689). — Also in this eventful year, the Protest- 
ant Dissenters for the first time obtained legal recognition and tolera- 
tion. William, a Calvinist by training but a Latitudinarian by con- 
viction, was a prime mover ; however, he had the solid backing of a 
growing rationalistic opinion, voiced by Locke in his Letters on Toler- 
ation, in which he argued that the State had no right to interfere with 
the way men might choose to worship. Furthermore, certain influen- 
tial Tories felt under obligation to redeem the promises they had made 



THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW DYNASTY 425 

to Dissenters in order to detach them from James II. The Toleration 
Act of 1689, while it did not repeal the existing penal laws, suspended 
their operation against those who absented themselves from the serv- 
ices of the Established Church and attended other places of worship, 
provided they took the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy and sub- 
scribed to a declaration against transubstantiation. Quakers, who 
scrupled to take oaths, were allowed to hold their assemblies undis- 
turbed on condition of signing the declaration against transubstantia- 
tion, making a confession of Christian belief, and promising fidelity 
to the Government. " Papists," and those who did not believe in the 
Trinity, 1 were expressly excluded from the benefits of the Act. Al- 
though the toleration thus granted was far from complete, " it removed 
a vast mass of evil without shocking a vast mass of prejudice." 

The Bill of Rights (1689). — After a recess of two months, the old 
Convention met for its second session, 19 October, 1689. The chief 
work of the session was to turn the Declaration of Right into a bill. 
A few new provisions were introduced. One provided that any Sov- 
ereign professing the " popish " religion should be incapable of reign- 
ing in England, and, in case he married a " Papist," his subjects were 
to be absolved from their allegiance; but no attempt was made to 
define the term, nor was any machinery devised for carrying the pro- 
vision into effect. Furthermore, the dispensing power, which accord- 
ing to the Declaration was illegal only " as it hath been exercised of 
late," was now done away with altogether. 2 

The Settlement of the Revenue (1690. ) — In a new Parliament which 
met 20 March, 1690, the Commons, after some discussion, voted that 
William should have, in addition to the hereditary Crown revenue 
amounting to £400,000 a year, the income from the excise, which yielded 
some £300,000 annually. This sum, about £700,000 in the aggregate, 
which came to be known as the Civil List, 3 was to be devoted to the 
maintenance of the royal household, the payment of civil officials, 
and in general, to the non-military expenses of the State. The income 
from the customs, variously estimated between £400,000 and £600,000, 
was granted only for four years. Although the outbreak of the war 
necessitated the grant of extraordinary supplies, Parliament adhered 
to the principle that a fixed amount only should be allowed to the King 

1 I.e. Jews and Socinians, the latter forerunners of the Unitarians. 

2 At least, that was the result, for it was provided that exceptions might be 
enumerated during the session, and none were made into law. 

3 Later, Parliament took over the payment of all public expenses, leaving to the 
Sovereign merely the maintenance of the royal household. The income which 
he has for this purpose is still, curiously enough, known as the Civil List. 



426 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for the ordinary needs of the State. Moreover, in the future all grants 
were appropriated for specified purposes. Thus the principle of appro- 
priation of supply * foreshadowed in the reigns of James I and Charles II 
became a regular practice. 

James Appears in Ireland (March, 1689). — The attempts of James, 
through Tyrconnel, to make Ireland a Roman Catholic stronghold, 
the transfer of the administration into the hands of the members of 
that faith, and rumors even of a general massacre had thrown the 
Protestants into a panic. Many fled to England, others prepared 
to defend themselves. Tyrconnel, while he dallied with the terms 
offered by William, hastened to gather his forces, seized cattle and 
supplies, and sent for James. Meantime, he succeeded in reducing 
all Ireland except Ulster, winch contained the bulk of the Protestant 
element. Many of the latter fled for refuge to Londonderry and Ennis- 
killen, leaving their lands and goods at the mercy of their exultant and 
infuriated enemies. James arrived in Dublin, 24 March, 1689. Al- 
though Louis refused him an army, partly because he distrusted his 
abilities, partly because he needed his troops at home, he gave him 
a fleet, together with arms, money and officers to drill the Irish. 

The Irish Parliament. — The Irish Parliament which met 7 May, 
1689, was dominated by extremists, men devoid of experience in public 
affairs and burning to avenge the wrongs of their religion and their 
race. James succeeded in passing a Toleration Act; but he was 
obliged to consent to a series of measures calculated to alienate utterly 
his English supporters. The authority of the English Parliament 
was repudiated. The tithes of the Roman Catholics were transferred 
to their own clergy and the Act of Settlement was repealed. All lands 
forfeited in consequence of the Rebellion of 1641 were restored, and a 
famous Act of Attainder was passed, comprising over 2000 names. 
The property of these included on the list was appropriated forthwith, 
and though the owners were ordered to appear for trial before a cer- 
tain date to prove their innocence, it was at the risk of being hanged, 
drawn and quartered, in the event of almost certain conviction. 

The Siege and Relief of Londonderry. Newton Butler (1689). — 
Already, 19 April, 1689, the siege of Londonderry had begun. Threat- 
ened with starvation, and exposed to constant attacks against the 
weak walls of the city, the dauntless garrison held out with grim de- 
termination for one hundred and five days, until they were finally re- 
lieved by Colonel Kirke, who had shown far more celerity and vigor 
in hunting down the poor peasants involved in the Monmouth rebel- 

1 In conjunction with the Mutiny Act it insured, for the future, annual sessions 
of Parliament. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW DYNASTY 427 

lion than he displayed against the troops of James. The joyous news 
of the relief of Londonderry was immediately followed by the tidings 
that the men of Enniskillen had saved themselves by repulsing an 
attacking force at Newton Butler, 2 August. Reinforcements under 
Schomberg arrived the same month, but his army, consisting largely 
of raw recruits, was in no condition to fight. What with heavy autumn 
rains and bad food, supplied by greedy and dishonest English con- 
tractors, a pestilence broke out. He was obliged to go into winter 
quarters, while the mass of Englishmen, who did not understand the 
situation, howled at his inaction and at the sufferings to which his 
troops were exposed. Such was the situation when William started 
for Ireland in June, 1690. 

The Battle of Beachy Head (29 June, 1690). — Scarcely had he gone 
when a French fleet appeared in the Channel. Admiral Torrington, 
of the combined English and Dutch fleet, was so unprepared that 
he dared not fight, and retreated up the English coast, until he received 
positive orders from the Queen to engage. On 29 June, 1690, he was 
defeated at Beachy Head, after which he continued to retreat and took 
refuge in the Thames. The Dutch were furious because he had put 
their ships where they had to bear the brunt of the fighting. At a 
court martial, subsequently held, it developed their own recklessness 
was to blame, and Torrington was acquitted, though he never received 
another command. Truly it was an anxious time for Englishmen. 
The Channel was left undefended, the country was swarming with 
Jacobites, while, to cap all, news arrived that the French had won a 
victory in the Netherlands. Fortunately, however, the sudden fear 
that Louis XIV might send over an invading army from Dunkirk 
was enough to unite practically the whole country in defense of 
the crown. Many, who wanted to see James restored, had no desire 
to see it done at the cost of a great national humiliation. The 
prospect was still dark enough when William sent back word of a 
notable victory. 

The Battle of the Boyne (1 July, 1690). — In the famous battle of the 
Boyne, which took place 1 July, the English scattered their foes in 
the utmost confusion, in spite of the stubborn resistance of the Irish 
cavalry. James, who had lost the bravery of his youthful days, 
watched the fighting from a safe distance, hurried away as soon as he 
foresaw the result, and speedily sailed for France. The French fleet 
which had cruised along the English coast unopposed after the Battle 
of Beachy Head met with a hot reception on attempting to land troops, 
the militia were everywhere mustered ; indeed, it was not long before 
all England " was up in arms on foot and on horseback . . . and rang 



428 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

with shouts of l God bless King William and Mary.' " The chief 
result of the attempted invasion was to undo the work of English 
Jacobites. 

The Siege and Treaty of Limerick (1691). — After the Battle of the 
Boyne the bulk of the Irish army took refuge at Limerick. William, 
failing to take the town by assault, 17 August, was soon forced to 
raise the siege, owing to heavy rains and lack of powder. He himself 
returned to England ; but the garrison finally capitulated to his army, 
3 October, 1691. Two treaties were framed. By a military treaty, it 
was provided that all officers who desired should be transported to 
France. In a civil treaty, the Roman Catholics of Ireland received a 
promise that they " should enjoy such privileges in the exercise of 
their religion as were consistent with the law, or as they had enjoyed 
in the reign of Charles II." The bulk of the soldiery elected to go to 
France ; many afterwards deserted, but numbers won high distinction 
in the ensuing wars. Those who remained in Ireland were so cowed 
that the country was free from formidable insurrection for over a 
century. 

The Violation of the Treaty of Limerick. — Unhappily, England did 
not temper her victory with mercy or wisdom, but allowed intolerance, 
greed, and oppression to prevail. A new statute was passed by the 
Parliament at Westminster, not only excluding Roman Catholics from 
office, but enacting for the first time that they could not sit in the Irish 
Parliament. That body, consisting henceforth of the representatives 
of the Protestant minority, passed laws, in 1695, providing that no 
" Popish " teacher should be allowed in schools or private houses, 
forbidding " Papists " to carry arms or to own a horse worth more 
than £5. In 1697, in distinct violation of the Treaty of Limerick, 
all Roman Catholic prelates were banished from the kingdom and 
Roman Catholics and Protestants were forbidden to intermarry. These 
were the forerunners of a penal code which was carried to completion 
in the three following reigns. Every inducement was offered to in- 
formers and to those who would desert the faith of their fathers ; for 
example, in the inheritance of property the nearest Roman Catholic 
heirs were passed over in favor of the more remote, provided they were 
Protestants. All that can be said is that the more ferocious laws 
were seldom enforced. Added to the religious restrictions, binding 
shackles were imposed on Irish industry and commerce. The Irish 
were excluded from the English colonial trade, and by an Act of 1699 
the export of their wool and woolen goods was practically prohib- 
ited. Such tyranny and avarice on the part of the Protestant 
minority slowly but surely bore bitter fruit. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW DYNASTY 429 

The Revolution in Scotland, and the Rising of the Highland Clans. 
— The Revolution in Scotland was not accomplished without excite- 
ment, disorder and even a brief period of war. A Convention Parlia- 
ment which met in Edinburgh 24 March, 1689, having voted that 
James by his misdeeds had forfeited the government, named William 
and Mary as his successors. The forces of opposition, however, were 
various and vehement ; but the only serious armed revolt came from 
the Highlanders. This picturesque and beautiful region was then, 
to the mass of Englishmen, and even to the Lowland Scots, an un- 
known country, described by the few who had dared to penetrate its 
rugged mountains and bleak moorlands as a grim, unlovely waste, in- 
habited by savage tribes, utterly ignorant of the ways of civilization 
and regardless of life and the laws of property. Their southern neigh- 
bors, who knew them as cattle stealers and murderous enemies, were as 
little acquainted with their virtues — their courage, their hospitality, 
their dignity and their devotion to clan and family — as they were 
with the beauties of their scenery. Thither, Viscount Dundee, for- 
merly known as Graham of Claverhouse, sought recruits, after he 
had fled from the Whig-dominated Parliament at Edinburgh. The 
clans pressed to join him, not so much out of attachment for the Stuart 
cause as from hatred of the Campbells, whose chief, the Marquis of 
Argyle, had taken the side of William, though another motive was 
the prospect of fighting and plunder. They mustered in May, 1689, 
at Lochaber. Dundee's difficulties were enormous. Each clan was 
a unit in itself. Many nourished long-standing feuds and jealousies, 
the chiefs were proud and sensitive, so that it was next to impossible 
to weld the discordant elements into an army. However, he suc- 
ceeded in eluding for weeks Hugh Mackay, the commander sent against 
him. At length, the two armies met in the pass of Killiekrankie, 27 
July. Mackay was driven from the pass and retreated over the moun- 
tains to Stirling; but the victory of the Highlanders was more than 
offset by the death of Dundee, who was shot during the triumphant 
charge. Mackay soon rallied his men, 1 but the Highlanders had lost 
the only man who could hold them together. Before the end of 
August the whole force had dispersed to their homes. 

The Massacre of Glehcoe (1692). — Unhappily, William's triumph 
was marred by a brutal crime, due to his carelessness or indifference, 
to the vindictiveness of the Campbells, and the desire of the Master 

1 Mackay's defeat led him to make a co ribution to the art of war by inventing 

the modern bayonet, fixed outside of ir i of fitting into the gun barrel. He 

attributed the loss of the battle large' e fact that his men, after they fired, 

could not attach their bayonets quick h to meet the charging Highlanders. 



430 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of Stair, the King's chief adviser, to root out the most unyielding of 
the clans. A proclamation was issued from Edinburgh offering par- 
don to every rebel who, before 31 December, 1691, should swear to 
live peaceably under William and Mary. The chief of the Macdon- 
alds of Glencoe x waited stubbornly until the very last day, when he 
presented himself before an official not empowered to take an oath, 
who sent him with a letter to the sheriff of Argyleshire. The sheriff 
after some hesitation accepted the submission and forwarded the cer- 
tificate to Edinburgh, 6 January. This the Master of Stair suppressed, 
after which he secured William's signature to an order authorizing 
the extermination of the clan. On 1 February a company of sol- 
diers was dispatched to Glencoe, where they stayed for nearly two 
weeks enjoying the rude but plentiful hospitality of the clan. Sud- 
denly, in the early morning of the 13th, they rose and began to mas- 
sacre their hosts. But they made the mistake of shooting instead of 
stabbing their victims, while the troops detailed to block the exits of 
the glen failed to arrive in time, so that a majority escaped. Many 
of them, however, perished of exposure, their homes were set on fire, 
and their cattle driven off. Stair's only regret was that so many got 
away. His enemies, however, and the opponents of the Government 
raised such an outcry that William, though he regarded the deed as a 
wholesome example visited on a gang of thieves and outlaws, was 
forced to consent to a commission of inquiry. Stair was retired and 
remained in private life till the next reign. 

The Alliance against France (1689). — Meantime, William, in the 
autumn of 1689, had completed an alliance against France on which 
he had been laboriously working for years. It included the Empire, 
Spain, England and the Dutch. After his authority had been estab- 
lished in Ireland and Scotland, he departed, 18 January, 1691, to 
meet the allies in a congress at the Hague. Though his combination 
seemed an overwhelming one, it had almost no cohesion. Each of the 
Powers, determined on giving as little and getting as much as possible, 
counted on leaving the Dutch and English to bear the brunt of the 
fighting and the expense. They quarreled with one another about 
points of precedence, they were separated by trade rivalries and re- 
ligious differences, while Louis, fighting on inside lines, was master of 
the resources of his Kingdom, and, ably assisted by Louvois, the greatest 
War Minister, Luxemburg, the greatest general, and Vauban, the great- 
est engineer of the age, could direct singly and unopposed the opera- 
tions of his armies. 

1 Meaning literally Glen of Weeping. It was a dreary inaccessible spot on the 
western coast. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW DYNASTY 431 

The Dismissal Of Marlborough. — William had not only to manage 
his allies and to keep up their enthusiasm but to face one Jacobite 
plot after another. No less than three whom he regarded as trusty 
supporters entered into treasonable negotiations with the enemy. 
Marlborough l went to the greatest lengths ; for he actually intrigued 
with the Jacobites to get rid of William, with the ultimate aim of 
putting not James, but Anne, in his place. The Jacobites, becoming 
suspicious, disclosed his designs, which led William to dismiss him, 
10 January, 1692. It was a serious loss that, throughout the war, he 
was deprived of the aid of one destined to prove himself in the next 
reign the most remarkable of England's generals. 

The Victory of La Hogue, 1692. — Early in 1692, James, counting 
on his popularity with the navy and the discontent of Russell, who 
commanded the Channel fleet, prepared an invasion of England. Hav- 
ing assembled a fleet and mustered an army to be transported to the 
English coast, he issued a stupid and ill-timed declaration, in which 
he not only expressed no regret for the past and gave no promises for 
the future, but breathed dire vengeance against all who should oppose 
his return, and even published a list of those whom he had marked 
out for punishment. Indeed, it was so damning that the English 
Government had it licensed and freely distributed, which proceeding, 
together with the prospect of attack, roused the intensest patriotism. 
Russell, who, though in a fit of dissatisfaction at the grants he had 
received from William, had corresponded with the enemy, was a 
stanch Whig and zealous for the fame of the English navy, and de- 
clared : " Do not think that I will let the French triumph over us in 
our own sea ... if I meet them, I fight them, aye, though his Majesty 
himself should be on board." So, when their fleet appeared in the 
Channel, they were met by a combined force of the English and the 
Dutch, who drove the French ships back to the Norman coast and 
burned the bulk of them in the harbor of La Hogue, before the very 
face of James and his army, 19-24 May. 

William's Loss of Namur and Defeat at Steenkerke (1692). — The 
triumph at La Hogue, however, was more than counterbalanced by 
William's reverses in the Netherlands — his loss, in June, of Namur, 
commanded by a citadel never before taken, and his defeat by Luxem- 
burg, 3 August, at Steenkerke on the road from Namur to Brussels. 
When the King returned to England in October, after narrowly escap- 
ing an attempt on his life hatched in the French War Office, the situa- 
tion was altogether discouraging. English merchantmen were suffer- 
ing from the pillaging of the enemy's privateers, the harvest had failed, 

1 John Churchill had been created Earl of Marlborough at the coronation. 



432 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

owing to heavy rains, and the insecurity and discontent were aggravated 
by a startling increase of crime. Housebreakers and footpads were 
so bold and active that William had to detail cavalry to guard the 
roads to London and to take the sternest measures to put down dis- 
order. Having, with the greatest difficulty, secured supplies for the 
coming campaign from a Parliament torn by faction, he started back 
for the Netherlands 24 March, 1693. 

William's Defeat at Neerwinden (19 July, 1693). —This year the 
allied army took a strongly intrenched position where Luxemburg 
attacked it, 19 July. The battle of Neerwinden — or Landen, as it 
is sometimes called from a neighboring village — the bloodiest battle 
of the century and one of the most terrible ever fought in the Nether- 
lands, resulted in another defeat for William. But Luxemburg, though 
he drove him from the field, did not follow him up, either because his 
forces were too crippled or because he lacked energy. William, with 
the wonderful power of recovery for which he was famous, rallied his 
forces at Brussels, and ended the year's campaign in a position fully 
as strong as when it began. 

The Failure of the Expedition to Brest. English Successes in the 
Mediterranean, 1694. — The French plan of war for 1694 was to con- 
centrate its energies in the Mediterranean against England's Spanish 
ally. The English, on their part, planned to send out two naval ex- 
peditions, one against Brest, the other to the Mediterranean. The 
destination of the first was betrayed by Marlborough, who can by 
no means be exonerated on the ground that the secret had already 
been disclosed. He apparently had a double motive ; to secure him- 
self in case William's enemies triumphed, and to discredit his ablest 
rival, who was in command. The expedition, delayed by contrary 
winds in the bargain, failed in its object, and accomplished nothing 
beyond devastating a few undefended points along the French coast. 
Russell, however, who went to the Mediterranean, was able to save 
Barcelona from an attack of a combined French army and fleet and 
to force them to take refuge under the guns of Toulon. His success 
marked another step in the rise of the English sea power, and, by check- 
ing Louis XIV's Spanish designs, exercised an effective influence on 
the subsequent course of the war. 

The Death of Queen Mary (28 December, 1694). — On 28 December, 
1694, Queen Mary died of smallpox at the early age of thirty- two. By 
her marriage with William of Orange she became a great factor in 
frustrating the designs of James II and checking the growing ascend- 
ancy of Louis XIV. She had endeared herself to the Dutch, and 
her popularity with the English went far to soften the animosity against 



THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NEW DYNASTY 433 

her sour Consort and his Dutch favorites. The King's grief at her 
loss was terrible, though he had only tardily come to appreciate her 
devotion, especially after she had readily renounced her rights to the 
throne that he might be the more a King. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Lodge; Trevelyan; Macaulay; Ranke; and Cambridge 
Modern History. 

Constitutional. Maitland, English Constitutional History, period IV ; 
Hallam ; Taswell-Langmead ; and Taylor. Mary T. Blauvelt, The De- 
velopment of Cabinet Government (1902), a good brief sketch. For scholarly 
treatments of the origin and growth of the Cabinet, see H. W. V. Temperly 
and Sir Wm. Anson, English Historical Review, XXVII, 682 ff. and XXIX, 
56-78, and E. R. Turner, American Historical Review, XVIII, 751-768, 
XIX, 27-43. A. S. Turberville, The House of Lords in the Reign of William 
III (1913). 

Army and Navy. Fortescue ; Clowes; Mahan, Sea Power; and Corbett, 
England in the Mediterranean, I. 

Scotland and Ireland. P. H. Brown; Turner and Joyce. For a full 
bibliography, see Cambridge Modern History, V, 825-837. 

Special. Seeley, British Policy and The Expansion of England (1895), 
a luminous treatment. 

Contemporary. Burnet. 

Church. Hutton ; Wakeman ; and Stoughton. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 23 5-240. Robert- 
son, Select Statutes, pt. I, nos. XII-XVII. 



JF 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

THE COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 
WILLIAM ALONE (1 694-1 702) 

The Assassination Plot (1695-1696), and the Attainder of Fenwick 

(1697). — The death of Mary, by breaking one of the strongest links 
between William and the English people, revived the hopes of the 
Jacobites, who planned another attempt to restore James, this time 
by means of an assassination plot, later coupled with a scheme for 
raising an insurrection assisted by an invasion from France. How- 
ever, the Duke of Berwick, a natural son of James, who came to Eng- 
land in January, 1696, to prepare the way for the projected invasion, 
failed to induce the Jacobites to rise, while, in February, a design to in- 
tercept and kill the King was betrayed. Most of the conspirators 
were arrested, though, owing to the King's wise forbearance, only eight 
were put to death. Among them was Sir John Fenwick, who while 
implicated in the projected insurrection, seems to have had nothing 
to do with the attempt to murder his Sovereign. He was executed, 
28 January, 1697, after conviction by Bill of Attainder, the last man in 
England to suffer by this process. 

The Restoration of the Coinage (1696). — Meantime, the great war 
was drawing to a close. During 1695, William had succeeded in re- 
covering Namur, but in the campaign of 1696 the movements of both 
armies were hampered by lack of money. France was reduced to a 
state of downright misery, and England was suffering from a tempo- 
rary financial stringency, due largely to a restoration of the currency. 
In spite of severe penalties, old clipped and mutilated coins circulated 
freely, while new ones with milled edges were hoarded or melted down 
and sold as bullion. The evil was bound to continue so long as those 
under weight were accepted at their face value. Through the efforts 
of four remarkable men, John Locke, Lord Somers, Charles Montagu, 
and Sir Isaac Newton, a Recoinage Act was passed, January, 1696, 
and carried into effect, which provided that the old damaged coins 
should cease to be legal tender by 4 May. The Government agreed 

434 



THE COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 435 

to replace, at their face value, old coins that were turned in; but, though 
the new issue was made with unprecedented rapidity, it did not come 
fast enough at first to supply the place of the money drawn from cir- 
culation. It was not till March, 1697, that the crisis was past. 

The Peace of Ryswick (1697). — In order to consider overtures of 
peace made by Louis XIV a congress of the allies assembled 9 May, 
1697, at Ryswick, but it occupied so much time in ceremonious display 
and trifling points of precedence that William, heartily disgusted, de- 
cided to open negotiations with Louis on his own account. Accord- 
ingly, in June, he sent a trusted agent to confer privately with a rep- 
resentative selected by the French King, with the result that before 
the end of July they had settled all the terms in which England and 
France were concerned, while the Congress was still wrangling over 
tedious formalities. So, 20/30 September, 1697, in spite of the pro- 
tests of James, the Treaty of Ryswick was signed by England, France, 
the United Provinces, and Spain. According to the terms of the 
peace, William was acknowledged as King of England with Anne as 
his successor, and Louis promised not to aid in plots against him. All 
conquests made during the war were restored, though Louis was allowed 
to retain certain places which he had " reunited " * since 1678, and 
the chief fortresses in the Netherlands were garrisoned with Dutch 
troops as a barrier against France. The Emperor thus isolated made 
peace with France, 30 October. In spite of notable victories, Louis 
had been checked for the first time in his victorious career, .and had 
been forced to acknowledge William in place of James, thus completing 
the Revolution of 1688. 

Internal Progress in England. A New Financial Era. — During 
the years that war raged on the Continent, a series of measures were 
passed in England of far-reaching importance in financial, economic, 
political and legal developments. Louis, during the late war, had 
declared that the Power with the last gold piece would win, and it 
was due in a large degree to the effective financial organization begun 
in this period that England gained her successes in the great European 
conflicts of the eighteenth century. Moreover, it- resulted in the ascend- 
ancy of the Whigs and the permanence of the Revolution settlement. 
The moneyed classes — the merchants and traders — belonged mainly 
to the Whig party, which grew in strength and influence as the State 
turned to it more and more- for loans. Then, naturally, men who had 
invested their funds under the existing Government would struggle 
to uphold it ; since the return of James meant repudiation of the debts 
which it had contracted. 

1 I.e. appropriated on the ground that they had once belonged to France. 



( 

436 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Beginnings of the National Debt (1693). — The new policy was 
chiefly the work of a remarkable politician and financier, Charles Mon- 
tagu (1665-1715), created Baron and later Earl of Halifax. At the 
very beginning of King William's War it became evident that, in spite 
of new and increased taxes, the annual revenue was insufficient to 
cover expenses. On the other hand, there was a surplus of capital 
in the country and few opportunities of placing it safely and profitably. 
Many were reduced to hoarding their savings in strong boxes or bury- 
ing them in the ground. In consequence, stock jobbers and fraudulent 
companies, with all sorts of speculative schemes, began to multiply 
alarmingly. There were, for instance, a Royal Academies Company 
for the education of young gentlemen in every branch of human learn- 
ing, and a Diving Company to recover lost treasure from the sea, to 
mention only two. Profiting by the example of Italy, France and the 
Netherlands which had long had permanent debts, Montagu deter- 
mined to secure for the use of the Government some of the surplus 
capital which was lying idle or being wasted in futile speculations. 
To that end, he framed a measure which became law in January, 1693, 
for borrowing £1,000,000. The subscribers were to receive life 
annuities of 10 per cent till 1700 and 7 per cent after that date. 
Such was the beginning of the National Debt. 

The Foundation of the Bank of England (1694). — Neither the loan 
of 1693, nor various new devices which were tried, proved adequate 
to meet the constantly swelling expenses of the war, whereupon Mon- 
tagu adopted another expedient — the founding of the Bank of Eng- 
land. Already, in the reign of Charles II, men had begun to intrust 
their money to the goldsmiths, who had special facilities for the safe- 
keeping of the precious metals which they employed in their busi- 
ness. The depositors received notes which they circulated in their 
transactions, while the goldsmiths frequently let out at interest the 
funds intrusted to their care. In this way the banking business in 
England began. Before the close of Charles's reign the question of a 
national bank commenced to be discussed. At Genoa there had been 
such an institution for almost three centuries, and there was a bank 
of Amsterdam nearly a hundred years old. The plan adopted by 
Montagu was based on a scheme by William Paterson, a Scot, soon to 
attain unenviable notoriety. The new project provided that the Gov- 
ernment should borrow £1,200,000 at 8 per cent, and that the sub- 
scribers should be incorporated as the " Governor and Company of 
the Bank of England," with authority to engage in private banking, 
to borrow and lend upon security and to deal in bullion and bills of 
exchange. The Bank could also issue notes, — a privilege in which, 



THE COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 437 

for exceptional services, it secured a monopoly in 1697, though such 
notes were not legal tender. 

The Triennial Act (1694). — An attempt at parliamentary reform 
resulted in a new Triennial Act in 1694. The Act of 1641 had been 
primarily concerned to secure frequent Parliaments, but the practice 
of passing the Mutiny Act and of appropriating supplies annually had 
rendered a precaution of this sort no longer necessary. A crying evil, 
however, was the corruption and bribery which had come to flourish 
so rankly. If members were only called to account by their constit- 
uents at long and infrequent intervals, they were bound to barter their 
votes all the more readily. By the Triennial Act of 1694, the duration 
of Parliament was limited to three years. 

The Act Regulating Trials for Treason (1696). — While the Habeas 
Corpus Act had made it difficult to hold accused persons in prison 
without cause and while juries were no longer answerable for verdicts 
contrary to the wishes of the Government, 1 the case of a prisoner 
brought before the courts was grievous. He was not shown a copy 
of his indictment before the trial, and so did not know of what he was 
accused until he appeared at the bar. He had no power to compel the 
attendance of witnesses, nor to force such as came to testify under 
oath, and he was denied the benefit of counsel. After the Tories had 
got a taste of what the Whigs and Nonconformists had long suffered, 
they began to join in seeking a remedy. The result was a bill for regu- 
lating trials in cases of high treason, which finally became law in 1696. 
Its main provisions were : that no person could be convicted of a trea- 
son committed more than three years before the indictment was found, 
that every person accused of high treason might be allowed the benefit 
of counsel ; that he should be furnished with a copy of the indictment 
at least five days before the trial, and a list from which the jury was 
to be taken ; that his witnesses should be sworn ; that they should 
be cited by the same process as those summoned against him ; and 
that there must be for conviction two witnesses to the same overt act 
or to two related acts of the same treason. 2 

The End of the Censorship of the Press (1695). — Meantime, a long 
step had been taken toward the emancipation of the Press. For a 
good while, the Government had sought to muzzle the expression of 
public opinion by a strict censorship over all printed matter. Nothing 
could be published without a license, and the official censor exercised 
a wide and oppressive discretion. Milton, in the Areopagitica, made 

1 Decided in Bushel's case, 1670. 

2 Prisoners in ordinary criminal cases had to wait till the nineteenth century 
before their lot was appreciably bettered. 



438 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

a noble but futile plea against such a state of things. At length, in 
1693, when the Licensing Act came up for renewal, a curious quarrel 
in which the official licenser became involved, and which had no bear- 
ing on the merits of the question, led to the first debate in Parliament 
on the liberty of the Press, with the consequence that the Act was re- 
newed only for two years and then allowed to expire. This final re- 
nunciation of the censorship of the Press was based, not on any broad 
grounds of principle, but was due to petty abuses connected with the 
administration of the Act. The new era of the modern newspaper 
began. Hitherto, the only newspaper had been the London Gazette l 
which contained nothing but such official news as the Secretary of 
State was pleased to allow to be published. Now appeared the Eng- 
lish Courant, followed by others in quick succession. With the re- 
moval of the censorship, the temper of the pamphlets and papers im- 
proved perceptibly ; for, up to this time, only the violent and reckless 
had dared to defy the law. Even yet. the Press was far from being 
absolutely free. The law of libel was strictly enforced, and, from the 
time of Anne until the nineteenth century, heavy stamp duties operated 
to keep down the number of cheap newspapers. 

William Turns toward the Whigs (1693). — The Press came to be 
the chief organ for informing and expressing public opinion — an 
essential factor in party government. It was in this period that Min- 
isters were, for the first time, chosen because they represented the 
party dominant in the House of Commons. As early as 1690 William 
had been advised to govern exclusively through Whig Ministers, for 
the reason that the Tories were chiefly Jacobites. William, however, 
disliked to bind himself absolutely to the Whigs. While the Tories, 
as a party, were inclined to the exiled James, they were supporters of 
prerogative and their leaders were experienced in administration. The 
Whigs, on the other hand, had been so long out of office that few of 
their number were well versed in public affairs, and they were opposed 
to giving the King a free hand either at home or abroad. But, grad- 
ually, William's own political sagacity and the arguments of Sunder- 
land, who had wormed himself into his confidence, had convinced him 
that the success of his contest against Louis could best be secured by 
confiding himself to Ministers who commanded the support of the 
Whig party which controlled the Commons, was financing the war, 
and whose commercial prosperity, property, and religious and political 
security depended upon its favorable issue. Its leaders at that time 
consisted of a group of four men of remarkable ability and influence 
known as the " Junto." 

1 Started in 1665 as the Oxford Gazette. 



THE COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 439 

The " Junto" and the First Party Cabinet ( 1 694-1 697). — Two 
call for special mention. John Somers was a sagacious, many-sided 
man', reputed to be the most eminent jurist and statesman of his 
time. 1 Montagu was already recognized for his financial ability and 
skill in debate. The Tories, disunited and disorganized, had no effec- 
tive leaders to pit against this combination, for their ablest men had 
lost their influence. Yet, William, who disliked certain of the Whig 
group, and who valued the services of several of his Tory Ministers, 
only slowly and of necessity supplanted them by Whigs in the Cabinet. 
The process occupied four years, from 1693 to 1697, and, even then, 
he continued to consult such unofficial advisers as Sunderland and a 
Dutch favorite, the Earl of Portland. 

The Reduction of the Standing Army (1697-1698). — No sooner 
was the war over than Parliament came into violent conflict with the 
King by insisting on a reduction of the standing army. The step 
was due partly to economy, for the public debt had increased to 
£17,000,000, and partly to a prevalent view that a standing army was 
not only contrary to the Constitution but dangerous to liberty. People 
remembered the power that Cromwell had been able to wield with the 
New Model at his back and the strife which his generals had caused 
after his death ; they remembered, too, how James had tried to over- 
awe London with his force on Hounslow Heath. There were angry 
debates in Parliament and a hot pamphlet controversy as well. In 
spite of all, the army was reduced from 87,000 to 7000, 2 though a liberal 
grant was made for the maintenance of the navy. The King, who 
was firmly convinced that such a wholesale reduction of the army was 
the surest way to precipitate a new war, was so disgusted that he 
again talked of quitting the country. 

The Break-up of the Whig Ministry (1699). — The defeat of the 
King in his attempt to prevent the reduction of the army and the re- 
sumption by the State of Irish lands of adherents of James — a struggle 
in which the King's sharp practice and eagerness to reward favorites 
was only equaled by the partisan bitterness of the two Houses — 
are only the chief indications of the failure of his Ministry to control 
Parliament after the general election of 1698. The Tories did not 
get an actual majority until the Parliament of 1701 ; but, reenforced 
by the malcontent Whigs, they were able to obstruct the Junto at 

1 Recently, however, some historians have come to think that, owing to the 
influence of Macaulay, the attainments and integrity of Somers have been over- 
rated. 

2 It was further provided that it should consist of Englishmen alone, thus neces- 
sitating the exclusion of the Dutch guards. 



440 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

every turn. One by one, they left the Government — Montagu 1 
resigned in 1699, while Somers was deprived of the Great Seal in 1700. 
In the later, more developed stage of the party system they would 
have retired in a body, directly a hostile majority was formed against 
them, or have appealed to the country in a general election. However, 
the fact that William dismissed Somers in consequence of a parlia- 
mentary attack marked another stage in the progress of party gov- 
ernment. 

The Act of Settlement (1701). — One measure of great significance 
stands out in the midst of the strife and confusion of these years — the 
Act of Settlement, which formed a necessary supplement to the Bill 
of Rights. It was occasioned by the death, in July, 1 701, of Anne's 
last surviving child. In providing for the succession, the Bill of Rights 
went no further than the descendants of Anne. The new Act, ex- 
cluding all other claimants, provided that, in the event of the death 
of Anne without heirs, the crown should pass to Sophia, Electress of 
Hanover, and her descendants. She was the granddaughter of James 
I and the nearest Protestant representative of the English royal house. 2 
Various limitations were also embodied in the Act, some to take effect 
only when the new line came to the throne. Six are especially im- 
portant : (1) Whoever shall come to the throne of England shall join 
in communion with the Church of England. (2) In case such Sove- 
reigns shall not be natives of England they shall not engage the nation 
in war in defense of territories not belonging to the crown of England 
except by consent of Parliament. (3) Such Sovereigns shall not 
go out of the realm without parliamentary consent. (4) No person 
having an office of place or profit under the King, or who receives a 
pension from him, shall sit in the House of Commons. (5) Judges 
shall hold office during good behavior and shall be removed only upon 
an address of both Houses. (6) No pardon may be pleaded in bar 
of an impeachment. 

While the first three of these provisions were designed as safe- 
guards in the event of a foreign Sovereign coming to the throne, the 
last three deal with distinctly domestic problems. The provision re- 
lating to office-holders not sitting in Parliament was modified by an 

1 He retained, however, the Auditorship of the Exchequer. 

2 She was adaughterof Elizabeth and Palsgrave Frederick (see above, p. 295), and 
had married the Elector of Hanover. Two branches of the House of Stuart were 
nearer in the line of descent, but were both excluded because of their Roman 
Catholic faith. The elder line, descended from James II, became extinct with the 
death of his grandson Henry, Cardinal of York, in 1807. The younger was de- 
scended from the sister of James II who married the Duke of Orleans ; it is at present 
represented by Mary, wife of the former King of Bavaria. 



THE COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 441 

Act of 1705 which remains in force to-day. 1 The fifth provision merely 
remedied the evil of appointing judges during the royal pleasure, a 
power which the first two Stuarts had so grossly abused. The last 
was a legal confirmation of the attitude taken by Parliament in the 
impeachment of Danby in 1678. 

The War of the Spanish Succession. The Claimants to the Spanish 
Throne. — Meantime, England had been drifting into another great 
Continental war occasioned by a scramble for the Spanish inheritance. 
Louis XIV and the Emperor Leopold I were impatiently waiting the 
death of the shadow King Charles II to grab his dominions, the one 
for the House of Bourbon, the other for the House of Hapsburg. Both 
had a claim on the inheritance, while still a third claim was advanced 
in behalf of Joseph Ferdinand, the infant son of the Elector of Bavaria. 2 
Since in the interest of the European balance of power, neither England 
nor Holland would consent to a union of Spain either with France or 
the Empire, Louis urged the Bourbon claim in behalf of his second 
grandson, Philip of Anjou, while Leopold put in his for his second son, 
Charles. 

1 The Place Act of 1 705 provided that holders of offices created after that date 
should be ineligible to sit in the House of Commons, while a member of the Lower 
House appointed to an office which existed earlier must resign his seat and submit 
himself for reelection. This, however, does not prevent Parliament, in the Act 
creating a new office, from providing that the incumbent may sit in the House of 
Commons. 

2 Philip III 



I I I 

Louis XIII m. Anna Maria Philip IV Maria Anna m. Ferdinand III 



burg 
3d wife 



Louis XIV m. Maria Theresa Charles II Margaret m. Leopold I m. Eleanor 

of New- 

I . 

Louis Max Emanuel of m. Maria Antonia 

Bavaria 

Joseph Charles 
Louis Philip Joseph Ferdinand 

Both Louis XIII and Louis XIV had married elder daughters of Philip III and 
Philip IV respectively ; but both Infantas had renounced on their marriage any 
claim to inherit the throne of Spain. Louis XIV, however, denied the validity of 
these renunciations. Philip IV by will had left the crown, on the event of the death 
of Charles without issue, to the heirs of Margaret. Her daughter Maria Antonia, 
however, had renounced her claim in favor of any son that her father might have 
from a subsequent marriage; but this step was not recognized as legal by the 
Spanish. 



442 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The First and Second Partition Treaties (1698 and 1700). - The 
prideof the Spanish demanded that the Monarchy should be handed 
on intact ; though a partition between the claimants seemed the only 

solution of the vexed question. The French King played a double 

game. While his ambassador was laboring at the Spanish court to 
serine the whole of the Spanish inheritance if possible, he and William 
negotiated the First Partition Treaty, 1 signed October, [698, whereby 
the Spanish possessions were divided between the Electoral Prince of 
Bavaria, the Bourbons, and the Hapsburgs. The Spanish were furious 
when the news leaked out, and Charles II, 14 November, 1O0S, pro- 
ceeded to confirm the will of Philip IV, leaving the whole dominion 
to Joseph Ferdinand, This arrangement, however, was upset by the 
sudden death of the Electoral Prince, 5 February, [609, whereupon, 
a second Partition Treaty was framed between England ami France 
which was finally signed in February, 1700. The Emperor, not sat- 
isfied with the share allotted to him, hung off. King Charles, when 
the news was communicated to him, " Hew into an extraordinary pas- 
sion," and French diplomacy, supported by the Church, now worked 
st> effectively upon him and his advisers that he signed a final will, 
^ October, 1700, less than a month before his death, leaving all his 
dominions to Philip of Anjou on condition that they should never be 
united to Prance. Louis forthwith threw over the Second Partition 
Treaty. 

The Tories Forced to Join the War Party. —War was now inevi- 
table; but it seemed at first doubtful whether William could carry 
England with him ; for the Tories, whose policy was peace with. France, 
were in a majority in the new Parliament which opened in February, 
1701. However, the realization that Spain was to be used as a pawn 
in Louis' great game of establishing the political and commercial as- 
cendancy of France aroused such a storm of anti-French wrath through- 
out England that even the Tory House of Commons was forced to 
join in the cry for war. The Spanish ambassador at Paris first aroused 
disquiet by declaring: // n*y </ plus de PyrenSes.* Then Louis showed 
his hand: in December of 1700 he declared that his grandson Philip 
of Anjou by mounting the throne of Spain did not renounce his place 
in the line oi succession to the crown of France; in February, 1701, 

1 John Arbuthnot wrote a witty satire, entitled The History of John Bid!, in which 
he represented England ami Holland as a clothier and a linen draper undertaking 
to settle the estate of a bedridden old gentleman. The name now applied to the 
typical Englishman may be traced to this work. 

literally "There are no more Pyrenees," meaning that henceforth France and 

Spain were one. 



THE COMPLETION OF THE REVOLUTION OF [688 443 

liis troops took possession of the Barrier Fortresses in the Spanish 
Netherlands, and, what touched the greal mercantile class in England 
even more closely, lie* issued a proclamation that France would be 
treated as the most favored nation in the Spanish-American trade. 
A stream of pamphlets appeared, unfolding vehemently the dangers 
which threatened the country and her commerce. 1 Public opinion 

demanded immediate action, to which the Commons soon responded 

by voting William a generous sum for aiding his allies to the extent 
of waging war if necessary. 

The Grand Alliance (7 September, 1701). In July, negotiations 
were opened, with the result that the treaty, known as the Grand 
Alliance, was signed 7 September, 1 701 . By it the Spanish possessions 
in the Netherlands and Italy were to he secured lor the House of 
Austria, while England and Holland were to have any conquests 
which they might make in the western world. The genera] purposes 

of the war were to check the growth of France, to protect the Nether- 
lands by an adequate barrier, and to secure English and Dutch trade. 
The Death of James II (6 September, 1701). Although Willi am 
had not heard of it when he signed the treaty of the Grand Alliance, 

another event had occurred which accentuated (he growing hostility 

to France. James II died 6 September, and Louis, visiting him on his 

death bed, promised solemnly to recognize his son as James III, King 

of England. In a splendid speech, the last he ever made to Parliament , 
William emphasized the danger which this recognition involved to 

the Protestant religion and to the " present and future tranquility and 
happiness of the country." The Mouses, in reply, voted an army of 
40,000 soldiers, together with an equal force for the fleet, and, early 
in 1702, passed an Abjuration Bill, which made it treasonable to have 
any dealings with the son of James, and imposed a new oat h, acknowl- 
edging William as the rightful heir and lawful King and abjuring the 
Pretender. 

Death of William (8 March, 1702). William did not live to open 
the spring campaign: following his death, <S March, tin- greal work 
which he had begun was taken up and carried to a splendid fulfillment 
by Marlborough who had once sought to betray him. Although the 

late King had come to England as a deliverer, he had never been popu- 
lar with the mass of his subjects. His faults of temper, his dislike 
ol the country and the people, go far to account for this. Hut the 
explanation lies even deeper. In order to concentrate his resources 
for his supreme task — that of frustrating the designs of France — he 
1 England did much Legitimate business wiili the Spanish possessions in the way 

of carrying on trade and exchange «)[ wares, and still more smuggling. 



444 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

labored to maintain a strong executive at a time when the tendency 
was toward increased Parliamentary control. Many of the chief con- 
stitutional reforms of the reign not only did not originate with him but 
were only accepted by him as inevitable concessions. He directed 
his own foreign policy without consulting his Ministers any more than 
he was absolutely obliged to; he was opposed to the Whigs and to 
Parliamentary inquiry, and he struggled throughout his reign for a 
standing army and an independent revenue, commonly regarded as 
the instruments of despotism. Yet his merits and achievements were 
great. Men who did not love him respected his courage and his 
steadfastness. He forced an Act of Grace on the angry and revengeful 
Whigs, he was largely responsible for the Toleration Act, and he was 
the first to put into operation the system of party government. Finally , 
his wars with France prepared the way for Great Britain's commercial 
and colonial supremacy. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Lodge ; Macaulay ; and Ranke. 

Special. C. F. Dunbar, Theory and History of Banking (2 ed., 1901), 
ch. XI, an excellent brief account of the Bank of England. A. Andreades, 
History of the Bank of England (tr. C. Meredith, 1909). 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, 241-243. Robertson, 
Select Statutes, pt. I, nos. XVIII-XX. 

For further references, see Chapter XXXVI above. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY. ANNE (1702-1714) 

The Character of Anne. — Anne was thirty-seven years old when 
she succeeded William, 8 March, 1702. Naturally meek and sluggish 
and of a limited understanding, she was incapable of dealing independ- 
ently with the great problems at home and abroad which confronted 
her. She had warm affections and strong prejudices, she allowed her 
friends to mold her as wax, and, like her father, obstinately regarded 
those who disagreed with her as unworthy of all confidence. She 
could hardly have been more unfortunate in her closest associates. 
Sarah Jennings, wife of John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, with 
whom as a girl she had contracted the most intimate of friendships, 
gained a complete ascendancy over her which lasted well into the new 
reign. Waiving the formalities of royalty, the favorite, under the 
name of Mrs. Freeman, addressed her nominal mistress as Mrs. Mor- 
ley. Utterly without scruple, her interests were thoroughly bound 
up with those of her husband, though she often quarreled with him, 
as she did with every one who came within range of her shrewish 
tongue. Yet, while she embittered all Anne's family relationships 
and fomented party strife, her efforts to advance her family contrib- 
uted greatly to the triumph which England achieved in the war 
about to open. 

Her Relation to Parties and to her People. — Anne abhorred faction ; 
but she was passionately devoted to the Church and she hated the 
Whigs, whom she regarded as hostile alike to the Establishment and 
to the prerogative. This led her to meddle busily in the administra- 
tion of public affairs, whereby she came into sharp conflict with the 
growing tendency toward party government. All in all, however, 
she was personally popular. More important still, she represented 
the cause of Protestantism against the Pretender ; moreover, she sup- 
ported the Continental war until the zeal of her subjects was spent, 
until they began to grumble over the expense and to ask themselves 
what they were getting in return for all they had done for the Allies. 

445 



446 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Parties. Their Composition and Aims. The Tories. — In spite 
of Anne's prejudices, worked upon by " court intrigues and faction," 
the two great parties came to exercise a steadily increasing influence. 
The Tories, composed largely of the most conservative element in the 
realm — the squirearchy and the country parsons — set themselves 
obstinately against the changes which followed in the wake of the Revo- 
lution. They were opposed bitterly to toleration for Dissenters as a 
serious menace to true religion ; to the National Debt and the Bank, 
which tended to enhance the power of the moneyed classes over the 
landed ; and to a standing army employed against the Monarch who 
sheltered their true King. The great Whig lords were abominable in 
their eyes, since many of them were new men, not a few sprung from 
trading and Dissenting stock, and most of them allied with that class. 
The Whig bishops and Low Churchmen they classed as freethinkers 
or Presbyterians, hating them in consequence. Although the majority 
were stanch supporters of the existing Sovereign against the Pretender, 
they were seriously handicapped from the fact that, in principle, they 
still adhered to their anti-Revolutionary doctrines, a fact which caused 
their loyalty to Anne and the Hanoverian succession to be seriously 
doubted. 

The Whigs. — The Whigs, made up of the great lords, the bulk of 
bishops and town clergy, the Nonconformists, the army men, the mer- 
chants, the financiers, and the small freeholders, were, in general — 
although their practice did not always accord with their principles — 
the party of progress, of popular as distinct from class interests, favor- 
ing the growth of commerce and toleration and the limitation of the 
prerogative. Also, it was they who advocated a vigorous prosecution 
of the war against France. 

The Resources of France and the Allies at the Opening of the War. 
— On 4 May, 1702, the Allies at London, the Hague, and Vienna all 
declared war on France, while the Imperial General had already begun 
fighting in Italy during the previous year. In many respects Louis 
XIV seemed to have even greater advantages than in the previous 
struggle. Not only was he fighting on inside lines, but his flanks were 
guarded by Spain on the south and by the fortresses in the Nether- 
lands on the north, while his alliance with the Elector. of Bavaria thrust 
a wedge between the Dutch and the Austrians. He had an army of 
400,000 men well disciplined and full of confidence, a fair-sized fleet 
and a considerable revenue. On the other hand, the tremendous 
strain due to the expenses of his magnificent Court and his constant 
wars had begun to tell. His debts were so enormous that he could 
only borrow money at 15 to 20 per cent, and it took hah his annual 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 447 

revenue to pay the interest. Of the Allies, Holland had a small army 
but a strong fleet and extensive public credit, while the Emperor, who 
could furnish large contingents, had no money to pay them. The 
burden of the war fell more and more on the English. When it opened 
their fleet already greatly outnumbered the French, and while their 
standing army consisted of only 7,000 troops in England and 12,000 
in Ireland, adequate forces were soon equipped and sent into the 
field. More than a third of their total debt was funded, money 
could be borrowed at 6 per cent, and, though the annual revenue 
was far from adequate, it was speedily swelled by extraordinary 
supplies. On the other hand, though the Tories at first supported 
the war, party strife soon became acute, while the Allies, who had 
nothing in common but the desire to crush France, were torn by 
conflicting interests. 

General Features of the War. — There were four main theaters 
of war: the Dutch border; the valley of the Danube, which com- 
manded the road to Vienna ; the Po valley, the key to southern France ; 
and Spain, where Philip V had been set up as King. In the course of 
the struggle the Allies succeeded in driving the French out of Germany 
(1704) ; out of Italy (1706) ; and out of the Netherlands (1 706-1 708) ; 
indeed they were baffled nowhere except in Spain. This was due to 
their two remarkable leaders, Marlborough and the commander of 
the Imperial forces, Prince Eugene ; to the invaluable lessons which 
the Allied troops had learned from their defeats under William ; and 
to the diminished French resources, resulting from Louis' dazzling 
but costly conquests. 

Marlborough. — In spite of Marlborough's attempted treason, 
William, recognizing his remarkable military and diplomatic ability, 
had employed him in the negotiations leading up to the Grand Alliance. 
Now, owing to the influence of his wife, he was made Captain-Gen- 
eral of the English forces; while the Dutch made him Commander- 
in-Chief of their army as well. He fought nobly for England in court 
and camp ; but he was so consumed with ambition and so sordid in 
his love of money that one is bound to believe that with him personal 
consideration counted more than love of country. But if he was a 
base, he was a splendid figure ; his beauty, his charm of manner, his 
tact and patience made him irresistible. As a commander, in planning 
campaigns and in conducting battles and sieges, he showed a courage 
and energy, a boldness tempered with caution, and gained a degree 
of success which no English general has ever equaled. In his diplo- 
macy, brilliant as it was, he made the ultimate mistake of pressing 
Louis too far, possibly because he wanted to continue the war for his 



448 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

own glory, possibly because he honestly felt that there could be no 
safety for Europe until his opponent was absolutely crushed. 

His Relation to Parties. — He started as a moderate Tory, but as 
that party cooled in its warlike zeal and lost control of the Commons, 1 
he threw himself on the support of the Whigs. This brought him into 
conflict with Anne ; and the violence of Mrs. Freeman, who became 
a furious Whig partisan, only widened the breach. It was a period 
of transition from Ministers who were individually servants of the 
Crown to the system under which they became a united body, col- 
lectively responsible to Parliament. Marlborough originally wanted 
to carry on the Government with the aid of the moderate men of both 
parties ; later, when his Whig supporters were forced out, he sought to 
hold on regardless of that fact. Thus he made the mistake of going 
too far against the old system without going far enough in the direction 
of the new. It was only his great victories and the division among his 
opponents that enabled him to remain in control as long as he did. 

The Campaigns of 1702 and 1703. — When he took command in the 
Netherlands in 1702, he was so hampered by the Dutch field deputies 
that he was unable to bring on a pitched battle during this or the follow- 
ing year. His efforts, however, during the years 1702 and 1703 were 
not wasted, for he succeeded in forcing the French back along the roads 
in the Spanish Netherlands and the Rhine country by which they 
might strike at the Dutch from the southeast and east. In the follow- 
ing year, as a result of a successful English raid on Vigo Bay, Portugal 
joined the Grand Alliance, thus furnishing a basis of operations against 
Spain. In the campaign of 1703 the interest centered in an attempt 
of the French, in conjunction with Bavarians, to make a dash on Vienna. 
Although it miscarried, owing to the supineness of the Elector, the 
danger remained critical, for the French generals gained decided suc- 
cesses in western Germany, while the Emperor had to face a disquieting 
rising of the Hungarian Protestants. During the winter, the Elector 
aroused himself sufficiently to capture Passau on the Danube. The 
Empire seemed lost to the Allies unless a decisive blow could be 
struck. 

Marlborough's Campaign of 1704. — In the face of the crisis, Marl- 
borough framed and executed a daring plan which marked the turning 
point in the war. This was to march down to the Danube and relieve 
the Imperial capital by defeating the combined French and Bavarian 
armies. Realizing that the Dutch would never consent to leave their 
frontier thus exposed and that Louis would forestall him if the secret 

1 Of the five Parliaments elected during the reign three were Tory: 1702-5; 
1710-13; 1713-14; and two were Whig : 1705-8; 1708-10. 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 449 

leaked out, he took no one into his confidence, except the Queen and 
the Lord Treasurer, 1 and gave out to the Grand Pensionary that he 
was going to operate along the Moselle. Leaving a portiqn of his 
forces to guard the Netherlands, he marched rapidly up the Rhine, 
followed by the incompetent French commander Villeroy, who was 
completely in the dark as to his movements. Passing the Moselle 
he struck southeast into Wiirtemberg, where late in June he held a 
conference with Prince Eugene, whom he left to hold the Rhine against 
Villeroy, who was halting uncertainly on the left bank, and joined forces 
with the Margrave of Baden. Thence he proceeded to cross the Dan- 
ube at Donauworth, while the Elector, after a vain attempt to dis- 
pute his passage, retreated to Augsburg, where he was later joined by 
a large French contingent under Tallard. Marlborough was now be- 
tween the enemy and Vienna with Bavaria at his mercy. He at once 
began to ravage and burn, though, as he wrote his wife, it was so con- 
trary to his disposition that nothing but absolute necessity could bring 
him to consent to it. 

The Battle of Blenheim (13 August, 1704). — However, in danger 
of being cut off from his communications and his bases of supply, he 
soon saw that the time had come to risk a battle. So he quietly re- 
crossed to the northern bank of the Danube, effecting a junction with 
Prince Eugene, who had dropped back from the Rhine. Meantime, 
the Elector and Tallard, thinking that they had only Eugene to deal 
with , left their strong position and crossed the river in their turn with 
the design of destroying the magazines of the Allies. Near the village 
of Blenheim 2 on the north bank of the Danube, they were attacked by 
Marlborough and Eugene, 13 August, Tallard's forces were cut off and 
surrounded by Marlborough, and Tallard himself was taken prisoner, 
though the Elector, who faced Eugene, managed to escape with a con- 
siderable portion of his forces. The Allies, at a cost of 12,000 men, 
destroyed 14,000 of the enemy and took 11,000 prisoners. It was, as 
Marlborough wrote his wife in the gathering darkness, " a glorious 
victory." The spell which had so long seemed to render the French 
arms irresistible had at last been broken. As a more immediate re- 
sult the Empire had been saved. Though Marlborough was not in 
condition to run down and crush the fugitives, Villeroy, who came to 
their aid, was obliged to recross the Rhine, and, before the close of 
November, the Elector had agreed to a treaty by which Bavaria was 
made subject to Imperial authority. 

1 It is possible, however, that he took Prince Eugene into his confidence as early 
as the winter of 1703-4. 

2 Hochstadt, after which the French name the battle, lies farther to the west. 

2G 



450 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Capture of Gibraltar (1704). — Meantime, Sir George Rooke, 
headed for England after an unsuccessful cruise in the Mediterranean, 
fell in with Sir Cloudesley Shovel. Finding the commanding fortress 
of Gibraltar was almost undefended — as a matter of fact it had a 
garrison of only eighty men — they sent a force ashore to whom the 
Governor surrendered, 4 August. As a result of the capture of Gibral- 
tar, effected with so little effort, England controls the entrance of the 
Mediterranean to-day. 

The Reception of the News in England. — The news of Blenheim 
was of course received in England with transports of joy. It was the 
first great victory on land which the English had won against the 
French in three hundred years. The days of Crecy, Poitiers, and 
Agincourt were, it seemed, to be repeated, and Louis XIV, who had so 
long lorded it over Europe, was to be brought to his knees. Marl- 
borough's return was hailed with fervent demonstrations, and he re- 
ceived a grant of Crown land on which a castle was erected which is still 
known as Blenheim. 1 The Duke's head, however, was far from being 
turned, for he knew that the Tories were murmuring at the cost of the 
war and seeking to disparage his triumph. Yet, in spite of sharp party 
differences, Parliament made generous grants. 

The Allies gain a Foothold in Spain (1705). — It seemed as if France 
could not stand the financial strain much longer : her commerce was 
all but destroyed; her manufactures were languishing for want of 
markets ; the country apparently could bear no more taxation ; and 
the bankers would lend no more money. Yet, by heroic exertions and 
by various shifts, strong armies were sent into the field for the cam- 
paign of 1705, so that Marlborough, who, notwithstanding his brilliant 
success of the previous year, was still held in by timid Field Deputies, 
could do nothing but mark time. In Spain, on the other hand, the 
Allies, late in the year, managed to capture Barcelona, 14 September. 
This was followed by the submission of the whole province of Cata- 
lonia and parts of the adjoining Aragon. The Austrian Archduke, 
who accompanied the expedition, was formally proclaimed King of 
Spain as Charles III. Meantime, his feeble and ineffective father, 
Leopold, was succeeded by Charles's older brother, the energetic Joseph, 
who at once set about to reform the administration and, with the aid 
of Marlborough, to plan a vigorous campaign for 1706. 

The Whigs in Power and the Campaign of 1706. — The summer 
elections of 1705 had gone in favor of the Whigs, largely owing to the 
growing enthusiasm for the war, which the Tories were ceasing to sup- 

1 At the end of the campaign of 1702 he had been made a Duke and given a 
pension of £5000 a year for life. 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 451 

port with the ardor that they had shown at the beginning of the reign. 
The Queen, who obstinately regarded a Whig "asa Republican and 
an atheist," opposed every one that was introduced into the Ministry ; 
but owing to the domineering Duchess Sarah and the war fever, she 
gave way in each case, until at the end of three years, not a single Tory 
was left, though at the price of a series of quarrels which in the end left 
the Queen hopelessly estranged from her old favorite. A victory was 
essential to Louis, and the vain and foolish Villeroy started for the 
Netherlands, bent on obeying his Sovereign's injunction to return 
" covered with glory." In consequence, he left a strong position 
whence it might have taken a whole campaign to dislodge him ; where- 
upon, Marlborough unexpectedly swooped down on him, and engaged 
him in battle at Ramillies, twenty-nine miles southeast of Brussels, 
23 May. Villeroy, though he fought bravely, was outgeneraled and 
his forces driven from the field hotly pursued by the Allies. Many 
of the leading towns of Brabant and Flanders surrendered one after 
another. The victors, shortly after Ramillies, issued a proclamation 
promising to all who submitted to Charles III protection of their 
religion and property, as well as all the privileges they had enjoyed 
under the late Charles II. Aside from the danger involved in holding 
out, the thrifty burghers welcomed the terms ; for the sovereignty of 
Philip really subjected them to the despotism of Louis XIV, while the 
Emperor, who had stood behind his younger brother Charles III, was 
poor and far away. Louis XIV immediately called Vendome from 
Italy to restore some spirit to the beaten army. 

The French Driven out of Northern Italy (1706). — Eugene, reen- 
forced by an army of Germans and provided with English subsidies, 
was able to profit by the transfer of his efficient opponent to the Nether- 
lands. Effecting a junction with the Duke of Savoy, who had joined 
the Grand Alliance in 1703, the two marched on Turin and, 7 Sep- 
tember, defeated the French army which was besieging the city. As a 
result, Louis XIV soon withdrew his troops from northern Italy. 

The Question of the Union between England and Scotland. — While 
the war naturally absorbed most of the public energy, a few steps of 
constitutional importance were taken during the early years of Anne ; 
but the one really " great act of domestic statesmanship " of the 
reign was the union of England and Scotland, brought to completion 
in the session of 1 706-1 707. The personal union, beginning in 1603, 
had weathered the great Civil War and the Revolution of 1688, but, 
as the century drew to a close, the Scots began to realize more and 
more acutely the unsatisfactory character of the existing arrangement. 
Two possibilities were open : complete separation or closer union. 



452 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

To the former course, ardently desired by the Presbyterians and the 
patriots, England would never consent, particularly in view of Scot- 
land's ancient attachment to France. On the other hand, there was 
a large and steadily increasing class with whom considerations of trade 
outweighed those of religious and political independence. They nat- 
urally wanted to draw closer to England * in order to share in her 
markets. 

The Darien Project (1695-1699). — The commercial spirit mani- 
fested itself in a daring attempt to break into the Spanish monopoly in 
the New World. It was a product of the fruitful brain of William 
Paterson, who induced the Scotch Parliament to pass an Act, June 1695, 
founding a " Company of Scotland for Trading to Africa and the 
Indies." As a means of commanding the trade routes of the eastern 
and western world, the " Darien Company," as it was popularly called, 
designed to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, a spot which 
Paterson had once visited, whether as a pirate or a missionary is un- 
certain. The capital stock, fixed at £400,000 and issued in £100 
shares, was quickly subscribed, and more than half the amount was 
actually paid in, though the price of a single share represented a for- 
tune to the poor and thrifty Scot of those days. The opposition in 
London was intense, partly from trade rivalry and partly from the 
fear of complications with Spain, who claimed the territory in which 
Darien was situated. Nevertheless, 25 July, 1698, the first group of 
colonists was sent to the Isthmus. The cargo which they took, con- 
sisting of felt slippers, periwigs, heavy woolens, and English Bibles, 
could not have been more useless for trading in a tropical country with 
illiterate natives who wore the scantiest of garments. The climate 
proved unbearable ; those who survived at length gave up and sailed 
away. A second group who, in the meantime, had been enticed to 
sail for Darien by lying reports of the indefatigable leaders, was finally 
driven out by the Spanish. Paterson's, ^brilliant Darien scheme had 
succumbed to a deadly climate and Spanish monopoly ; but it had 
the result of finally convincing the commercial party in Scotland that 
nothing could be accomplished without the backing of England, which 
could only be secured by a closer union. 

The Union Finally Brought About (1706-1707). — Anne, in the 
very first year of her reign, appointed Commissioners to treat with 
Commissioners from Scotland ; but the elements of obstruction were 
so strong that the English Parliament had to adjudge Scots to 
be aliens and to forbid all Scotch exports into England, before the 

1 The Scotch Episcopalians, for obvious reasons, allied themselves with this 
party. 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 453 

Scots finally appointed Commissioners in a mood to negotiate. The 
two bodies met in April, 1706, and before the close of the summer had 
arranged a treaty. The Scotch Estates, when they met in October, 
had to face a torrent of popular opposition : the mob outside hooted 
and hustled those known to favor the measure, riots broke out both 
in Edinburgh and Glasgow and petitions poured in from all over the 
country. Notwithstanding continued resistance, the treaty was 
ratified, 16 January, 1707. The Church was won over by an Act 
guaranteeing the existing Presbyterian Establishment; greater com- 
mercial advantages appealed to many, the prospect of better govern- 
ment to others, while the battle of Ramillies, which seemed to point to 
the certain downfall of the French, no doubt influenced the result. 

The Terms of the Union. — The speedy and favorable outcome 
created general surprise in England where bets had been freely laid 
that the treaty would be rejected. When the articles were taken up 
in the English Parliament, in February, 1707, the chief opposition came 
from the High Church Tories who feared for the safety of the Estab- 
lishment if any considerable number of Presbyterians were admitted 
to a share in the Government, an objection which was met by an Act 
securing the Church of England. The Act of Union provided that 
the two Kingdoms were to be united under the name of Great Britain 
and represented by one Parliament. There was to be complete free- 
dom of trade between the two countries at home and abroad. Scottish 
laws and legal procedure were to be preserved. Forty-five Scotch 
rnembers were to sit in the House of Commons, while for every session 
the Scotch peers were to elect sixteen of their number to represent 
them in the House of Lords. 

Its Ultimate Results. — ■ Anne in giving her consent, 6 March, 1707, 
expressed the wish that henceforth her subjects of both Kingdoms 
would have " hearts disposed to become one people " ; but it was 
long before the hope was fulfilled. The mass of Scots, tradition- 
ally hostile to their richer southern neighbors, clung to the belief 
that they had been betrayed by a knot of corrupt politicians. The 
eighteenth century had run more than half its course before the 
" prosperity of the country convinced them that the Union had been 
a necessity and a blessing." Each nation, as it proved, needed the 
other. 

The Reverses of the Allies (1707). — The victories of 1706 were 
followed by a year of reverses. In the Netherlands Vendome con- 
ducted an able defensive campaign, while Marlborough was much 
hampered by the Dutch, who, feeling that France was sufficiently re- 
duced and that to prolong the war further would only increase the 



454 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

greatness of England, refused to allow him to force a decisive engage- 
ment. Another French army crossed the Rhine and carried the war 
into the Empire. In Spain an Anglo- Portuguese force, in an effort 
to recover Madrid which had been captured and lost, was overwhelm- 
ingly defeated 25 April, 1707, at Almanza, where they lost three fourths 
of their troops, all their artillery, and most of their baggage. This 
reverse, for which the so-called King Charles was largely to blame, 
cost all the gains painfully made during the two previous years. Fi- 
nally, mainly because the Emperor Joseph detached considerable con- 
tingents to fight in southern Italy, Prince Eugene failed in an attempt 
to invade Provence. 

The Campaign of 1708 in the Netherlands. Oudenarde (11 July). — 
Vendome opened the campaign of 1 708 in the Netherlands by recover- 
ing Ghent and Bruges, where the citizens, alienated by the domineer- 
ing of the Dutch, readily admitted him. Marlborough saw that it 
was necessary to force a battle. By a rapid march he came upon the 
enemy near Oudenarde on the road between the newly recovered 
cities and the frontier. He won a brilliant victory, 11 July, darkness 
alone saving the enemy from capture. Lille, a great fortress which 
guarded the French frontier, was thereupon besieged and taken, 
22 October, Ghent was recaptured, 2 January, 1709, and the French 
were forced to evacuate all western Flanders, including Bruges. 

The Negotiations of 1709. — In 1709 Louis was reduced to the point 
of consenting that the House of Bourbon should resign the Spanish 
inheritance. When, however, the Allies — whose policy was dictated 
by the English Whig leaders — insisted that, in case of Philip's refusal, 
he should assist in driving his own grandson out of the country he 
withdrew his ambassador and issued an appeal to his people. Ex- 
hausted as they were they responded loyally. 

Successes of the Allies in the Netherlands, and Reverses in Spain 
(1709-10). — Villars, in command of the Army of the Netherlands, 
which the French had put into the field only with the most heroic 
sacrifices, profited by the delay which the peace negotiations affoided, 
to strengthen his lines. On 1 1 September, the Allies attacked him in 
a very strong position at Malplaquet. While Marlborough and Eu- 
gene cut the French forces in two and drove them from the field, they 
retired in good order with loss far less than that of the victors. In 
Spain the Allies never recovered the ground lost in 1707. Their only 
success in the next three years was the capture of the island of Mi- 
norca, September, 1708. There Port Mahon was fitted up with sup- 
plies and a dockyard, and furnished an admirable naval base for the 
English fleet in the Mediterranean. On 23 September, 17 10, the Allies 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 455 

succeeded once more in taking Madrid ; but Vendome, who was sent 
to command in the peninsula, cut off their supplies from Portugal 
and forced them to hurry back to their base in Catalonia. One di- 
vision of the retreating army was defeated, 8 December, while another, 
though it fought a drawn battle, was obliged to retire from the field. 
Thus the victories of Oudenarde and Malplaquet were neutralized as 
Ramillies had been by Almanza. In Spain alone, where a decisive 
victory would have put an end to the war, the Allies were unable to 
prevail. 

Growing Reaction against the Whigs and the War. — Louis re- 
opened peace negotiations with the Dutch in the autumn of 1709; 
but nothing was accomplished till the overthrow of the Whig party 
nearly a year later. Their party had won again in the autumn elec- 
tions of 1708; but its power steadily declined. Anne had taken to 
herself a new favorite in Abigail Masham, one of her bedchamber 
women. The gravity of the situation lay in the fact that Harley, 
leader of the Tory Opposition, was related to Mrs. Masham and through 
her kept in constant communication with his Sovereign. Marlborough, 
in his eagerness to put himself above the danger of party strife, made 
the mistake of asking that the office of Captain-General be conferred 
upon him for life, a step which gave his enemies a chance to compare 
him with Cromwell and to accuse him of aiming at military dictator- 
ship. The people were growing more and more restive under the in- 
creasing burden of taxation, and the public discontent was fed and 
voiced by the press and virulent party pamphlets. Some of the most 
famous names in English literature engaged in the controversy, but 
the man who produced a fury of reaction which swept the Whigs from 
power was an obscure parson. 

Dr. SacheverelTs Sermon (5 November, 1709). — Dr. Henry Sa- 
cheverell, who had already achieved some reputation by the fervor of 
his oratory and by the vigor of his personal attacks on those in high 
places who favored Dissent and were supposed to be cold toward the 
Establishment, preached a violent sermon, 5 November, at St. Paul's 
before the mayor and aldermen on the " Perils of Paul among false 
brethren." He lashed the administration, railed at toleration, and 
exhorted his hearers to rise in defense of the Church. Coming as it 
did in the midst of intense party excitement, it roused a panic of re- 
ligious bigotry against the Dissenters and the Whigs who protected 
them. Consequently, in December, the Ministry resolved to impeach 
Sacheverell for high crimes and misdemeanors. Four charges were 
framed. First, that he had denied the lawfulness of resistance. Sec- 
ondly, that he had declaimed against the toleration granted to 



456 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Dissenters. Thirdly, that he had declared that the Church was in 
danger. Fourthly, that, for seditious purposes, he had asserted that 
her Majesty's administration in civil and ecclesiastical affairs tended 
to the destruction of the Constitution. 

His Trial (1710). — His trial, which opened in February, 1710, was 
attended with the wildest excitement. It was hotly discussed in the 
coffee houses, in the streets, indeed in every sort of assembly. The 
Doctor was cheered and praised as a martyr and saint, while Anne, 
whenever she passed by on her way to the sittings in Westminster Hall, 
was greeted with cries of " God bless your Majesty and the Church ! " 
" We hope your Majesty is for Dr. Sacheverell ! " The more violent, 
whose destructiveness far exceeded their piety, attacked the Dissenting 
meetinghouses and in general created such an uproar that the troops 
had to be called out to restore order. After three weeks of altercation 
the Doctor was found guilty, but was let off with a light sentence. 
His conviction proved to be a costly victory. Books, such as the 
Pious Life and Sufferings of Dr. Sacheverell from his Birth to his Sen- 
tence, poured from the press, together with such other manifestations 
of sympathy that the Lord Treasurer in a letter to Marlborough ex- 
pressed the fervent wish that: " this uneasy trial had never begun." 

The Queen Dismisses the Whigs and Calls in the Tories (1710). — 
The anti-Whig revulsion, which came to a head in the Sacheverell 
trial, gave the Queen a chance which she had long been seeking to get 
rid of the party so hateful to her. Mrs. Freeman had her last per- 
sonal interview, 17 April, 17 10, and a stormy one it was. The strength 
of the Cabinet was weakened from the fact that every man was work- 
ing for himself. The chief offender was Marlborough, who made 
it quite clear that he would cling to office whatever happened, whereas 
if he had threatened to resign he might have kept his colleagues 
in office for some time longer. Several were dismissed during the 
summer of 17 10, and, though Parliament was still Whig, Anne re- 
placed the fallen Ministers by the Tories, Harley and St. John, con- 
gratulating herself that she was now released from captivity. Robert 
Harley united extreme caution with much talent for intrigue, but 
possessed few statesmanlike qualities. St. John, brilliant, erratic, 
audacious and dissipated, was in most respects the very opposite of his 
plodding, decorous and secretive colleague, though neither was over- 
burdened with scruple. While Harley tried to steer a middle course 
all through his tenure of power, St. John was bent on an out-and-out 
Tory administration. Yet this ill-assorted couple managed to pull 
together long enough to bring the war to a close. In the September 
elections the Tories, thanks to the Sacheverell frenzy, the royal 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 457 

control of patronage, the heavy war taxes, and the insufficient prepa- 
ration of the Whigs, recovered a majority which they held for four 
years. 

Peace Negotiations with France (171 1). — Marlborough had taken 
a few fortresses in 17 10, but he had not ventured on any daring move, 
partly from lack of support on the part of his Allies, partly because, 
in view of the party crisis in England, he feared that a false step would 
lead to his downfall. In 171 1, however, in spite of all obstacles, he 
succeeded by a series of brilliant feints and sieges in piercing his 
adversary's strong lines, so that by autumn he was in a position to 
invade France. But this proved to be his last campaign. Harley 
and St. John had already opened secret negotiations between London 
and Paris in January, 171 1. The preliminaries, which were finally 
agreed upon in October, had been greatly facilitated by a revulsion 
against the war on the part of Anne. Furthermore, the death of the 
Emperor Joseph, 17 April, 1711, leaving Charles as his heir, greatly 
strengthened the peace party ; for it was futile to drive Philip from 
Spain in order to unite the country to the Hapsburg dominions. 

The Whig Attempt to Obstruct the Peace. The Occasional Con- 
formity Act (171 1). — In return for assistance in obstructing peace 
in Parliament, the Whigs went so far as to assist the High Church 
wing of the Tories to pass an Occasional Conformity Act, 171 1, which 
provided that any holder of an office who had qualified by taking the 
sacrament as required by the Test and Corporation Acts and should 
afterwards be convicted of attending Dissenting places of worship 
should be fined and forfeit his office. The Dissenters were assured 
that, when the Whigs returned to power, the Act would be repealed. 1 
In the words of a Tory satirist : " Jack had been induced to hang 
himself on the promise that he would soon be cut down." Thus the 
Whigs sacrificed their principles on religious liberty, and a section of 
the Tories their convictions on the prolongation of the war. Though 
this ill-assorted alliance obtained a temporary majority in the Upper 
House, their efforts to stem the tide soon proved to be vain. 

The Removal of Marlborough (31 December, 1711). — Swift entered 
the fray with his famous Conduct of the Allies, in which he argued 
that the English who had least to gain had come to assume practi- 
cally the whole burden of the war. Prepared under the supervision 
of St. John and written in the most trenchant, logical style of the 
greatest living master of English, the work was eagerly read and 
had a powerful influence on public opinion. In order to prevent 
any further obstruction it was proposed to remove Marlborough from 
1 As a matter of fact it was repealed in 17 18. 



458 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

his command. He controlled a strong party among the Peers, he 
was high in the councils of the Allies, and he might, in another cam- 
paign, gain a victory that would raise the demands of the opponents 
of peace. He was charged with appropriating funds from the moneys 
granted to the bread contractors and with deducting a percentage 
from the sums appropriated for soldiers' pay. While he doubtless 
did do so, it is equally clear that he employed what he took in the 
secret service. His dismissal was accompanied by the creation of 
twelve new peers which gave the Tories control of the Upper House. 

The Opening of the Congress of Utrecht and the End of the War. 
— This same month of January, 171 2, a congress of the Allies opened 
at Utrecht to discuss terms of peace, but weeks were consumed in 
tedious formalities. Since no suspension of hostilities had been pro- 
vided for, Eugene took the field in the spring as commander of the 
Allies, with the aim of turning the French lines and opening the way to 
Paris. The English contingents were under the Duke of Ormonde, who 
had orders to engage in no battle or siege without further instructions. 
For a time he assisted the Prince by covering his siege operations, 
but, 16 July, in response to instructions from home, he drew his troops 
off to Dunkirk, leaving the Austrians and the Dutch to continue the 
campaign alone. With their lines thus weakened, the Dutch were 
defeated in battle 24 July, while Eugene had to yield several strong 
places and retire beyond the Scheldt. The Tory Ministers who were 
responsible for what happened had only this justification, that noth- 
ing less would induce the Emperor to make peace. 

The Peace of Utrecht (1713). — The peace of Utrecht was signed 
with France, 12 April, 1713, by Great Britain, the States General, 
Savoy, and Portugal. The Emperor made a separate peace with 
Louis XIV. By the terms concluded between England and France 
Louis (1) recognized the order of succession established by the Act 
of Settlement, and agreed that the son of the late James II should 
never be allowed in France. (2) He solemnly ratified a renunciation 
by Philip V, made 5 November, 17 12, of his claims to the throne of 
France. (3) He promised to accept for his French subjects no ad- 
vantages of trade with Spain not extended to the other Powers. 
(4) He ceded to Great Britain considerable portions - of territory 
in North America, including the Hudson's Bay Settlement, Acadia, 1 
and Newfoundland, retaining, however, certain fishing rights in the 
neighboring waters and the right to dry fish on the shores of New- 
foundland. 

1 In 1708 the British had captured Port Royal (renamed Annapolis) and 
occupied Acadia (Nova Scotia). 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 459 

England and Spain. — The treaty between England and Spain 
was not concluded till July ; for Philip had no representatives at 
the Congress and no power to treat till the Powers had acknowl- 
edged him as King. (1) Gibraltar and Minorca were ceded to Eng- 
land. (2) By the Asiento 1 she was granted for thirty years the 
monopoly of importing negroes into Spanish America. (3) British 
merchants were accorded the right of sending one ship a year to trade 
in Spanish- American ports. 

France and the States General. — The Spanish Netherlands were 
handed over to the Dutch, to be ceded to Austria so soon as an "ade- 
quate barrier " could be agreed upon. This happened in 1715, when 
a final Barrier Treaty was arranged by which the Dutch were al- 
lowed to garrison certain fortified places commanding the French 
border. By the treaty between France and the Emperor, the latter 
got, in addition to the Spanish Netherlands, various of the Spanish 
possessions in Italy. 

Results of the War. — In general the Allies had gained the ob- 
jects for which they had taken up arms. They could have achieved 
their original aims as early as 1708, but, not long after the opening 
of the conflict, they had undertaken the further design of driving 
Philip from the throne of Spain, and, puffed up by their successes, 
they had driven Louis to desperation, with the consequence that he 
had continued the fighting until he forced them to accept less than 
in the full tide of their triumph they had once rejected. Although 
Marlborough, owing to adverse circumstances, had failed to realize 
his ambition of crushing France utterly and dictating his own terms, his 
military achievements had been unparalleled, and chiefly through his 
efforts Great Britain had played a remarkable role. She had " held 
the Grand Alliance together; she financed the other nations; her 
fleet had almost a monopoly of the ocean ; her soldiers, for the first 
time since Agincourt, decided the fate of Europe on famous fields . . . 
and British Ministers had dictated the terms of peace." Louis, who 
in eleven years had lost as many pitched battles, succeeded in re- 
taining the throne of Spain for his grandson, and for himself, with the 
exception of a few border towns, practically all that he had acquired 
during the long years of his aggrandizement ; but Great Britain, 
besides making substantial territorial and commercial gains, had 
put a stop to his oppressions and struck a heavy blow at the old 
regime, which, after a series of attacks more and more frequeri 
as the century advanced, was finally swept away by the French 
Revolution. 

1 A Spanish word meaning "legal compact." 



460 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Rivalry of Harley and St. John (1713-1714).— -The remainder 
of Anne's reign was chiefly occupied with the question of the suc- 
cession and with the struggles of the two leaders of the Tory party. 
The relations between Harley and St. John, which had become 
strained after the settlement of the terms of peace, finally developed 
into an open feud. St. John not only chafed at the wary unenter- 
prising policy of his inscrutable colleague, but he was jealous of him 
as well. Harley had been made Earl of Oxford and Lord Treas- 
urer in 171 1, while St. John, created Viscount Bolingbroke, 2 June, 
1712, had to be content with the next lower grade in the peerage. 
This he attributed to the treachery of his rival, though it was really 
due to the Queen, who could not overcome her distrust of a man re- 
puted to be a freethinker and a notorious evil liver. Yet the Whigs 
were as yet in no position to profit by this personal rift in the Min- 
istry. Marlborough was hopelessly discredited. Threatened with 
judicial proceedings, baited by abusive pamphlets, and even pur- 
sued on the street by cries of " Stop thief ! " he finally retired to the 
Continent, whence he did not return till the close of the year. The 
Whigs, however, had some advantages over their opponents which 
told in the long run : they were grouped mostly in the populous 
commercial and manufacturing centers, where they could be easily 
organized at a crisis, and they were united on the Hanoverian suc- 
cession. The Tories, on the other hand, were scattered in the coun- 
try regions, and they were divided between the exiled Stuarts and 
the Hanoverians ; for the majority were unwilling to accept the Pre- 
tender so long as he remained a Roman Catholic. 

The Schism Act (1714). — The session of 17 14, in which the Tory 
Ministry was bitterly attacked for the recent peace, as well as for 
not taking more effectual means to secure the Protestant succession, 
proved a stormy one. Bolingbroke, who had at length got the bit 
in his teeth, aimed a crushing blow at the Dissenters by passing the 
Schism Act, which provided that no person was to keep or even teach 
a public or private school unless he was a member of the Church of 
England. This measure, repealed four years later, was an attempt 
to cut at the very roots of the growth of the Dissenting faiths by mak- 
ing it impossible for them to educate their children. Bolingbroke, 
who had himself been educated by a Nonconformist minister, was 
impelled by no religious motive ; his sole aim was to outbid t,he 
cautious Oxford for the favor of Queen Anne. 

The Dismissal of Oxford (27 July, 1714). — He saw that the time 
had now come to strike, if ever he were to secure the supremacy. 
The Queen was failing in health, and, with a Tory majority both in 



THE END OF THE STUART DYNASTY 461 

Parliament and throughout the Kingdom, it was essential to improve 
the opportunity while she still lived to fill every position, military 
and civil, with trusted followers in order to meet the Whig reaction 
which was bound to come with her death and the accession of the 
Hanoverians. He has been accused of plotting to bring in the Pre- 
tender, but while his design is far from clear, it is more probable 
that his aim was to secure control of the State, ally himself with 
the Jacobites, and, with these weapons in his hands, to make such 
terms with the Hanoverians as would place him at the head of the 
new Government. It was a bold stroke for fortune, which seemed 
for a moment as if it were going to succeed. On 27 July Oxford was 
abruptly dismissed from office. While his overthrow was due largely 
to the intrigues of his rival, the reasons which Anne gave to the 
Council have a curious interest : " He neglected all business, she 
could seldom understand him, and even when he was intelligible she 
could place no dependence on what he said. He never came punc- 
tually at times when she appointed. When he did come he was often 
tipsy, and behaved toward her with . . . disrespect." 

The Death of Anne and the Defeat of Bolingbroke's Schemes 
(1 August, 1714). — Suddenly, 29 July, the Queen was stricken with 
her last illness and Bolingbroke's well-laid plans were thrown into 
confusion. Had the Queen only lived six weeks, he calculated that 
he could have made himself master of the situation. Already a 
strong faction had developed against him, and the crisis forced them 
to act quickly. At a meeting of the Privy Council, held on the 30th, 
the anti-Bolingbroke combination proved strong enough to propose, 
or to force Bolingbroke to propose, as successor to Harley in the Lord 
Treasurership, Shrewsbury, a former Whig who had been one of the 
seven to sign the invitation to William of Orange, but who had left 
England early in William's reign and lived for long years in obscurity 
in Italy. Since his return in 17 10 he had been a trusted councilor 
of the Queen. Fortunately for the cause of peace and the Hanove- 
rians, he now showed a courage and decision foreign to him since the 
Revolution days. At the bedside of the dying Queen he received the 
white staff of office with the royal command to use it for the good of 
the country. At once he took measures for the defense of the King- 
dom and the securing of the succession. On the morning of 1 August 
Anne died, and that afternoon, the heralds went about London and 
Westminster proclaiming George as King of Great Britain. Boling- 
broke's schemes, whatever they were, had come to naught, and the 
last of the Stuarts had ceased to reign. 



462 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Trevelyan; Ranke and Cambridge Modern History. I. S. 
Leadam, Political History of England, 1 702-1760 (1909). J. F. Bright, 
History of England (1889), III, a clear and accurate summary. F. W. 
Wyon, History of Great Britain during the Reign of Queen Anne (2 vols., 
1876) the fullest history of the reign, but dry and somewhat antiquated. 
Lord Stanhope, The Reign of Queen Anne (1870) a careful but less detailed 
account. W. E. H. Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth Century 
(cab. ed., 7 vols., 1907), the most informing general work on the period. 

Special. W. T. Morgan, English Political Parties and Leaders during 
the Reign of Queen Anne (1920), a scholarly study. W. F. Lord, "Devel- 
opment of Political Parties during the Reign of Queen Anne," Transactions 
of the Royal Historical Society. New Series, XIV, 1900. G. C. Butler, 
The Tory Tradition (Bolingbroke, Burke, Disraeli, and Salisbury, 1914). 

Army and Navy. W. Coxe, Memoirs of Marlborough (good maps in 
the ed. of 1818). Fortescue, British Army; Mahan, Sea Power; Corbett, 
England in the Mediterranean. 

Biography. Hon. H. Elliot, The Life of Sidney, Earl of Godolphin (1888) . 
T. Macknight's (1863) is still the best life of Bolingbroke, a more recent 
work is that of W. Sichel (1901), C. Collin's (1888) is a stimulating sketch. 
E. B. Roscoe, Harley, Earl of Oxford (1902). S. J. Reid, John and Sarah, 
Duke and Duchess of Marlborough (19 14). 

Contemporary. Burnet, Own Times. Swift, The Conduct of the Allies 
(171 1). Bolingbroke, Letters on the State of Parties at the Accession of 
George I. 

Scotland and Ireland. Works already cited. P. H. Brown, The Legis- 
lative Union of England and Scotland (1914). W. L. Matthieson, Scotland 
and the Union, 16Q5-174.7 (1905). D. DeFoe, History of the Union between 
England and Scotland (1787), a valuable contemporary account. Lecky, 
Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (3 vols., 1873-4), I. 

The Church. Hutton ; Wakeman; and Stoughton. xAbbey and 
Overton, The English Church in the Eighteenth Century (1896), the au- 
thoritative work on the period. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
THE FIRST HANOVERIAN, GEORGE I (1714-1727) 

The Peaceful Reception of the Hanoverian Dynasty. — While 
the people were " gaping and staring " the crisis passed. Boling- 
broke and the other Tory leaders remained inactive, stocks rose, 
and Parliament, when it met, voted a reward of £100,000 for the 
capture of the Pretender, who found the prospect so discouraging 
that he did not venture an invasion. The arrival of the new King, 
18 September, provoked no opposition and awakened some enthu- 
siasm. Already, before crossing the Channel, he dismissed Boling- 
broke, and a new Whig Ministry was constituted, under the leader- 
ship of Charles, Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State for the 
Northern Department. Shrewsbury resigned the office of Lord 
Treasurer and soon relapsed into his former inactivity. 

The New King. — George Lewis inherited the crown from his 
mother Sophia, who had died in the previous June. He was at this 
time fifty-four years old and had been Elector of Hanover since 1698. 
The early life of the future King had been an active one: he had 
fought for the Emperor against the Turks, he had seen active service 
under King William, he had joined the Grand Alliance, and for three 
years commanded the Imperial forces on the Upper Rhine. He had 
carefully refrained from meddling in English affairs ; though, after 
the death of his mother, he apparently took a more lively interest in 
the succession struggle. 

Personal Traits and Favorites. — Even as a young man he was 
frigid and silent, qualities which clung to him through life. He was 
heavy and awkward, narrow and obstinate. Yet in Hanover he was 
extremely popular ; for he loved his country and his people as much 
as he was capable of loving anything. So he started for his new King- 
dom " without elation." Two female favorites followed in his train, 
— the fat and unwieldy von Kielmannsegge, created Countess of 
Darlington, and the tall, lean von Schulenburg,. created Duchess of 
Kendal. Both were rapacious and drove a thriving patronage. 
In addition, there were two German councilors, a French secretary, 

463 



464 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and two black servants who combined to fleece the people and added 
to the unpopularity which the foreign King's uncouth ways, low 
common tastes, his unconcealed preference for his native land and 
ignorance of the English language and customs, was bound to create. 
Yet, after all, unheroic and parsimonious as he was, he was much 
to be preferred to his Stuart rival. He was courageous, just and 
prudent, painstaking, frugal in his expenses and punctual in his pay- 
ments : he defended the country from invasion, kept the peace at 
home and abroad and formed strong alliances. He has been justly 
accused of guiding his foreign policy primarily in the Hanoverian 
interests; but they were usually to England's advantage and never 
to her detriment. Moreover, by his very indifference to English 
domestic concerns, by letting his Whig Ministers run the affairs 
of the country, 1 he contributed greatly to foster the growth of Cabi- 
net and party government. 

The Prospects of the New Reign. — Although the new King had 
been brought in without bloodshed his prospects were by no means 
unclouded. The energy of Shrewsbury and the Council had dumb- 
founded the Jacobites and the army, and the moneyed classes were 
strongly Hanoverian ; but George's unqualified support of the Whigs, 
the exclusion of the Tories from all preferment, together with the 
bitter attacks directed against them for their actions during the last 
years of Queen Anne, tended to force even the more moderate into 
the arms of the Pretender. Scotland was seething with discontent 
and Ireland was only held down by crushing laws backed by military 
forces. Abroad, Prussia and Holland were the only Powers upon 
which the Hanoverians could safely count ; France was still smarting 
from her recent humiliation, while Spain was her ally. The Emperor 
felt himself defrauded by the late peace and was not on good terms 
with George. 

Popular Discontent in England. The Riot Act (1715). — No sooner 
was the crisis of the succession passed than popular discontent began 
to manifest itself. Riots broke out at various places, " foreign gov- 
ernment" was denounced, Dissenters were insulted, their chapels 
were attacked, and Tory pamphlets poured from the press. Never- 
theless, the Tory Parliament was succeeded by one in which the 
Whigs were in the majority, a majority which they retained for nearly 
fifty years. The elections were attended with the usual violence. 
In view of the recent tumults, a Riot Act was passed early in 1715, 
providing that if any twelve persons, assembled for the disturbance 
of the peace, should refuse to disperse after proclamation read by a 

1 Except at rare intervals when they came in conflict with his foreign policy. 



THE FIRST HANOVERIAN, GEORGE I 465 

magistrate, they might be treated as felons, and those who shot them 
down would not be answerable for murder. 

The Rising of 171 5. — Three of the Tory leaders were impeached, 
including Bolingbroke, who fled the country, a step which drew down 
an Act of Attainder on his head ; after the news reached him in France, 
he openly espoused the Stuart cause, became Secretary of State to 
the Pretender James and the leading spirit in the famous movement 
of 1 715 to restore the old line by means of a general rising, supported 
by an invasion from France. The success of the undertaking de- 
pended upon three conditions : England and Scotland should rise 
together; James should be on the spot; and he should have sub- 
stantial aid from abroad. None of these conditions were fulfilled ; 
the movement only came to a head in the north of England and in 
Scotland, and resulted in hopeless failure. The prompt and decisive 
measures of the Government prevented a rising planned in the south 
and west of England, fleets were set to guard the ports, and a 
small expedition sent from France was prevented even from landing. 
The next blow came with the death of Louis XIV, 1 September. 
Again Bolingbroke had been frustrated by a death, for Louis 
was an ardent champion of the exiled family, and was burning 
to retrieve his recent defeat. He was succeeded by his great- 
grandson Louis XV, a sickly child ; and the Duke of Orleans, who 
became Regent, gave no countenance to the Jacobite leaders. With 
no prospect of a rising in southern England or of support from France, 
Bolingbroke sent messages to prevent the Scots from taking up arms, 
but it was too late. 

The Earl of Mar Summons the Clans. — North of the Border the 
opposition to the existing Government was too bitter and widespread 
to be satisfied with scheming, grumbling, drinking toasts to the 
" King over the water," and with occasional riots. The High- 
landers still nursed their hatred against the Campbells, the Epis- 
copalians and the Roman Catholics chafed at the Presbyterian regime, 
and the majority of Scotsmen were not yet reconciled to the Union. 
The leader of the rising was the Earl of Mar, known as " Bobbing John " 
from the readiness with which he shifted* from one party to the other. 
Though he had professed loyalty to George I he was dismissed from 
office, whereupon he went over to the Jacobites. When, 6 September, 
1 71 5, he set up the Stuart banner in the Highlands, thousands flocked 
to join him. But the clansmen could only be relied on for a short 
dashing campaign. As Mar proved dilatory and ineffective, his recruits 
began to dwindle, while the forces of the Duke of Argyle, whom the 
Government promptly sent against him, swelled in numbers each day. 

2H 



466 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Preston and Sheriff Muir (13 November, 1 71 5). — Meantime, a 
small detachment from Mar's army, reenforced by a little contingent 
of Lowlanders and a body of Jacobite gentlemen from Cumberland 
and Westmoreland, crossed the Border and marched aimlessly south. 
At the fatal Preston they were hemmed in by two converging Eng- 
lish armies and forced to surrender, 13 November, 1715. On the 
same day, the armies of Mar and Argyle met at Sheriff Muir. Though 
each was victorious against his opponent's left wing, Mar ingloriously 
withdrew his forces from the field. Argyle, content with having stopped 
the advance of the rebels, returned to his headquarters at Stirling. 

The Arrival of the Pretender. The Final Collapse. — While 
Mar's forces were rapidly melting away, and, just as he had opened 
peace negotiations, the Pretender after unavoidable delays arrived, 22 
December, with a single ship and attended by only eight gentlemen. 
Mar, directly he heard of his landing, hastened to meet him. He was 
proclaimed King, and the Jacobite ladies contributed their jewels to 
make him a crown. But he was in a desperate position. A High- 
land army, which had taken the Hanoverian side, was closing in on 
him from the north, while Argyle, reenforced by 6000 Dutch troops, 
was marching up from the south. Nor was James possessed of any 
personal qualities to inspire a forlorn hope. Mar speedily realized 
that there was nothing for it but to get him out of the country as soon 
as possible, so they speedily embarked for France, while the clans- 
men sullenly dispersed to their homes across the snow. James retired 
first to Avignon and thence to Rome. While still in France he fool- 
ishly dismissed Bolingbroke, the wisest counselor he had, who ex- 
pressed a wish " that his arm might rot off if he ever again drew his 
sword or his pen " in his cause. 

The Septennial Act (1716). — It was not because of its popularity 
that the Whig Government succeeded in defeating the designs of the 
Jacobites, and such little popularity as it enjoyed was bound to be 
diminished by the repressive measures which it was necessary to 
employ. Consequently, the Ministry was unwilling to run the risk 
of a general election at the end of another year. This was the real 
reason which led, in 17 16, to the pasage of the Septennial Act, extend- 
ing the possible duration of Parliament from three to seven years. 
The difficulty might have been met by a temporary measure; but 
it was thought wiser to justify the action on permanent grounds. The 
arrangement under the Triennial Act was open to serious objections. 
It was too great a strain on the country to choose representatives 
every three years at a time when elections were long, costly, and 
usually tumultuous. Also a longer term was necessary to protect 



THE FIRST HANOVERIAN, GEORGE I 467 

the members, on the one hand from the Crown and the peers who 
controlled many seats, and, on the other, although this is more 
questionable, from too great subservience to electors. 

George's Journey to Hanover (1716). The European Situation. 
— No sooner was the danger from the Rebellion over, than George 
determined to visit his Hanoverian dominion. The restraining 
clause in the Act of Settlement — one of the chief difficulties in the 
way — was easily repealed without an opposing vote, for the Whigs 
were anxious to please the King, while the Tories, by making it pos- 
sible for him to make frequent trips abroad, hoped to increase his 
unpopularity. Thereupon, 9 July, 1716, George started for Hanover, 
where the situation which he had to face was very disquieting. 
Among the European Powers he had only two sure friends and many 
enemies, active or passive. 

The Triple Alliance (1716-1717). — The desire of the Regent of 
France to secure English support seemed to offer the best prospect 
of strength abroad and peace at home. An alliance with France 
seemed on the face of it such a reversal of traditional Whig policy 
that Townshend naturally hesitated ; but, after all, the main aim of 
that party had been to secure the Revolution settlement and to pre- 
vent the French from securing the control of the Spanish colonies 
and trade. If both these objects could be secured by a diplomatic 
arrangement with the Regent there was no reason for continued 
hostility to France. Before the close of 1716 a treaty was signed by 
the British and French — in which the Dutch were to be included — 
providing that the Pretender should be excluded from France, and that 
the renunciation by Philip of the French throne should be confirmed. 
Thus the danger in the south was in a fair way to be averted ; but 
the situation in the north continued threatening. Particularly, 
Peter the Great of Russia, anxious to secure a foothold in the Empire, 
had recently poured one army into the Duchy of Mecklenburg and 
quartered another in Denmark. George was anxious to employ the 
English fleet, which had been sent to the Baltic in July, 1 715, to drive 
him out, but Townshend warmly opposed the project. He also with- 
held his assent to the Triple Alliance until he was assured of the 
willingness of the Dutch to join. 1 

The Cabinet Crisis of 1716-1717. — ■ The remonstrances of George, 
backed by Denmark and the Emperor, finally induced the Tsar to 
recall his troops without war ; but the attitude of Townshend con- 
tributed to a split in the Whig Ministry. Many other causes were at 
work to alienate the King from Townshend and his supporters ; for 
1 They finally signed in January, 171 7. 



468 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

one thing, the German favorites, whose schemes for fleecing the 
English, Townshend rudely opposed, threw their influence against 
him ; so the King dismissed him from office of Secretary in December. 
The prevailing Whig sentiment was glowing and resentful. They 
denounced the step as a proof of " the ascendancy of Continental 
politics over English concerns," and the period from 171 7 to 1720, 
during which his successor, Earl Stanhope, was at the head of affairs, 
was known as that of the " German Ministry." It should be said, 
however, that he managed to avert danger from various European 
combinations, to foil the Jacobites in their attempts to launch another 
invasion, to strengthen British alliances abroad and to give his country 
a leading place in the councils of Europe. 

Stanhope's Progressive Legislation (1717-1718). — In spite of 
discord, however, the session of 171 7-1 718 was fruitful in wise legis- 
lation. Among other measures, Stanhope carried into effect a scheme 
for the reduction of the National Debt — devised by Townshend's 
brother-in-law Walpole, before the former's dismissal — which marks 
the beginning of the English Sinking Fund. In 17 18 he managed to 
secure the repeal of the Occasional Conformity Act of 1711 and the 
Schism Act of 17 14. At the same time he tried and failed to do away 
with the Test and Corporation Acts; however, beginning in 1727, 
the custom arose of passing annual indemnity acts, protecting from 
punishment those who accepted office without taking the sacramental 
test ; but the concession was churlish and unsatisfactory ; for it 
purported to relieve only those who " through ignorance of the law, 
absence, or unavoidable accident " failed to qualify. Some who could 
allege none of these excuses were challenged, others were too scrupu- 
lous to take advantage of such an evasion of the law ; but numbers of 
Dissenters were admitted to office in this way till the final repeal of 
the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828. 

The National Debt and the South Sea Company. — On the whole, 
the Ministry seemed in a very strong position both at home and 
abroad, when the financial crash, known as the South Sea Bubble, 
came, and overthrew it within a few months. The National Debt 
now amounted to over £50,000,000, much of it burdened with 7 to 
8 per cent interest, while private loans could be secured for 4 per 
cent. In view of the peaceful and prosperous condition of the coun- 
try, the Government desired to cut down this rate of interest and to 
reduce the principal as rapidly as possible. There was the great 
difficulty, however, that a considerable portion of it was irredeemable, 
that is, it ran for long terms, some in the form of annuities, and could 
neither be paid nor the interest diminished without the consent of 



THE FIRST HANOVERIAN, GEORGE I 469 

the creditors. In 1711 Harley had funded £g, 500,000 of the floating 
debt by the creation of the South Sea Company, which assumed the 
position of creditor in return for certain trading monopolies. In 
171 7 two schemes, devised by Walpole, were carried into effect by 
Stanhope for reducing the interest on a limited amount of the debt 
and for buying up the debts of a few of those who refused to accept 
a lower rate. But there still remained over £30,000,000 which the 
Government was anxious to group into a single fund, yielding only the 
market rate and redeemable at will. 

The Company Takes Over the Debt (1720). — Since the South Sea 
Company desired to increase its capital, an arrangement was suggested 
whereby the holders of the outstanding debt should be paid in shares 
of the Company. Thus the Government was to have one creditor 
— a joint stock company — instead of many. It was to pay the 
company 5 per cent till 1727, and, from that date, 4 per cent until the 
principal should be finally paid, also to pay a liberal annual stipend 
for handling the business. The plan looked so tempting that other 
companies clamored for a share. Accordingly, they were given a 
chance to bid. The Bank of England proved to be the leading com- 
petitor, but the South Sea Company won by agreeing to pay a bonus 
of £7,500,000. Since no money was received from those who took 
stock in exchange for annuities, funds had to be raised to pay the 
bonus as well as to satisfy such creditors as refused to accept stock. 
At first, all went well, most of the annuitants accepted the Company's 
terms, and over £5,000,000 were subscribed in cash for new shares. 
But the arrangement resulted in disaster. In the first place, the 
Company had paid for more than it got, moreover, it burdened itself 
by the creation of additional blocks of stock which it actually gave 
away to influential members of the Government and Court favorites, 
while, worse than all, the project fostered a fever of speculation which 
was taking possession of the country. There was much money ac- 
cumulating with few legitimate means of investing it. Before this 
speculative bubble burst, it had soared to dizzy heights. By August, 
1720, the shares of the Company, which stpod at £130 during the 
previous winter, had risen to £1000. In spite of a royal proclamation 
against " mischievous and dangerous undertakings . . . presuming " 
to raise " stocks and shares without legal authority " all sorts of 
schemes sprang up like Jonah's gourd, and the offices in Change Alley 
became so crowded that clerks had to transact business in the streets. 
Some were legitimate projects: for manufactures, paving, water 
works and the like ; but most of them were absurd : for fishing up 
wrecks from off the Irish coast ; making salt water fresh ; securing 



470 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

oil from sunflower seeds; for a wheel of perpetual motion; and 
most amazing of all, for " an undertaking in due time to be revealed." 
Before long it was estimated that £300,000,000 was invested, largely 
in crazy ventures. 

The Bursting of the South Sea Bubble. — People's eyes were only 
opened when the South Sea Company, bent on monopolizing all the 
gain, began to prosecute certain of its bogus rivals. It won the suits, 
but at the same time gave a shock to public confidence which led to 
its own downfall. Shareholders began eagerly to offer their bonds 
for sale, and speedily came to realize the difference between paper 
promises and solid gain. By September, the Company's shares 
fell to £300, when news from France brought the crisis to a head. 
This was the flight of John Law, a Scotch adventurer who had set 
all Paris wild with his financial schemes, particularly his " Indian 
Company " for controlling the trade of the Mississippi. The rage 
of the disillusioned speculators flamed out against those to whose 
promises they had listened all too readily. " The very name of a 
South Sea Man " grew " abominable." Resentment spread to the 
Court favorites, to the Ministry, even to the King himself, and 
stocks fell to £135. 

The End of the Stanhope Ministry and the Settlement of the Com- 
pany's Affairs. — When Parliament met, the directors of the Com- 
pany were ordered to lay a full account of their proceedings before the 
Houses : also bills were passed obliging them to declare on oath the 
value of their estates, prohibiting them from leaving the Kingdom, 
and offering rewards to informers. A committee of inquiry was ap- 
pointed in the Commons, while several of the directors were examined 
in the Lords. The excitement was intense. Stanhope in the midst 
of a speech was attacked by a rush of blood to the head, and died the 
next day. Townshend replaced him as Secretary. The Chancellor 
of the Exchequer, deeply involved in the recent speculations, resigned ; 
Walpole was appointed to fill the vacancy, and shortly after became 
First Lord of the Treasury as well. The committee report disclosed 
a mass of corruption, notably, that £500,000 of fictitious stock had 
been distributed among certain Ministers and favorites. Various 
resignations and removals followed. The directors suffered heavily ; 
they were disabled from holding office or from sitting in Parliament, 
and their estates, amounting to £2,000,000, were appropriated for the 
unfortunate investors. Petitions poured in and pamphlets multi- 
plied in which they were denounced as " monsters of pride and cov- 
etousness," " cannibals of Change Alley," and not a few demanded 
that they be hanged. Yet the people were, in no small degree, to 



THE FIRST HANOVERIAN, GEORGE I 471 

blame for their eagerness to make money ; certainly, in spite of the 
bribery of those in high places, the Government had never guaranteed 
the credit of the Company. Before the inquiry was completed, Robert 
Walpole, to whom all eyes were turned, had proposed a scheme for 
restoring the public credit. While he had bought South Sea stock 
and had sold out at enormous profit, he had been so fortunate as to 
be out of office when the Government had made its arrangements with 
the Company. By his advice, the bonus which the latter had agreed 
to pay was practically remitted, its liabilities were settled, and what 
remained of the capital stock, about 33 per cent, was divided among 
the proprietors. 

The Beginning of Walpole's Ascendancy. His Strength and 
Achievements. — Walpole now became chief Minister, 1 a position 
which he retained for over twenty years. The Tory party was handi- 
capped by being more or less identified with the cause of the Roman 
Catholic Pretender and rebellion; but the Whig ascendancy would 
not have been so easily maintained had it not been for the great 
abilities of their leader as an administrator and as a party and parlia- 
mentary manager. He was not a man of ideals, neither was he strik- 
ingly brilliant or original, but he was essentially sane and efficient. 
His services to his country were many and great. He established 
the Hanoverian succession on a secure foundation ; he gave England 
twenty years of peace and prosperity; he softened the bitterness of 
political and ecclesiastical faction, and raised the House of Commons 
to the leading position in the State. Remaining master of that body, 
he at the same time gained a firm hold on the confidence of two 
successive Kings, an achievement all the more remarkable from the 
fact that he aimed to keep clear of foreign complications, while both 
George I and George II were primarily interested in Continental 
affairs, and while the latter had a consuming ambition for military 
glory. Walpole was so economical that George I declared that he 
" could make gold from nothing." A typical squire, he worked for 
the support of the landed gentry, and had their strong support; 
but he held the commercial classes to him as well, by his knowl- 
edge of trade and finance, and his furtherance of their interests. He 
was a strict party disciplinarian who would brook no opposition in 
Cabinet or in Parliament, but he showed a deference to public opinion 
rare up to that time, and which marks him as the forerunner of the 
modern Minister. 

His Faults and Limitations. — Yet, while Walpole's merits and 
services were great, they were counterbalanced by decided faults and 

1 Townshend confined himself almost solely to foreign affairs. 



472 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

limitations, some of which were typical of the age and of his class. 
He was coarse in his conversation and loose in his private life. Al- 
though he had the welfare of his country at heart and was faithful to 
his Sovereign and never enriched himself at the public expense, he 
was greedy of power, he was unscrupulous in his party tactics, and 
utterly lacking in any high sense of honor ; he made no effort to se- 
cure the passage of measures, however worthy, that might endanger 
his ascendancy, 1 and he finished his career by offering to give up 
his cherished policy of peace in order to remain at the head of affairs. 
He preferred to be served by those men of mediocre attainments and 
low standards of conduct who obeyed his will, and repelled gifted 
and high-minded men who might become his rivals. Then, too, his 
influence on the younger generation of statesmen was baneful: he 
scoffed at ideals of purity and patriotism, scornfully labeling those 
who professed them as " Spartans," " Romans," and " Saints." 
Patronage was to be regarded as legitimate for along time to come, and 
Walpole used it openly and effectively ; but the extent to which he 
employed money bribes for corrupting members of Parliament has 
never been proved. In all likelihood, however, it was great. Unfortu- 
nately, the practice did not begin or end with him. Nevertheless, 
this fact remains true that, during the long period of his ascendancy, 
he discouraged the cooperation of the nobler spirits, and not only did 
nothing to raise but much to depress the already low state of public 
morality. This must not be forgotten in giving him due credit for 
his great services in the material development of his country. 

Death of George I (3 September, 1727). — Aside from an abortive 
project to coin halfpence for Ireland on terms which the inquiet 
genius of Swift, in his famous "Drapier Letters," magnified into a 
great oppression, the chief problems for the remainder of the reign 
centered in foreign affairs. Spain, bent on recovering Gibraltar, and 
infuriated because the Infanta, betrothed to Louis XV, had been 
repudiated for the daughter of the deposed King of Poland, made a 
strenuous effort to come to terms with the Emperor, to detach him 
from his alliance with France and Great Britain, and to stir up the 
Jacobites. George succeeded in checkmating these moves, but the 
situation remained tense. Such was the state of affairs when he died 
of an apoplectic fit on his way to Hanover, 3 June, 1727. He left the 
country united at home and powerful abroad. The dangers due to 
disputed succession had been averted, and the leading position which 
the genius of William and Marlborough had secured in European 
affairs had been not only maintained but increased. England was 
1 His motto was quieta non movere, do not stir up unnecessary strife. 



THE FIRST HANOVERIAN, GEORGE I 473 

the guiding spirit in Continental politics, her fleets dominated the 
Mediterranean and the Baltic, and she had frustrated the menacing 
combination of Spain and Austria. 

The Material Bases of the Hanoverian Power. — The power of the 
first Hanoverian King rested on material bases — the Riot Act, the 
standing army, the attachment of the moneyed classes, and the organi- 
zation of the Whig party, with a vast amount of patronage at its 
disposal and effectively led by Walpole, a master of the art of parlia- 
mentary management and corruption. As a further means of secur- 
ing its tenure of power, the dominant regime made every effort to dis- 
credit its Tory opponents by identifying them with Jacobitism and all 
its dire consequences — the overthrow of the existing dynasty, the 
restoration of Roman Catholicism, and the repudiation of the National 
Debt. George recognized that he owed his position to Whig support. 
Partly for this reason and partly because of his ignorance of the 
English language and English ways, he gave the Whig leaders, espe- 
cially Walpole, practically a free hand in matters of domestic concern. 
His Hanoverian favorites, while they enriched themselves at the 
public expense, exercised little real control over public policy. In 
consequence of the attitude which the King felt himself forced to 
adopt, he lost the advantage of playing off one party against another ; 
but the growth of the Cabinet and the power of Parliament was 
greatly fostered. Although the King was strong in the strength of 
the party supporting him, the old sentiment and respect for the 
Monarch had declined. The title of the new line was parliamentary 
and the idea of Divine Right was fast fading away. The Whigs 
repudiated it ; the Hanoverian Tories could not consistently maintain 
it, while the Jacobites, its most enthusiastic advocates, refused to 
acknowledge the reigning Sovereign. Furthermore, there was no 
reverend dignity about George to command exaggerated King wor- 
ship. At his Court all pomp, ceremony, and superstitious reverence 
was done away with ; he was not like his predecessors served on the 
knee at meals, and, with his accession, touching for the "King's 
evil " ceased. 

The Character of the Age. — The age was one of coarseness in 
private life and of indifference to high ideals, and there was much 
corruption and venality. One Lord Chancellor was impeached for 
financial irregularities ; three members of the Ministry were involved 
in the South Sea Scandals ; favors and support were bought and sold ; 
many, even in high office, engaged in the treasonable negotiations 
with the Pretender; and not a few took oaths which they did not 
believe for the sake of getting and holding places. Yet it is to be 



474 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

doubted whether the tone of patriotism or sense of public obligation 
was lower than during the past two reigns, and peace, material prog- 
ress, and the growth of enlightened public opinion were preparing the 
way for better things. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative and Constitutional. See works cited in ch. XXXVTII. Also, 
C. G. Robertson, England under the Hanoverians (191 1) ; Lord Mahon 
(Earl Stanhope), History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace 
of Versailles (4th ed., 1853, 7 vols.). 

Biography. W. Coxe, Memoirs of the Life and Administration of Sir 
Robert Walpole (3 vols., 1798). J. Morley (Viscount), Sir Robert Walpole 
(1889), an excellent sketch. 

Special. G. B. Hertz, British Imperialism in the Eighteenth Century 
(1908). J. F. Chance, George I, and the Great Northern War (1909). A. W. 
Ward, Great Britain and Hanover (1899). Thackeray's Four Georges is 
worth reading chiefly for its literary charm. 

Church. Overton and Relton, The English Church, 1 714-1800 (1906). 
For other references see Chapter XXXVIII above. 

Selections from sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 246-248. Robertson, 

P t.i,xxv-xxviri. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE AND THE OPENING OF 
A NEW ERA OF WAR. THE FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF 
GEORGE II (1727-1748) 

George II as Man and King. — George II, who was born in Han- 
over in 1683, was a mature man when he accompanied his father to 
England in 17 14. Adapting himself with considerable readiness to 
his new surroundings, he was able to achieve some popularity and to 
attract around him a considerable party of supporters which only 
widened the breach already opened between him and the elder George. 
The new King was a dapper little man, vain, pompous, and fond of 
the show of power. Also he was madly ambitious to shine as a 
general; though, while he fought bravely in more than one battle, 
he never showed any military ability. His temper was very gusty ; 
yet^ he was very methodical, fond of detail, and had considerable 
capacity for routine business. Though avarice, or at least extreme 
thriftiness, was one of his marked traits, he died comparatively poor, 
which has led to the conclusion that he must have spent much on his 
Hanoverian dominions. In foreign policy he was an opportunist 
without consistency of purpose, though, in general, he put Hanoverian 
and Imperial before English interests. In domestic politics he was 
timid and cautious, except for occasional outburst, of choler. Yet his 
lack of political courage led to a moderation and prudence of conduct 
which had a most happy effect on the growth of the constitutional 
government ; during his whole reign he never once invaded the rights 
of the subjects, or sought to reassert the declining royal prerogative. 
Moreover, in the midst of George's faults, two virtues stand out 
conspicuously — petty, spiteful, and ungracious as he was, he was abso- 
lutely a man of his word, and, though he gave his confidence grudg- 
ingly, he never withdrew it from a Minister who proved worthy. 

Queen Caroline (1683-1737).—-^ 1705 he married Caroline of 
Anspach, fondly known as " Caroline the Good." Though he neg- 
lected and abused her, she gained such an ascendancy over him that 

475 



476 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

she and Walpole came to be regarded as " the King's two ears." 
Patient and gracious, she was gifted with a keen sense of humor and 
uncommon tact ; understanding her Consort thoroughly, she realized 
that he could be easily led but never driven. Her death in 1737 was 
a sad loss to the country. 

The Strength of Walpole 's Government. — Again at the accession 
of George II, the Pretender, who nourished hopes from a change of 
dynasty, was doomed to disappointment. There was a noisy oppo- 
sition in Parliament, which Bolingbroke helped to organize, 1 made 
up of discontented Whigs, Jacobites, and Hanoverian Tories, who 
called themselves the " Patriots " ; but they were too divided in their 
personal and political interests to pull strongly together. Outside, 
the Government was fiercely assailed in the Craftsman — a bril- 
liantly written sheet — and other weekly periodicals as well as in 
pamphlets and ballads, though to little practical effect. The speeches 
of the Opposition speakers were prevented from circulating by Parlia- 
ment's jealous refusal to allow its debates to be printed, and Walpole 's 
peaceful, businesslike administration made for prosperity and con- 
tentment among the influential classes. Moreover, the Duke of 
Newcastle, a Secretary of State for thirty years, was, in spite of his 
apparent fussy ineffectiveness and his absurd timidity, an adroit 
political manager, and by his vast control of patronage, pensions, and 
boroughs, held Parliament in the hollow of his hand. 

Walpole becomes Prime and Sole Minister. — Not only was 
Walpole able to frustrate attacks in Parliament, but he managed to 
make himself supreme in the Cabinet, thus becoming the first " Prime 
Minister " in the modern sense of the term, though the name was 
first applied to him by his enemies. His brother-in-law, Townshend, 
who, since his return to office in 1721, had devoted himself exclusively 
to foreign affairs, resigned, 16 May, 1730, and retired to his estates. 
One or two measures of reform were carried in the years immediately 
following. In 1731 it was provided, in spite of stout opposition 
from many lawyers and judges, that the proceedings in the courts of 
justice should henceforth be in English instead of Latin. " Our 
prayers," urged one eloquent advocate, " are in our native tongue, 
that they may be intelligible, and why should not the laws wherein 
our lives and properties are concerned be so for the same reason? " 

Walpole's Excise (1733)- — The Government was at the height of its 
popularity when Walpole introduced an excise scheme in 1733 which, 
in spite of its obvious merits, roused such a howl of opposition that 

1 Although he was allowed to return to the country in 1723, he was still excluded 
from the House of Lords and lived at some distance from London. 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 477 

he bowed to the storm and abandoned the measure. As a means of 
strengthening himself in. the support of the county aristocracy he 
reduced the land tax from two shillings in the pound to one, which 
obliged him to resort to various substitutes. A measure to impose 
an internal tax on salt, which bore rather heavily on the poorer class, 
was carried by a small majority. When this proved inadequate, 
Walpole introduced a measure providing that, in the case of tobacco 
and wine, the customs duty at the ports should be abolished and 
that, in its place, an excise should be imposed on retail traders. At 
the same time, goods bonded for reexport were to be warehoused free 
of duty. The plan had much to commend it. It would do away 
with smuggling in these commodities, which prevailed to such an 
extent that £500,000 a year was lost out of a possible £750,000. 
Moreover, prices were not raised, while, by the warehousing provision, 
London would become a free port and the center of the world's 
markets. 

The Opposition and Withdrawal of the Measure. — At once, how- 
ever, the Opposition fomented an indignation which spread through- 
out the land. The excise was denounced as a " many-headed monster, 
which was to devour the people," * and as a " plan of arbitrary power." 
The number of collectors required was magnified into a standing 
army who would be employed as creatures of the Government to 
control elections, while the right to enter and search places where 
goods were stored was condemned as an inquisitorial attack on 
liberty. There was certainly good ground for objecting to the increase 
of placemen; but the number required was only 126, and they were 
to have power to search only shops and warehouses, not private 
dwellings. These assurances, however, fell on deaf ears. During 
the debates crowds surged about the Parliament House threatening 
and yelling. Pamphlets multiplied, and petitions poured in from all 
quarters. " The public was so heated " that rebellion was threatened. 
While he still had a small though decreasing majority for his bill, 
Walpole, yielding to the popular clamor, quietly withdrew it ; for he 
regarded it as impolitic to cross the will of the people, even for their 
good. Toward his colleagues who opposed him he took a different 
attitude, depriving them of their offices at Court or of their com- 
missions in the army. Some might regard this as a " monstrous 
piece of resentment," but Walpole, by thus punishing men in official 

1 So late as 1755 Dr. Johnson, in the first edition of his famous Dictionary, de- 
fined an excise as "hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by 
common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom the excise 
is paid." 



478 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

position who opposed a Government measure, took a long step in the 
direction of party unity under the chief of the Cabinet. 

Quarrels between George II and Prince Frederick. — All the 
while, Walpole had to face scathing attacks from the Patriots, who 
denounced him as " a man abandoned to all notions of virtue and 
honor . . . afraid or unwilling to trust any but creatures of his own 
making . . . with a Parliament of his own making, most of their 
seats purchased, and their votes bought at the public expense." 
However, he managed after great exertion — spending, it is said, 
£60,000 of his private fortune — to win a good, though decreased 
majority for the Parliament of 1735. Bolingbroke in despair left 
the country. Although he returned later, he never again mingled 
actively in party politics. After the withdrawal of the old Tory 
chief, the Opposition began to center about Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
who was engaged in constant quarrels with his royal father. This 
estrangement between father and son, unedifying as it was, was 
really a source of strength to the dynasty, for many of the Tories who 
had only seen a way to power through the Stuarts now began to fix 
their hopes on Frederick. 

Troubles with Spain. — The death of Queen Caroline, 20 November, 
1737, deprived Walpole of his stanchest supporter. He kept his 
office over four years longer; but his peace policy, more and more 
fiercely assailed, at length broke down. Even the King, while he 
refused to accept his resignation, constantly thwarted his foreign 
negotiations in order to force him into a warlike attitude. In the 
end he yielded to the clamors of the Opposition, but too late to save 
his place. The trouble started with Spain. There were several 
causes of friction, but the most acute and important concerned trade 
relations, rising from the determination of the English to break down 
the colonial monopoly to which the Spanish clung so jealously. 
Though withdrawn for a time, the commercial concessions made to 
England by the Peace of Utrecht had been later renewed ; but each 
nation was allowed the right to search and the seizure of contraband 
goods. While the Spanish exercised their rights with rigor and 
cruelty, the English, to the total disregard of treaty obligations, were 
guilty of shameless smuggling. Fleets were constantly putting into 
Spanish-American ports under pretense of refitting, really to buy 
and sell goods. Others lay off shore where they were visited by 
hosts of illicit traders. The one ship allowed by the Asiento was 
moored a short distance from the coast and continually loaded and 
unloaded. Cases of violence and indignities which English seamen 
suffered at the hands of the Spanish coast-guard were indignantly 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 479 

emphasized, while the violations of the law which called them forth 
were veiled in discreet silence. The ungracious delay of the Court 
at Madrid in redressing actual grievances only added fuel to the 
flames. 

The Case of Jenkins's Ear (1738). — Parliament was flooded with 
petitions from the merchants demanding redress. Sailors were posted 
in the Exchange, exhibiting specimens of the loathsome food they had 
to eat in Spanish dungeons. Some, brought before the bar of the 
Commons, told their stories in minute and harrowing detail. While 
there was some truth in what they said, they were not examined under 
oath. Moreover, they were encouraged by partisan zeal, even by 
bribes, to exaggerate and invent. The tale of a shipmaster, Robert 
Jenkins, related in March, 1738, aroused the chief interest. Accord- 
ing to his account, his ship had been boarded, 9 April, 1 731, by a body 
of the Spanish coast-guard, and the captain had cut off one of his 
ears. He produced as evidence the severed member, which he had 
carried wrapped in cotton, ever since. In reply to the question as to 
what he had done, he replied : " I commended my soul to God and 
my cause to my country." While this stirring phrase, which became 
famous, was very likely coined for him, it is now believed that he 
lost his ear in the manner he described, and not in the pillory as some 
have hinted. With a number even of his own colleagues against 
him, Walpole struggled in vain to stem the swelling tide of anti- 
Spanish opposition. The cry of "no search " ran " from the sailor 
to the merchant, from the merchant to the Parliament," and the 
Lords carried a resolution denying the right. 

Walpole Forced to Declare War (23 October, 1739)- — Tne Prune 
Minister, while admitting that the English merchants and sailors 
had grievances, still hoped to settle them by treaty. At the same 
time, he sought to put pressure on the Court at Madrid by prepara- 
tions for war. In consequence, the Spanish released several prizes 
and captives, and signed a Convention by which they agreed to pay 
£95,000 damages to English merchants. When it became known 
that no provision had been made to limit the right of search, to pun- 
ish those who had inflicted crudities on English sailors, or to settle 
other outstanding questions, the Convention was furiously denounced. 
Walpole in his defense declared in words which have become famous : 
" Any peace is preferable even to successful war." In spite of French 
efforts to mediate, Walpole finally realized that he must either de- 
clare war or resign. So he framed a series of demands, including 
absolute renunciation of the right of search, immediate payment of 
the £95,000 fixed by the Convention, and an express acknowledgment 



480 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of British claims in North America. When the Spanish rejected 
the ultimatum, war was declared, 23 October, 1739. 

Walpole and the War. — Regardless of the prosperity which they 
had enjoyed during the long years of peace, the English people, antici- 
pating much plunder and an easy victory, went mad with joy. " They 
may ring bells now," murmured Walpole ; " before long they will be 
wringing their hands." He foresaw, as the country at large did not, 
the dangers involved in the course so jauntily entered upon. He 
knew that France and Spain had allied themselves in a Family Com- 
pact in 1733, and, although the French had striven for peace, they were 
bound sooner or later to make common cause with Spain. More- 
over, the Jacobites were again active, and, as events soon showed, 
were to prove a serious menace. While the responsibility for stir- 
ring the national resentment to a war fever rests with the Opposition, 
Walpole must be blamed for yielding that he might cling to office. 
Possibly he felt that, if a conflict were inevitable, he was more capable 
of bringing it to a successful conclusion than any other man of the 
time ; still there is no doubt that love of power warped his judgment, 
and he made the supreme mistake of his life in undertaking to carry 
on a war which he believed was neither just nor expedient. In vain 
the once domineering Minister made concessions, for his old opponents 
and the " Boy Patriots " whom they had trained were bent on driv- 
ing him out. Against this formidable combination he had to fight 
practically alone, since he had on his side only men of mediocre at- 
tainments or damaged character. Thus he paid the penalty for his 
jealousy of rivals in office. 

The War of Jenkins's Ear (1739-1741). — Meantime, 19 July, 
1739, three months before the war was formally declared, Admiral 
Vernon was sent to the Spanish-American waters with instructions 
" to destroy the Spanish settlements and to distress their shipping." 
On 21 November he took by assault Porto Bello on the Isthmus of 
Panama, an important station for fitting out the guarda-costas or 
revenue cutters. But his triumph was offset two years later, when, 
with a great fleet and a large army, his attempt to capture Carta- 
gena, " the strongest place in Spanish America," resulted in disastrous 
failure. 

The Opening of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740). — On 
20 October, 1740, the Emperor Charles VI died. Having no sons, 
he had, by the so-called Pragmatic Sanction, 1 provided that his Aus- 
trian lands should descend to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, 

1 A term of various meanings, among others, an arrangement made by a ruler 
for settling the succession of his family lands. 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 48 1 

married to Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany. England, who had 
pledged herself in 1725 to accept this arrangement, at once found her 
conflict with Spain merged into a grave European complication, the 
War of the Austrian Succession. Various male members of the 
Hapsburg House set up a claim to the family inheritance, 1 but at 
length united to support the pretensions of Charles Albert of Bavaria. 
At the same time a new Power loomed up in the horizon. Frederick, 
known to history as " The Great," who had succeeded to the throne 
of Prussia the previous May, advanced a claim to a portion of the 
Austrian province of Silesia with the ultimate intention of absorbing 
the whole. Frederick, a grim and ruthless figure, proved to be a 
military genius, a statesman and an administrator of the first rank. 
Strengthened by the financial resources and the standing army built 
up by his testy, avaricious, and eccentric father, Frederick William, 
he succeeded by an amazing clarity of vision, by sleepless vigilance, 
and by unremitting perseverance and toil in perfecting a model State 
of the despotic type and forcing it into the front rank of European 
Powers. In the conflict which he now entered he allied himself with 
France, Spain, Bavaria, and Saxony, and the first two Silesian wars 
( 1 740-1 742 and 1 744-1 745) proved to be significant factors in the 
general war of the Austrian Succession. Hard beset by a Prussian 
army in Silesia and by a combined French, Bavarian, and Saxon army 
in Bohemia, the young Maria Theresa was confronted with a gloomy 
prospect. At Frankfort, 14 February, 1742, Charles Albert was elected 
Emperor under the title of Charles VII. 

The Fall of Walpole (1742). — With the new turn of affairs on the 
Continent the attacks against Walpole increased in intensity. While 
one of the main charges against him was that he had made himself 
" prime and sole Minister," various unfortunte events for which he 
was in no way to blame added to his unpopularity, among them 
Vernon's failure at Cartagena and heavy commercial losses due to 
Spanish attacks on English shipping. However, he fought on with 
amazing resourcefulness, keenness, and courage until, after his party 
had been defeated by sixteen votes in a petition relating to a dis- 
puted election, he was finally persuaded that his retirement was 
absolutely necessary, and 11 February, 1742, he resigned all his 
offices, though not before he had made extremely favorable terms for 
himself and his family. He was created Earl of Orford and received 
other marks of royal favor ; moreover, during the three remaining 
years of his life he continued to exert such an influence on public 

1 The office of Emperor was elective, but for centuries the head of the House of 
Austria had been chosen. 
21 



482 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

affairs as to justify in some measure the popular outcry that he was 
" still Minister behind the curtain." Material as were his interests, 
his achievements gave him a leading place " amongst the master 
workers of modern Great Britain." Much to the disappointment 
of the Tories, who clamored for an administration founded "ona 
broad bottom of both parties," the Whig regime continued with a 
few changes in personnel. 

The Course of the War (1 742-1 743). — England now plunged 
into the thick of the Continental struggle. During the session of 
1742 a subsidy of £500,000 was granted to Maria Theresa, £5,000,000 
was voted for troops and supplies, and an auxiliary force of 16,000 
men was sent to the Netherlands. While, owing to the lack of Dutch 
cooperation, they did little during the whole year but quarrel with 
the inhabitants, the armies of the Empress gained ground against 
the French in Bohemia and in the valley of the Danube. In the early 
summer of 1742 Frederick the Great concluded a peace- which put an 
end to the first Silesian War and withdrew temporarily from the anti- 
Austrian alliance. This was a welcome relief to Maria Theresa, 
though the concession of the greater part of Silesia which it involved 
was a sore blow to her pride. George, anxious alike to protect his 
Electoral dominions and to emulate William of Orange as the head 
of a great Continental alliance, was eager to dash actively into the 
fray. Already, before his fall, Walpole had concluded a treaty for 
subsidizing a force of 6000 Hessians. Now the King and the Secre- 
tary of State for Northern Affairs, without consulting Parliament, 
arranged to take 16,000 Hanoverians into the British pay. Parlia- 
mentary sanction was secured only in the teeth of the bitterest 
opposition; yet the step had the advantage of stirring the Dutch 
to furnish a contingent, while King George levied 6000 more of his 
Hanoverian subjects whom he paid with Electoral money. 

The Battle of Dettingen (27 June, 1743). — Toward the end of 1742, 
he sought to provide against a possible French attack by defensive 
alliances with Prussia and Austria, and, in February, 1743, the Eng- 
lish forces in the Netherlands started east and south with the object 
of cutting off the French from their Bavarian allies. On the march 
they were joined by some Austrian forces and by the Hanoverians 
in British pay. Halfway between Mainz and Frankfort on the north 
bank of the Main, they sat down to await the Hessians and the Han- 
overian reinforcements which had been levied with Electoral money. 
Meantime, a French army had also crossed the Rhine and approached 
the Main from the south. Strangely enough, neither France nor 
England had as yet declared war on one another, but were merely 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 483 

supporting their respective allies. On 27 June, the two armies fought 
a desperate battle near the little village of Dettingen. In spite of 
the valor shown by George II, 1 who had just joined his army in person, 
it was only the rashness of one of the French generals that enabled 
the Pragmatic 2 forces to rout the enemy, who had well-nigh hemmed 
them in, and to cut their way through. Thus the battle of Dettingen 
was " a happy escape " rather than a great victory. An Imperial 
force succeeded in driving across the Rhine another French army oper- 
ating in Bavaria, with the result that, by the end of the campaign 
of 1743, German soil had been completely cleared of the invader. 

England and France as Principals in the War. — Impelled by fear 
and hatred of her ancient rival, France now drew closer to Spain. 
By the Second Family Compact, concluded 25 October, 1743, she 
promised to assist Spain to recover Gibraltar and Minorca and to 
destroy the colony of Georgia, while Spain, on her part, agreed to 
transfer to France the privileges formerly accorded to England under 
the Asiento. The whole face of the war had been changed by the 
events of the past year. England, first coming into conflict with 
Spain over trade disputes in the western world, had been drawn into 
the European struggle as the ally of Maria Theresa, for the purpose of 
maintaining the Pragmatic Sanction and the integrity of the Aus- 
trian lands. Now she and France had been brought face to face as 
principals. George, " greedy for glory," had not only sent con- 
tingents to fight the French but had actually gone in person to lead 
them. Maria Theresa, more aspiring still and thirsting for revenge 
against the Powers who had combined against her, was determined 
to secure the Imperial crown for her husband Francis and to extend 
her territories. So far as France and England were concerned, the 
area of the conflict was not confined to Europe, but spread to America 
and India. These two Powers were to emerge more clearly than ever 
before as rivals for maritime and colonial supremacy. 

The Ministry of Henry Pelham (1 743-1 754). — Meantime, New- 
castle, with the support of Orford, succeeded in securing for 
his brother, Henry Pelham, the office of Prime Minister, which he re- 
tained until his death eleven years later. "A politician without any 
commanding abilities," he proved to be a capable and economical 
financier as well as an excellent parliamentary manager. George and 
his Foreign Minister were sharply attacked on the ground that they 
were assuming for Great Britain an increasing burden of the ex- 
penses of the War, and mainly in the interest of Hanover, but the 

1 The last instance where an English King led his army in person. 

2 So called because they were fighting to maintain the Pragmatic Sanction. 



484 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Opposition was momentarily silenced by the news that the French 
were preparing another expedition in favor of the Pretender. 

The Attempted French Invasion and the Reciprocal Declarations 
of War (1744). — Since his father no longer cherished any illusions 
and was completely discredited by repeated failure and by constant 
quarrels with his followers, the hopes of the Jacobites centered in 
" Prince Charlie." The young Pretender, now in his twenty-fourth 
year, was handsome, gracious, dignified, and brave, endowed with 
all the charm and enthusiasm of youth. However, owing to a 
heavy storm and to the vigilance of the British fleet, an invading ex- 
pedition which he joined in 1744 never got across the Channel. The 
only result was a declaration of war by both countries. That of 
Louis XV was issued 4 March, alleging, as its chief reason, that Eng- 
land had broken the peace by her expedition to Germany. The 
English replied 29 March, asserting, among other grounds, the vio- 
lation of the Pragmatic Sanction, aid to Spanish privateers in the West 
Indies, and the attempted invasion of England. 

The Battle of Fontenoy (1745). — The Dutch now entered the 
war, and the campaign of 1745 centered in the Netherlands, where 
the French with a greatly superior army defeated a combined force 
of the Austrians, British, and Dutch at Fontenoy, n May, and before 
the close of the summer was practically in control of Flanders. These 
and other reverses of the English and their allies were offset by a few 
gains, chiefly diplomatic. Frederick had entered the war again, 10 
August, 1744; but after he had driven a combined army of Aus- 
trians and Saxons from Silesia into Bohemia, the English Cabinet, 
holding before him the danger of French ascendancy, induced him 
to listen to terms. In return for the cession of Silesia, Frederick 
agreed to acknowledge Maria Theresa's husband as Emperor. By 
the Peace concluded 25 December, 1745, the Second Silesian War 
came to an end. 

The Capture of Louisburg (1745). — Meantime, in North America, 
the New England militia, assisted by a British fleet, had gained a 
brilliant success by the capture of Louisburg, 17 June, 1745. This 
stronghold, situated on Cape Breton Island, had been fortified by the 
French at great expense. It was one of the most important positions 
in the New World, for it commanded the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 
it controlled the North American fisheries, and had served the French 
as a naval base both for their operations against New England and 
for securing their communications between France and Canada. 

The Coming of Prince Charlie (25 July, 1745). — Encouraged by 
the reverses of the English and their allies in Flanders, Prince 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 485 

Charlie, 2 July, 1745, embarked from the coast of France and sailed 
for Scotland in a final attempt to recover the throne of his ancestors. 
/Perhaps the most romantic episode in the history of a country of 
\ valorous and desperate exploits, the Rising of 1745 l was undertaken 
in the face of every chance of failure. Unsupported by a single 
European Power the Young Pretender landed on the west coast of 
Scotland, 25 July, with only seven companions, trusting alone to his 
personal charm and his family name. Of the Highland clans who 
responded to his call most were destitute of discipline, torn by jeal- 
ousy, and primarily concerned in plundering their enemies. In the 
Lowlands, while there was some enthusiasm for the Stuart name 
and a lingering discontent against the Union, the growing commer- 
cial and industrial element saw that their best interests were bound 
up with the existing Government. Moreover, the English Jacobites, 
notwithstanding the fact that the King was abroad and most of the 
British army was absent in the Netherlands, made little or no effort 
to organize an insurrection. 

His Occupation of Edinburgh (17 September), Prestonpans (21 Sep- 
tember). — Having won over a few of the western chiefs, Charles raised 
his standard, 19 August, in a dreary Highland vale. Such was the 
magic of his presence and his name that many, from a glorious but 
mistaken loyalty and against their better judgment, flocked to join 
him. Others held aloof, waiting upon events. Practically unob- 
structed by the forces of Sir John Cope, the Hanoverian commander, 
the invader hurried to Edinburgh. On the way he was joined by 
Lord George Murray, a veteran of 171 5, who rendered effective service 
as a general, but added another element of discord by his hot temper 
and overbearing manner. On 17 September, after overcoming a 
feeble opposition to his advance, Prince Charlie entered the panic- 
stricken capital. As he rode through the town, in a tartan coat, wear- 
ing a blue bonnet surmounted by a white cockade, he was welcomed 
with raptures by the Jacobites. After a brief rest he marched forth 
to meet Cope, who had taken ship at Aberdeen, landed at Dunbar, 
and was on his way westward. The two armies joined battle, 21 
September, near the village of Prestonpans. 2 Cope's forces, unable 
to withstand the terrific onslaught of the Highlanders, were routed 
completely in little more than five minutes. Unable to rally the rem- 
'nants, Sir John joined in the flight across the Border. 

The Pretender Invades England (31 October, 1745). — Charles 
was for pushing on at once for London while the Government was still 

1 It has been immortalized in literature in Sir Walter Scott's Waverley. 

2 Not to be confused with Preston in Lancashire. 



486 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

unprepared, but his advisers urged him to wait for reinforcements 
and for supplies. So many of his Highlanders had gone home with 
their plunder that he was obliged to yield, and remained in Edinburgh 
gathering recruits. The delay destroyed any chance of success that 
he may have had. George II returned from Hanover, 31 August, 
the Dutch were called on to furnish 6000 auxiliaries that they were 
bound by treaty to supply, the militia were mustered in several coun- 
ties, and General Wade was ordered to collect an army at Newcastle. 
The mass of the people remained indifferent; but the Government 
made itself stronger every day. Charles, who had been drilling his 
motley following and doing his best to hold them in restraint, began 
his invasion of England, 31 October, taking the western route to avoid 
General Wade. Dressed in Highland garb the Prince marched on 
foot, sharing the hardships of the common soldier, paying for all he 
took and maintaining admirable discipline. Yet the position of the 
invaders grew every day more desperate. Hanoverian forces began to 
recover control in Scotland; regiments from Flanders were hurried 
to England, and the Dutch auxiliaries soon arrived; General Wade 
was advancing through Yorkshire ; the Duke of Cumberland, a son 
of the King, had collected an army in the Midlands ; a third force was 
forming just north of London for the defense of the City, while fleets 
patroled the Channel to intercept any possible aid from France. 

The Retreat to Scotland. — Charles, whose courage and enthusiasm 
never waned, managed to elude Cumberland and to get as far as Derby, 
situated only one hundred and twenty-seven miles north of London. 
There, Lord George Murray and the other leaders insisted on turning 
back, but it was only with the utmost difficulty that they persuaded 
Charles against pressing on to certain destruction. The retreat was 
a striking contrast to the advance. Discipline was relaxed, and the 
embittered Highlanders ruthlessly plundered the countryside, caus- 
ing the hostility to the " wild petticoat men " to grow steadily more 
intense. Cumberland started in hot pursuit, but on a false report 
that the French were preparing to land, gave up the chase. The re- 
treating army succeeded in recrossing the border and, 26 December, 
reached Glasgow, having accomplished the extraordinary feat of march- 
ing nearly six hundred miles in fifty-six days. 

The Defeat of Culloden (16 April, 1746). — Although the Pretender 
defeated one Government force on the Scottish side of the Border, it ' 
did him no good. New dissensions arose, the clansmen dispersed with 
their booty, and Cumberland was sent to take command in Scotland. 
Again- Murray persuaded Charles to retreat, this time to the High- 
lands, where he might spend the winter in recruiting and preparing 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 487 

for the spring campaign. As the season advanced, the suffering of his 
troops became pitiful. The district where they were quartered was 
bleak and barren, they were cut off from the richer Lowlands whence 
they might have drawn means of subsistence, and most of the supplies 
from France were intercepted. Early in April, Cumberland, who 
had finally got his army in fighting shape, marched from Aberdeen 
with 9000 well armed and well fed troops to offer battle. At Culloden 
Moor about five miles east of Inverness, he attacked, on the 16th, 
Charles's little army of 5000 which, half-starved and nearly blinded 
by a storm of wind and hail which blew directly in their faces, were 
ill fitted for effective resistance. The army of the Pretender was 
destroyed, his cause was ruined. 

Cumberland's Butchery and the Flight of Prince Charlie. — Cum- 
berland earned his name of " The Butcher " by the ferocity with which 
he hunted down, slew and even tortured the vanquished, and pillaged 
and destroyed their property. 1 Many who escaped perished from 
hunger and exposure. Lord George Murray made a vain effort to 
rally the clans ; but Charles, thanking them for their zeal, bade them 
seek safety. Lord George himself escaped to Holland. For five 
months, from April to September, Charles wandered about a fugitive, 
sometimes on the main land, sometimes among the islands off the 
coast. In spite of a reward of £30,000 offered for his capture no one 
could be found to betray him. It was during this period of exposure 
that he contracted the habit of drunkenness which later proved his 
ruin. At length, in September, he was shipped out of the country 
from the very place where he had landed fourteen months before. 
Unfortunately, except for occasional flashes of his old courage and gen- 
erosity, his later life was sad and inglorious. Driven from France, 
he wandered about Europe and finally took refuge in Italy. He died 
in Rome, 31 January, 1788. With the death of his brother Henry, 
Cardinal of York, in 1807, the male line of the House of Stuart be- 
came extinct. 

The Transformation of Scotland after the Union. — Happily, the 
repression of the rising of 1745 and the measures that followed com- 
pleted the social and economic transformation of Scotland which had 
been going on since the Union. Before that time the Highlands had 
been inaccessible and barbaric; the clans formed a group of petty 
kingdoms, each under an hereditary chief who knew no law but tribal 
law, while the clansmen, scorning labor, left their women and children 
to gather such scanty crops as their barren lands afforded, and devoted 

1 Though some maintain that his responsibility for the cruelties after Culloden 
has been exaggerated. 



488 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

themselves to the chase, to cattle raids and fighting. The Lowlands, 
where the chief industrial energy and progressiveness centred, were 
handicapped by a bare, rugged soil, by exposure to attack from the 
north and south, religious persecution and rigid exclusion from Eng- 
lish markets. The period following the Revolution and the Union 
marked a turning point in their history. Presbyterianism was re- 
stored, schools were established, and with the removal of restrictions 
on commerce, trade and manufactures began to flourish. The High- 
lands remained for a long time untouched by the change, in spite of 
various innovations. Parochial schools were set up with a view to 
rooting out the Gaelic tongue, a barrier to rapid assimilation. After 
1 715 an attempt was made to disarm the clansmen; but the inacces- 
sible character of the country proved a serious obstacle to its enforce- 
ment. In 1726, however, General Wade began the construction of 
roads, which, completed in a little over ten years, greatly facilitated 
the efforts of the Government in dealing with the disaffected and in 
opening up the remote districts to civilizing influences. 

After the Rising. — The crushing of the Rebellion completed what 
the rise of the Lowland industrial class, the extension of education, 
and the new roads had begun. Many powerful chieftains were forced 
to go into exile, others were ruined, so that ties which bound them to 
their clansmen were naturally weakened. In addition, a series of 
important measures were passed in 1746, which swept away the last 
vestiges of the old clan organization. One abolished all " heritable 
jurisdictions," providing £152,000 by way of compensation. Another 
made the Disarming Act a reality and prohibited under severe pen- 
alties any but soldiers from wearing the national dress. English 
Ministers, however, wisely enlisted Highland regiments in the British 
service, who by their valiant achievements aroused a sense of national 
loyalty which went far to soften the animosity called forth by the pre- 
vious measures of repression. Much of the old time chivalry and ro- 
mance and picturesqueness passed away and no little temporary dis- 
tress resulted ; for the old chiefs who had been fathers to their people 
were often replaced by rapacious landlords intent on squeezing a 
profit from the tenants. But by the extension of schools, by the in- 
troduction of improved methods of agriculture and cattle breeding, 
by the encouragement of the fisheries and the development of the 
linen industry and stocking- weaving, and by the enforcement of law, 
thrift and security came to prevail over disorder and poverty. Natu- 
rally, the growth of wealth and industry was small compared with 
that of the Lowlands ; but, nevertheless, it was striking. Throughout 
the countrv much that was sordid and miserable remained, while the 



THE ASCENDANCY AND FALL OF WALPOLE 489 

despotism of the Church and the gloomy Sabbath tended to darken 
and deaden the national character ; but the native shrewdness of the 
Scot, his frugality and diligence, led him to achieve great things at 
home and to bring him to the front ranks wherever he went. 

The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). — The recall of the English 
troops to deal with the rising of the Scots had left the Allies even more at 
the mercy of the French in the Netherlands than they had been before. 
On the other hand, Austria had been relieved by the withdrawal of 
both Prussia and Bavaria from the war and by the death, 9 July, 1746, 
of Philip V of Spain, whose son and successor, Ferdinand VI, was 
pacifically inclined. Bereft of two allies, languidly supported by a 
third, alarmed at the increasing debt, unsuccessful against the Aus- 
trians in Italy, and with the St. Lawrence and Canada threatened by 
the capture of Louisburg, the French were ready to listen to terms of 
peace ; but the English demands were so high that the struggle dragged 
on for more than a year longer, during which French gains in the 
Netherlands were about balanced by British successes at sea. At 
length, the question of peace was referred to a congress called to meet 
at Aix-la-Chapelle, where the English and the Dutch finally signed 
preliminaries, 30 April, 1748, without waiting for their Austrian allies. 
The chief terms were : (1) The mutual restoration of all conquests ; 
(2) The Asiento was to be revived for four years ; (3) The Protestant 
Succession was again guaranteed and the exclusion of the Pretender 
and his family from France confirmed ; (4) The Emperor Francis was 
to be acknowledged by France and the Pragmatic Sanction renewed ; 
(5) Silesia was to remain in the hands of the King of Prussia. The 
Empress Maria Theresa protested bitterly, and at first refused to 
confirm the preliminaries ; but, after tiresome negotiations, a defini- 
tive peace was finally signed, 18 October. 

The Results of the War. — Curiously enough, the issue in which 
England and Spain had originally gone to war — the right of search — 
was passed over without mention, while England and France, after a 
tremendous expenditure of men and money, remained in much the 
same position as before. On the other hand, the Austrian lands and 
the Imperial title had been preserved to the daughter of Austrian Haps- 
burgs, though at the cost of Silesia ; Holland, already seriously weak- 
ened in the previous struggles with France, finally ceased to be a great 
Power ; while Prussia, destined in another war to be the most effective 
ally of Great Britain and a dominating force in Europe, had made her 
way into the front ranks of European States. It was only late in the 
struggle that England had asserted the maritime supremacy that had 
once been hers, and which she was soon to demonstrate again so 



490 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

signally. On land she had been beaten " on every spot which my 
lord Marlborough had conquered." When, after a brief interval of 
repose, the conflict was again resumed, William Pitt, a remarkable 
young man who had been given a subordinate place in the Ministry 
in 1746, was to show that his country's primary mission was not to 
devote her best strength to fighting France in the Netherlands and in 
Germany, but to bend her main energies to mastering her great rival 
on the sea, in America and in India. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 
See Chapter XLI below. 



CHAPTER XLI 

THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE. THE CLOSING YEARS OF 
GEORGE ITS REIGN (1748-1760) 

The Reform of the Calendar (1751). — The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle 
was followed in England by several years of political tranquillity, 
during which two notable reforms were carried through. The first 
was the reform of the Calendar. The English year began on " Lady 
Day," 25 March, 1 and owing to an ancient astronomical error, her 
reckoning was eleven days wrong. The " new " or corrected style 
had been brought into general use in Europe, in 1582, by Pope Gregory 
XIII. Only Sweden, Russia, 2 and England clung to the " old style," 
partly from conservatism, partly because the innovation was a 
" Popish " measure. In England the change was proposed by Lord 
Chesterfield, and was worked out with the aid of two prominent 
mathematicians. New Year's Day was changed to 1 January, and 
the day following 2 September, 1752, was called the 14th. Al- 
though the measure was easily carried through Parliament, the 
opposition outside was for some time intense : "Give us back our 
eleven days " being a popular cry in the next election. 

Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Bill (1753). —The other measure — 
the Marriage Act of 1753 — did away with a crying abuse. Hitherto 
marriages could be celebrated by a priest at any time and place 
without previous notice or registration, and without the knowledge 
and consent of either parent or guardian, even if the parties were 
minors. Consequently, disreputable parsons, usually prisoners for 
debt, did a thriving business in joining runaway couples, as well as 
young heirs and heiresses entrapped by unscrupulous persons. This 
nefarious work centered chiefly in and about the " Fleet." 3 Almost 
every neighboring tavern and grog shop had a " Fleet parson " in 
its pay. In one period of four months nearly 3000 " Fleet marriages " 
were performed. Once joined, the tie was almost indissoluble, since 

1 The Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. 

2 Russia still retains it. 

3 A celebrated debtors' prison in London. 

491 



492 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

divorces could only be secured by Act of Parliament. Various at- 
tempts to remedy the evil proved ineffective till Lord Hardwicke's 
celebrated Act of 1753, which provided that, except in the case of 
Quakers and Jews, no marriages should be valid which were not 
celebrated according to the Anglican liturgy by a priest of the Church 
of England. Furthermore, banns must be published in the parish 
church for three successive weeks. The only alternative was a 
special license issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury and very 
costly. In the case of minors, such licenses could not be procured 
without the consent of parents or guardians. Parsons celebrating 
marriages contrary to law were liable to transportation. The new 
arrangement was naturally a grievance to Dissenters ; but the evils 
that it remedied were greater than the hardships it caused, and the 
Act continued in force for nearly a century. 

The Newcastle Ministry (1754-1756), and the Outbreak of the 
Seven Years' War (1756-1763). — The death of Henry Pelham, 6 
March, 1754, put an end to the prevailing political calm. " Now I 
shall have no more peace," cried the old King, words which proved all 
too true. Newcastle, in order to insure the maintenance of his own 
power, took his brother's place as Prime Minister. Before many 
months a new war was to break out, destined to settle to a large degree 
problems " which had long been ripe for solution," problems " which 
concerned not only the British kingdom but all the civilized and 
almost all the inhabited world : whether France or England was to 
rule in India; whether the French manners, language and institu- 
tions or the English were to prevail over the immense continent of 
North America ; whether Germany was to have a national existence ; 
whether Spain was to monopolize the tropics ; who was to command 
the ocean ; who was to be dominant in the islands of the Spanish- 
American waters; what power was to possess the choice stands for 
business in the great markets of the globe." The Peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, which had settled so little in Europe, did still less toward 
defining the situation in India and America, for in the years follow- 
ing the inconclusive treaty, the ambitious activity of the French 
came to menace more and more dangerously, not only the security, 
but the very existence of the English in both these vast areas. The 
situation in India can best be made clear by a brief survey of its 
history. 

The Beginnings of the English Activity in India. — Early in the 
sixteenth century the district now known as India, formerly under a 
number of independent rulers, was conquered and united by a line of 
emperors called by Europeans the Great Moguls. Rajahs or princes 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE 



493 



became tributary, while other districts were formed under appointed 
viceroys. The Mogul's court at Delhi was a center of great magnifi- 
cence. The decline of the dynasty, however, was rapid. The last 
great ruler died in 1707, and his successors degenerated into mere 
figureheads. Although the rajahs and viceroys continued nominally 
dependents, it was they who came to wield the real power. Mean- 
time, the Europeans began to press in. First came the Portuguese, 
then the Dutch. Close on the heels of the latter came the English. 
The East India Company received its first charter from Elizabeth 
in 1600. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Company 
had three separate and independent settlements, or " Presidencies," — 
at Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay. Already, the Portuguese and the 
Dutch had ceased to be formidable rivals ; but a new competitor had 
arisen in the French. During the reign of Louis XIV they too founded 
an East India Company, establishing fortified settlements at Chander- 
nagore near Calcutta, and at Pondicherry, about eighty miles south- 
east of Madras. In the Indian Ocean, off the Island of Madagascar, 
they acquired two fertile islands, one of which — the Isle de France, 
now Mauritius, — served as a naval base for India as Cape Breton 
did for Canada. 

The French Strive for Supremacy in India. Dupleix and Clive. — 
In 1754, Dupleix, formerly Governor of Pondicherry, a remarkable 
man with a consuming ambition to establish a French empire in India, 
acquired supreme control of his country's affairs in the East. Having, 
with the aid of an able commander, made himself supreme in the 
southeastern and south central districts, known as the Carnatic and 
the Deccan, he seemed in a fair way to drive the British out of India 
when his victorious career was suddenly checked by a man to whom, 
more than any other, Great Britain owes the beginning of her present 
Indian Empire. This was Robert Clive (1 725-1 774) the son of an 
impoverished squire. Owing to his idle, wayward temper, his father, 
despairing of his chances of a career at home, procured for him a 
clerkship in the East India Company. Arriving almost penniless, 
he was frequently so depressed that he more than once attempted 
suicide. However, he soon secured a military commission, and began 
his fighting career, in 1751, in the Carnatic, where he early distin- 
guished himself in a series of brilliant victories. The French Company, 
who cared more for dividends than for political dominion, finally 
gave way to the English in this district, and Dupleix, crushed with 
grief and disappointment, died in 1763. 

The French and English in North America. — For some time, how- 
ever, the interest of the English Government centered chiefly in North 



494 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

America. There the boundary line between Canada and Nova Scotia 
had been left unsettled by the late peace, while, in addition, there 
was a large ill-defined territory between the headwaters of the Ohio 
River and the southern shore of Lake Erie claimed by both Great 
Britain and France. More serious still, the French determined to 
establish themselves in the disputed district and to secure the control 
of the Mississippi basin, with a view to uniting their settlements on the 
St. Lawrence with those on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. To that 
end, the Marquis Duquesne, Governor of Canada, was instructed to 
undertake the construction of a chain of forts in the Ohio country. If 
the French succeeded in carrying out their policy, the English colonists 
would be confined to a narrow strip of territory between the Appa- 
lachians and the Atlantic, unable to expand westward, cut off from 
the profitable Indian trade beyond the barrier, and surrounded on 
three sides by their greatest rival and enemy. By way of protest, 
the Governor of Virginia sent George Washington, then a young 
surveyor who had been active in opening new trade routes to the 
Great Lakes, to demand that they withdraw from the valley of the 
Ohio country. He failed, of course. Moreover, in 1754, when the 
Virginians undertook to construct a fortress at the point where the 
Monongahela and Allegheny rivers unite to form the Ohio, the French 
drove them out, built a larger work on the same site which they named 
Fort Duquesne, and forced back across the Alleghanies a small body 
of Colonial militia which Washington led against them. These 
struggles to secure disputed territory brought on the war between 
Great Britain and France, which resulted in the latter's expulsion 
from the mainland of North America. 

Braddock's Defeat (1755). — While, as yet, no formal declaration of 
war had been issued, the Commons, early in 1755, in response to a 
message from the King, voted supplies for an increase of the forces 
on land and sea. On 9 July, General Braddock, who had been sent 
from England to recover Fort Duquesne, was caught in ambush almost 
ten miles from his destination and mortally wounded. Seven hun- 
dred of his troops were shot down, while the rest sought safety in 
flight. 

The Plight of Newcastle. — Poor Newcastle was perplexed and 
vacillating in the face of a crisis that would have taxed the capacity 
of a more spacious and decisive mind. It was necessary to defend 
the British Colonial possessions in America, to protect Hanover, 
and to secure and extend alliances with the Continental Powers. 
To make it all the harder for him there was strong opposition in the 
Ministry and the Commons to treaties which were negotiated with 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE * 



495 



various German States for the purpose of securing troops in return 
for subsidies. The distracted Premier in his despair turned to Pitt : he 
offered him a seat in the Cabinet, he dangled before him the most 
glowing prospects, he pleaded and even wept, but Pitt, who had no 
confidence in the man or his policy, firmly refused. Newcastle only 
succeeded in carrying the treaties with the aid of Henry Fox, an ami- 
able but unscrupulous political adventurer, whom he was obliged to 
bribe with a Secretaryship of State and the leadership of the House 
of Commons. 

The Loss of Minorca (June, 1756). — In the early months of 1756, the 
nation was trembling at the prospect of an invasion from France, but 
the French menace was intended merely to cover another design' — 
the capture of Minorca. Yet it was not till 7 April, just three days 
before the French armament sailed from Toulon, that the English 
Ministers, deceived in the face of ample warning, finally dispatched 
a fleet to reenforce Minorca. The Commander, Admiral Byng, 
was the last person to choose for the work ahead of him : while 
personally brave he was overcautious, irresolute, inclined to magnify 
difficulties, and reluctant to assume responsibility. However, he 
engaged the enemy, 20 May, and though slightly worsted, he succeeded, 
thanks to the energetic attack of his rear admiral, in driving off the 
investing fleet. Nevertheless, he became very despondent and held 
a council of war in which he recommended withdrawal on the ground 
that his losses were great, that his ships were in bad condi- 
tion, and that even a victory would not enable him to relieve the 
fortress besieged by the forces which the French had landed. The 
council agreed, and Minorca, left to its fate, surrendered in June. 
The news was received in England with a storm of grief and indigna- 
tion. Though the Ministers were blamed for their delay, the chief 
resentment was directed against Byng. In the great towns he was 
burned in effigy, his country house was attacked by a mob, while 
Parliament and the Ministers were overwhelmed with petitions de- 
manding vengeance. Newcastle, hoping to divert the popular wrath 
from himself, not only yielded to it but sought to excite it still more. 
Byng was recalled and confined at Greenwich. 

The Declaration of War (1756). The Grouping of the Powers. — 
Meantime, England had declared war, 18 May ; France replied, 9 June, 
and before long nearly all Europe was involved. The grouping of 
the Powers was different from that in the previous conflict ; for 
Prussia now appeared as an ally of England, and Austria as an oppo- 
nent. Austria, finding that England was disinclined to go to war to 
aid her in recovering Silesia, had turned to her old enemy France, 



40 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Louis XV in responding to her overtures was influenced by various 
considerations : for one thing, a combination of the Catholic against 
the Protestant Powers appealed to him in the light of a grand crusade, 
since he was as devout as he was debauched ; moreover, he was per- 
sonally embittered against Frederick, who had unguardedly referred 
to him more than once with great contempt and had openly scoffed 
at his all-powerful favorite, Madame de Pompadour. In conse- 
quence, a treaty was concluded, i May, 1756, between France and 
Austria, aiming at the partition of Prussia. Russia, Poland, Saxony, 
and Sweden joined the combination. Frederick, directly he suspected 
what was afoot, made advances to King George, with the result that 
an alliance was speedily arranged. 

Frederick and the Third Silesian War (1 756-1 763). — Suddenly, in 
August, 1756, Frederick, who had the advantage of being well pre- 
pared, demanded from the Austrian Empress a statement of her inten- 
tions, with war as the alternative. When he received an evasive 
answer he poured his troops into Saxony. , Thus began the third 
Silesian War which was coterminous with the Seven Years' War 
(1 756-1 763). l Frederick had many defeats as well as victories 
during the course of the struggle, and was so despondent at times that 
he contemplated suicide; but he fought on with rare constancy and 
ability, and his activity furnished an invaluable diversion to the 
English. 

The Resignation of Newcastle. Pitt a Secretary of State. — The 
autumn of 17 56 .was marked by a revolution in the English Ministry. 
Fox, finding that Newcastle gave him no power or confidence and 
tried to thrust upon him responsibility for measures in which he had 
no share, resigned his Secretaryship in October. After trying once 
more to win over Pitt, and after a vain effort to find a Secretary 
sufficiently strong to support him in the House of Commons, New- 
castle resigned very reluctantly. A new Cabinet was finally con- 
structed, in which Pitt, who became a Secretary of State, was the 
real power. Among other things, his appointment is significant from 
the fact that he was the first English statesman forced into a Cabinet 
position by pressure of public opinion. Beyond his family con- 
nection with the Grenvilles 2 he had no organized following in the 
Commons and little parliamentary influence. Indeed, he was opposed 
to party connection and aimed to break the power of the Whig oli- 
garchy, to call to the service of the State the best men irrespective 

1 Known in American history as the French and Indian War. 

2 In 1 754 he had married Lady Hester Grenville, sister of Richard (Lord Temple) 
and George Grenville. 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE 



497 



of their political affiliations and to bring the Crown into harmony 
with Parliament, which in its turn should be the true servant of the 
people. Abroad, he wanted to build up the British Empire, and — ■ 
but only as a means to that end — 'to make Great Britain a dominant 
power in Europe. 

Estimate of Pitt. — The man who now, at the close of his forty- 
eighth year, first had a chance to try his ability on a large scale had 
hitherto distinguished himself as a furious critic of the Administra- 
tion, as an orator of fiery and irresistible eloquence, and as a man who 
refused to enrich himself at the public expense. He was fully con- 
scious of his ability, but his ambition was for public service, not for 
private advancement. The people whom, as no other statesman 
of the time, he loved and understood made him their idol. Never- 
theless, when he felt that they were wrong he never hesitated to cross 
their will. Yet in this lofty character there were many grave faults 
and inconsistencies. Under Walpole he clamored for war, while at 
the same time opposing the maintenance of a standing army ; also he 
bitterly attacked the policy of subsidizing Hanover and other German 
States, though afterwards, in order to obtain office, he supported the 
very policy he had unsparingly condemned. To be sure, he had 
high motives for desiring office, he had a right to alter his opinion, 
and circumstances had changed ; but it is a wonderful tribute to his 
magnetic influence that neither this change of front nor various other 
inconsistencies seriously affected his moral ascendancy. Moreover, 
he was vain, artificial, and always posing for effect, and so irritable 
and overbearing that it was almost impossible for anyone to work 
with him. But his temper can be excused from the fact that he was a 
lifelong sufferer from gout and from a nervous disease frequently so 
acute as to amount almost to insanity. Yet, after all has been said, 
he was tireless in his country's service, her greatest War Minister, 
one of the great builders of her Empire, a true friend of liberty, and a 
true patriot — 'in short a grand heroic figure whose character and 
achievements overshadow his blemishes. 

Pitt's System. — Pitt at once took energetic measures for carrying 
on the war. Among them he proposed, regardless of the charge of in- 
consistency to which it exposed him, a grant for the defense of Hanover ; 
and in this case he was justified, since the proposed subsidies were 
not for purely German objects, but as a measure of defense against 
the French who were making ready to attack the Electorate. Pitt's 
great combination of military and naval strategy — known as his 
" system " — which he now began to develop, was for a long time 
misunderstood, largely owing to a remark which he once made, that 

2K 



498 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

he would " conquer America in Germany." As a matter of fact, 
his main energies were devoted to beating the French in America 
and to securing command of the seas in order to prevent them from 
sending reenf or cements and supplies to their colonial forces. His 
Continental operations were designed to keep the enemy occupied 
and to prevent them from gaining such successes as would counter- 
balance English achievements in the central theater of the war. While 
he contented himself with sending abroad subsidies and occasional 
contingents, France, by virtue of her position, was obliged to divide 
her energies between the European war and the colonial and mari- 
time struggle with Great Britain. 

The Execution of Byng (14 March, 1757). — Byng was tried by court 
martial. The court, while acquitting him of treachery or cowardice, 
rendered an opinion that he had not done his utmost to raise the siege 
or to defeat the French fleet. According to the Articles of War they 
were obliged to impose the death penalty for neglect of duty, though 
they unanimously recommended the Admiral to the royal mercy. 
The public, however, demanded a victim for the loss of Minorca; 
threatening letters were sent to George, and glaring posters appeared 
with the jingle : " Hang Byng or take care of your King." Pitt strove 
manfully against the tide, but he had no parliamentary support and 
had not yet won the royal favor. So the public had its way. Byng, 
meeting his fate with manly courage, was shot, 14 March, 1757. 

The Dismissal and Recall of Pitt. — The King, who had not yet 
overcome his aversion to Pitt, was determined to get rid of him " at 
any cost." The die was cast when the Duke of Cumberland refused 
to take command of the Electoral army, if Pitt continued as Secretary. 
As a result the latter was dismissed in April. For nearly three months 
the distracted country, with a tremendous war on its hands, remained 
without a Government. At length, the King, much to his disgust, 
was forced to yield to public opinion and consent to an arrangement 
by which Pitt came back as Secretary with the whole charge of foreign 
affairs, while Newcastle became Prime Minister, devoting himself to 
the congenial task of managing Parliament. 

The Campaign of 1757. — Pitt, forced to " borrow the majority 
of the Duke of Newcastle," was to achieve glorious things; but on 
his advent to office in June, 1757, the prospect seemed gloomy enough. 
Everything was in confusion, the debt was piling up, the country was 
in constant fear of invasion, and the loss of Minorca threatened her 
supremacy in the Mediterranean and her commerce in the Levant. 
Moreover, the military events of the year were almost uniformly un- 
successful. In America nothing was accomplished, a joint land and 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE 499 

naval expedition sent by Pitt against the coast of France proved a 
costly and fruitless failure, while the Duke of Cumberland, in attempt- 
ing to defend the Electorate against a superior force of French invaders, 
met with a reverse that marked the end of his active military career. 
Frederick, already hard pressed by the Austrians and threatened by 
the Russians, now had to face in addition two French armies released 
from the west by the recent capitulation. Nevertheless, he managed 
to defeat the French at Rossbach in Saxony, 5 November, and then, 
with amazing energy and ability, to advance into Silesia and to win 
an overwhelming victory over the Austrians at Leuthen, 5 December, 
thus bringing to a triumphant close a long and desperate campaign. 

The Campaign of 1758. Operations in North America and Africa. 
— In 1758 the effect of Pitt's system first began to bear fruit. He 
devised elaborate plans to carry on the war on four continents, in 
America, Africa, India and Europe. His chief energies were devoted 
to America. Three forces were prepared. The main attack was 
directed against Louisburg which, together with the whole island, was 
captured before the end of July. Most conspicuous for bravery and 
energy was General Wolfe, the second in command, whose appoint- 
ment marked one of Pitt's most daring innovations, splendidly justified 
by its results — election for important posts on the basis of merit 
rather than seniority or influence. A second force, ordered to secure 
the French forts commanding Lake George and Lake Champlain in 
order to open the way for an attack on Canada, failed to achieve its 
purpose. A third army, sent out from Philadelphia, succeeded in cap- 
turing Fort Duquesne, thus securing the " key of the great West." 
The next year, Fort Pitt was erected, a name which survives to-day in 
the great manufacturing city of Pittsburgh. An expedition against 
the French possessions on the west coast of Africa secured possession 
of the river Senegal and the Island of Goree. 

The War in Europe (1758). — Fleets were fitted out to seal up the 
French ports and to guard the Channel. During the summer, two 
expeditions were sent against the coast of France, which, though they 
inflicted little actual damage on the enemy, effected their purpose 
of diverting the French from sending reinforcements to Germany. 
Frederick's victories had been received with joy in England, where he 
was hailed as the " Protestant hero." Parliament voted him a sub- 
sidy and agreed to support an army of 35,000 in western Germany, 
where the new commander, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, during 
the year fought the French on the whole with success; though the 
poor Hanoverians suffered pitifully from the fighting as well as the 
marching and countermarching through their territory. Farther east 3 



5<DO SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Frederick managed to beat back an invasion of the Russians who got 
within a few days' march of Berlin ; but he was severely handled by 
the Austrians in Saxony, though they failed to profit by a victory, 
14 October, in which they nearly annihilated his army. Even Pitt 
was appalled by the increasing cost of the war, but the people loyally 
supported him, while Newcastle, though with a sour grace, used his 
influence in Parliament to secure the necessary grants. The generous 
outlays were rewarded the coming year by a series of victories rarely 
paralleled in history. 

The Plan of Campaign against Quebec (1759)- — * n s P^ te oi elab- 
orate preparations for home defense against a threatened French 
invasion, Pitt went on with his plans for the conquest of North 
America. A fleet was dispatched to the West Indies, which captured 
Guadeloupe, 1 May; but Canada was the main object of the cam- 
paign. Three expeditions starting from different points were directed 
to converge on Quebec, the stronghold of the Province. One from the 
west, forming the left wing and consisting of Colonial forces and friendly 
Indians, was to reduce Niagara, sail across Lake Ontario, and pass down 
the St. Lawrence by way of Montreal. The army of the center was 
to start from New York, strike again at Ticonderoga, secure Lake 
Champlain, and push on into the St. Lawrence. The eastern or right 
wing, composed of an army under General Wolfe and a fleet under 
Admiral Saunders, was to sail up to Quebec from the mouth of the 
St. Lawrence. Since neither of the two other expeditions — though 
they gained some not unimportant successes and diverted a number of 
French troops — ever reached their objective, the whole task of 
reducing Quebec rested upon Wolfe and Saunders. Fortunately for 
Great Britain, the French administration was corrupt and divided, 
and the country was too exhausted by the Continental war to send 
adequate forces to the relief of Canada. Montcalm, on the news of 
the impending attack, 'concentrated the whole French defense in and 
about Quebec, which, from its situation on a steep bluff commanding 
the St. Lawrence, was one of the strong places of the world. While 
the French and Canadians had the advantage of position, and out- 
numbered l the British as well, the latter were better drilled and or- 
ganized, and were backed by a powerful fleet. Between one and two 
thousand of the defenders were gathered in the city, the remainder, 
nearly fourteen thousand, were stationed along the steep and strongly 
fortified left bank of the river below the town. 

The Capture of Quebec (September, 1759). — From July to Sep- 
tember they successfully withstood all attempts of the British to over- 
1 Wolfe started with an army of about 8000. 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE 



5°i 



come them from this side. At length, on the advice of his subalterns, 
Wolfe decided to move his forces past Quebec and attack from the 
other side. For thirty miles the river bank was sheer and rockv with 
only an occasional break. Montcalm, who expected that the attempted 
landing would be made some miles up the river, had disposed his chief 
forces accordingly, but Wolfe had discovered a place, only a mile and 
a half along the bank, which led to the Plains of Abraham, a plateau 
overlooking the city. In the early morning of 13 September, 1759, 
he crossed from the southern shore with four thousand men, made 
his way up the almost impassable ascent by a path so narrow that in 
places two could not walk abreast, and gained possession of the bluff, 
which was guarded by a garrison of only two hundred men who fled 
and left the invaders in possession. Montcalm, when, from his camp 
below the city, he heard the sound of muskets, hurriedly mounted his 
horse, rode toward the scene of action and hastily summoned his forces ; 
but, unable to contend against the superior discipline of their adver- 
saries, they wavered, broke, and fled within the walls of Quebec. In 
this conflict on the Plains of Abraham, which decided the fate of New 
France, both commanders were mortally wounded. The garrison 
yielded, 18 September. However, the French troops outside, who 
fled to Montreal, were able to hold out for another year. The news 
of the fall of the stronghold which the British had begun to believe 
impregnable was received with wild exultation, but it was mingled 
with mourning for the loss of the man who had brought the conquest 
of Canada within sight. 

The French Invasion Frustrated. — Meantime, Admiral Rodney 
had bombarded Havre and destroyed many of the flat-bottomed boats 
destined to transport French troops to England ; in August another 
English fleet seriously incapacitated a squadron which put out from 
Toulon ; and 20 November, at Quiberon, Admiral Hawke overcame the 
Brest fleet — an achievement which was a marvel of daring and skill. 
Heedless of the rocks and shoals of an unfamiliar coast and in the teeth 
of a heavy storm and a high sea, he boldly pursued the enemy toward 
the shore and with the loss of only two ships he took or sunk five of 
the French and scattered the rest. The result of these successes was 
to make the British again supreme at sea, and to put an end to the 
French prospect of a general invasion. 

The War in Germany (1759). — All the while, Frederick was strug- 
gling for existence against the Austrians and Russians who were press- 
ing in upon the Saxon and Silesian frontier. In spite of defeat and 
despondency he held his ground, leaving Ferdinand of Brunswick free 
to deal with two French armies in western Germany. The latter, after 



502 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

some preliminary reverses, gained a decisive victory over the combined 
forces of the enemy at Minden, i August. The entire destruction of 
the French was only prevented by the refusal of Lord George Sackville 
to charge the broken columns with his cavalry, which had been held 
in reserve during the earlier part of the fight. 

The "Great Year" of Victories (1759). — All together, the year was 
unique in the annals of British military achievement. In America, 
in Africa, in India, in Europe, by land and sea, wherever her forces had 
been engaged, they had been signally victorious. Almost every month 
had brought news of a fresh triumph. Fortunately, too, British trade 
and manufactures grew and flourished, thus enabling the country to 
bear the enormous burden of the war. Pitt, who by his genius and 
his industry had planned the campaign, equipped the expeditions, and 
selected the commanders, had breathed into the nation his own heroic 
spirit. At length England, as Frederick the Great joyfully testified, 
" had borne a man." Even the King had been completely won over, 
while the Commons loyally voted him all that he demanded. 

India (1756-1760). The "Black Hole" of Calcutta (20 June, 1756). 
— Meantime, an empire was being won in India. The conquest began 
in Bengal where a powerful line of princes ruled independently of the 
Moguls in everything but name. In April, 1756, Suraja Dowlah suc- 
ceeded to this great inheritance. He was only nineteen, feeble in 
intellect but ferocious in temper and consumed with hatred for the 
Europeans. When the Presidency of Calcutta began to erect new 
fortifications against the French he led forth a vast army and took 
possession of Fort William, 20 June. That very night, in spite of his 
promise that the lives of the prisoners should be spared, 145 men and 
one woman were, by the command of his officers, thrust into the com- 
mon dungeon of the fort, known to the English as the " Black Hole " 
of Calcutta. It was only eighteen feet by fourteen, with two small 
windows overhung by a low veranda. After a night of indescribable 
suffering, witnessed by the guards with " fiendish glee," 23 of the 146 
were found alive in the morning. The news which reached Madras, 
16 August, found the English in the midst of a struggle with the French 
for the control of the Carnatic. After a quarrel as to who should com- 
mand, Clive, with a force of Europeans and Sepoys, 1 was dispatched 
north in a British fleet. The native garrison at Calcutta was easily 
put to flight and the settlement abandoned to the English, 2 January, 
1757. Convinced that there could be "neither peace nor trade" 
until Suraja Dowlah — on whom no dependence could be placed — 
was disposed of, Clive marched from Calcutta with 3000 men, of whom 
1 Native troops in European service. 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE 503 

only a third were English. On the morning of 23 June, 1757, he en- 
gaged the enemy at the village of Plassey, and before nightfall had put 
to flight their force of 35,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry, together 
with forty cannon under the direction of Frenchmen in the native serv- 
ice. With a loss of 22 slain and 50 wounded, Clive had won Bengal 
and laid the foundations of the British Empire in India. Suraja 
Dowlah, who had escaped during the battle, was later caught and exe- 
cuted. The directors of the East India Company made Clive Gov- 
ernor of Bengal, in which capacity he showed the same astonishing 
ability that he had shown as a conqueror. While he made a fortune 
for himself, and while vanity and instances of bad faith maybe charged 
against him, he was subjected to unusual temptations, and Chatham, 
mindful of his achievements, hailed him asa" heaven-born general." 

Winning of the Carnatic (1759-1761). — Meanwhile, the struggle be- 
tween the British and the French had continued in the southeast ; but 
the French commander alienated the natives by trampling on their 
caste distinctions, he was hampered by lack of funds, and grew steadily 
unpopular even with his own people. The arrival of a British fleet 
forced him to raise the siege of Madras, and Colonel Eyre Coote, who 
brought reinforcements of troops, by a series of successes established 
British ascendancy in the Carnatic before the end of 1759. One place 
after another yielded to their arms, and with the fall of Pondicherry 
in January, 1761, the French lost their last stronghold in India. In 
spite of restorations of territory, made in 1763, they were never able 
to recover their lost ground, and their East India Company soon 
became extinct. The future struggles of the British were with the 
natives and not with the rival European powers. 

The Completion of the Conquest of Canada (1760). — With the ap- 
proach of spring, in 1760, the condition of Quebec became critical; 
nevertheless, the English commander was able to hold off a French 
attacking force until an English fleet came to his relief, whereupon the 
French commander withdrew and shut himself up in Montreal. Three 
British armies were sent against him — one from Quebec, another 
from Crown Point, and the third under General Amherst from Oswego. 
Amherst, who acted as commander-in-chief, managed to concentrate 
these various forces so brilliantly and effectively that Montreal, sur- 
rounded without hope of relief, was forced to capitulate, 8 September, 
1760, and the British conquest of Canada was finally complete. 

The Turn in the Tide of Frederick's Fortunes (1760). — While his 
ally was winning empires in America and India, Frederick was trying 
to recover from his reverses and to hold his own against the Austrians 
and the Russians. Although he defeated one Austrian army, 1 5 August, 



504 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

1760, thereby securing Silesia, he was unable to prevent another force 
from joining with the Russians and marching on Berlin, which they 
occupied for three days. Having relieved his capital, Frederick 
marched into Saxony, which the Austrian^ had again entered, drove 
them out after a victory at Torgau, 3 November, the last and bloodiest 
battle of the Third Silesian War, and closed the campaign with the 
feeling that the tide in his fortunes had turned. Ferdinand, though 
with some difficulty, held the southern and western frontier against two 
French armies which together amounted to 200,000 men. 

The Death of George II (25 October, 1760). — In the midst of the 
triumph of English arms, George II died, 25 October, 1760. In spite 
of his faults, he could boast that during a reign of thirty- three years 
he had not, in a single instance, violated the Constitution. To what- 
ever cause his moderation may have been due, the result was happy 
for England. Curiously enough, Pitt, the man who had begun by 
earning his hatred, crowned his reign with glorious achievement. 
Though George gave his confidence grudgingly, he gave it unreservedly, 
and, from 1757 until the end of the King's life, the policy of the country 
was practically Pitt's policy. With the accession of George's grand- 
son a momentous change was to come. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative and Constitutional. Leadam ; Robertson ; Bright ; Stan- 
hope ; Lecky ; Cambridge Modern History; Hallam ; and Taylor. 

Biography. Coxe's and Morley's Walpole. Hon. Evan Charteris, 
William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, 1721-1748 (1913), a brilliant schol- 
arly apology. Lord Rosebery, Lord Chatham, His Early Life and Con- 
nections (1910), to 1756, scholarly and charmingly written. F. Harrison, 
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1905), a brief sketch. Macaulay, Critical 
and Historical Essays (3d ed., 1853), two famous essays on Pitt. The two 
great biographies of Pitt are A. von Ruville, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham 
(3 vols., 1907, Eng. tr.) and Basil Williams, The Life of William Pitt (2 vols. 
1913), the former hostile, the latter favorable. Kate Hotblack, Chatham's 
Colonial Policy (191 7), a valuable contribution. T. W. Riker, Henry Fox, 
First Lord Holland (2 vols., 191 1). P. C. Yorke, The Life and Correspondence 
of Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke (3 vols., 19 13). 

Army and Navy. Fortescue, British Army; Mahan, Sea Power; J. S. 
Corbett, England in the Seven Years' War (2 vols., 1907) ; Clowes, Royal 
Navy. 

America. Cambridge Modem History, VII, chs. I-IV (bibliography, 
753-779), India, ibid., VI, ch. XV (bibliography, 925-932). For further 
bibliography on America and India, Robertson, 523, and Leadam, 515. 



THE DUEL FOR EMPIRE 505 

Pitman, F. W., The Development of the British West Indies (1917). C M. 
Andrews, The Colonial Period (191 2), an excellent brief survey. 

Contemporary. John, Lord Ffervey, Memoirs of the Reign of George II 
to the Death of Queen Caroline (ed. J. W. Croker, 2 vols., 1848), ill-natured 
and to be read with caution. Horace Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of 
George II (ed. Lord Holland, 3 vols., 1846). 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, no. 249, and Robert- 
son, pt. I, nos. XXIX-XLIII. 



CHAPTER XLII 

THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY. 
THE FIRST YEARS OF GEORGE III (i 760-1 770) 

The Significance of the Reign of George III. — The accession of 
George III, 25 October, 1760, marked a notable attempt to revive 
the personal power of the Sovereign and a consequent setback to 
the progress of Cabinet and party government for over twenty years. 
While his two predecessors had seen the wisdom of leaving the Gov- 
ernment largely in the hands of their Whig Ministers, George III 
bent all his energies to break the power of the dominant oligarchy 
and systematically to impose his will upon the nation. Another 
result of his accession was the return to power of the Tories, after 
nearly fifty years of exclusion from office. Events had been working 
in their favor for some years before George III ascended the throne. 
Although the Whigs monopolized office and power and controlled 
Parliament, they were at odds among themselves, for the party was 
split into various factions, each dominated by one of the great fami- 
lies; moreover, Pitt, while he was nominally a Whig bound by a 
working agreement with Newcastle, hated all party combinations. 
His views and example did something to discredit the old system, 
though his methods and aims were quite the opposite of those of the 
new King. Pitt's idea was to call in the best men of both parties, 
who were backed by the people and voiced popular opinion ; George's 
was to put in office only those who would serve his purpose in estab- 
lishing the royal ascendancy. Aside from the disintegration of the 
Whigs, other causes rendered the situation most favorable for the 
revival of a strong monarchy. The Stuart rivals of the Hanoverian 
line had been hopelessly discredited by the failure' of 1745. Further- 
more, though George III had no share in them, the victories of Pitt 
had aroused a tremendous loyalty and national enthusiasm that was 
bound to reflect luster on the Crown. Finally, while the first two 
Georges were full of Hanoverian prejudices and were distrusted in 
consequence, their successor was born in England and inspired in his 
subjects the confidence that he was a typical Englishman. 

506 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 507 

George III, his Personal Traits. — George III was now twenty- 
two years old. Owing to the quarrels of his father, Prince Frederick, 1 
with the late King, the boy's early years were passed apart from the 
royal court, so that he grew up " full of prejudices . . . fostered by 
women and pages." Utterly ignorant of business when he became 
King, he shook off his slothful habits and applied himself zealously 
to his duties. His favorite occupation was agriculture, which gained 
for him the popular title of " Farmer George." Perhaps his most 
admirable quality was his unquestioned bravery. This, together 
with his simplicity, his purity of family life, and his piety, endeared 
him to the middle-class Englishman. Conscientious he was, too, and 
right in his intentions ; but overestimating his own wisdom and recti- 
tude, he could appreciate no point of view but his own, and treated 
with rudeness, vindictiveness, and even treachery, all those who 
presumed to differ from him. 

His Policy. — Patriotic and high-minded statesmen who were 
assertive and independent were kept out of office, while those who 
did his bidding, however incompetent or dissolute, were loaded with 
royal confidence and favor. Economically as he managed his house- 
hold, he spent such vast sums in the bestowal of bribes and pensions 
that he was always in debt. His money, together with the patronage 
and the boroughs which he controlled, was lavishly employed in main- 
taining a strong body of supporters in Parliament, known as the 
" King's friends," though they were not admitted to the circle of his 
personal intimates, who were all kindly, honest folk. Something, 
however, must be said for George by way of extenuation. His mother, 
Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, who had much to do with forming his mind, 
ceaselessly drilled him in the traditions of a petty German court, and 
exhorted him to " be a King." Her closest and most trusted adviser, 
John, Earl of Bute, reenforced her teachings. Bute was a Scotsman, 
with polished manners and a talent for intrigue ; but of slender ability, 
pompous, haughty, and a magnifier of royalty. Under their guidance, 
George, in order to restore the influence of the Crown, used the Tories 
as a body of servile henchmen, instead of building up the party on a 
strong wholesome footing as a counterpoise to the corrupt Whig 
oligarchy ; instead of reforming the representative system and the 
public service, he increased parliamentary and official corruption; he 
swelled the National Debt, made serious encroachments on the liberty 
of the subjects, and lost to England the richest and most flourishing of 
her colonies. In the final estimate, some allowance must be made for 
the fact that twice in the first half of his reign he was attacked by 

1 He died in 1751. 



508 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

fits of insanity, and spent the last ten years of his life in complete 
mental darkness. 

The Opening of the Reign (1760). — George's first aim was to break 
up the coalition between Pitt and Newcastle, to put an end to the 
war with France and to place his favorite Bute at the head of affairs. 
The Cabinet was torn with dissensions, and Pitt was so high-handed 
that he had not a single stanch supporter in the whole body. On 
the other hand, he was still the popular idol, while Bute was hated, 
partly as a Scotsman and more particularly because of the suspicion 
that the Princess Dowager was too much under his influence. Indeed, 
it was a favorite practice for the City mob, at almost every demon- 
stration during the next few years, to hang a petticoat or a bonnet, 
together with a jack boot, on a pole. The King himself, however, was 
received at first with an enthusiasm unequaled since the Restoration. 

The Resignation of Pitt (5 October, 1761). — There were various 
indications that George's efforts to bring about a peace would soon 
prevail. In March, 1761, Bute became Pitt's colleague as Secretary 
of State, and other Tories were brought into office. What with sub- 
sidies and the steadily increasing military establishment, the debt 
was piling up alarmingly; increasing difficulty was experienced in 
filling the ranks, and riots were of frequent occurrence. Peace nego- 
tiations had been opened, but Pitt was bent on utterly destroying the 
power of France. His opponents argued in reply that such a result 
would inevitably bring about a great European coalition against 
England in the interest of balance of power, and that to take Canada 
from France would remove an effective means of retaining a hold 
on the North American colonies. The French, who, nevertheless, 
might have been forced to accept Pitt's hard terms, were encouraged 
to resist when Spain ranged herself on her side and presented a series 
of demands to the English through the French negotiators. Pitt 
scornfully refused to consider any claims brought before him in such 
a manner, and before long broke off negotiations with the French as 
well. Suspecting that the two Monarchies were in secret alliance, 
and that Spain was on the point of joining in the conflict, he made 
ready to strike at her exposed places, while, in a Cabinet Council, 
held 2 October, he proposed an immediate declaration of war against 
Spain before she could complete her preparations. Events proved 
that he had interpreted the situation correctly ; for, 15 August, Charles 
III and Louis XV had signed a new Family Compact uniting their 
countries in an offensive and defensive alliance. Only one of his 
colleagues agreed with Pitt ; so, after a series of stormy discussions, 
he resigned, 5 October. 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 509 

The End of the Newcastle Ministry (1762). — Thus the King and his 
party succeeded in overthrowing the great War Minister in the full 
course of his victorious career. Soon after, Spain, having completed 
her arrangements, openly proclaimed her alliance with France, and 
Great Britain was forced to reply by a declaration of war, 2 January, 
1762. Thanks to Pitt's preparations, a series of new and striking 
successes followed. On 14 August, Havana yielded after a siege of 
little more than two months, and the capture of Manila followed in 
October. Newcastle, who had rejoiced at the fall of Pitt in the 
hope that he might recover his lost ascendancy, had been speedily 
disillusioned. The King and his followers treated him with studied 
rudeness and neglect. When they ceased even to consult him in 
questions of patronage, the veteran old place-monger resigned, May, 
1762, seizing as a pretext Bute's refusal to continue the Prussian 
subsidy. The King's favorite, who for months had been virtually 
Prime Minister, now openly assumed the position. 

The Bute Ministry (1 762-1 763), and the Peace of Paris. — By a 
lavish use of bribery and intimidation the Treaty of Paris was carried, 
in the teeth of a stout opposition by the Tories, after Pitt and the 
Whigs had led the country to victory. At home and abroad, the 
dominant party was accused of deserting the country's German 
allies. Bute, however, protested that Prussia was guaranteed from 
danger before British subsidies and troops were withdrawn from 
Germany, but Frederick, who also believed that the new Prime Min- 
ister intrigued with Austria behind his back, was so infuriated that he 
became hopelessly alienated. The loss of his support was seriously 
felt in the crises of years to come. 

The Terms df Peace. — By the definitive peace, signed at Paris, 
10 February, 1763, France withdrew her troops from Germany; she 
restored Minorca ; and ceded Canada, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, 
and all the islands in the river and Gulf of St. Lawrence, together 
with such territories as she claimed east of the Mississippi, except 
New Orleans. She also gave up several of the West Indian islands, 
as well as her African possessions on the Senegal. Great Britain, on 
her part, restored various conquests, she granted the French certain 
fishing rights in the St. Lawrence and off the banks of Newfoundland, 
ceding two islands, on condition that they should never be fortified, 
and agreed that the navigation of the Mississippi should be free to 
both countries. She also ceded Martinique and other West Indian 
islands. In India there was a mutual restoration of conquests made 
since 1749, though the French were forbidden to have troops or 
fortifications in Bengal and forced to agree to acknowledge the native 



510 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

princes, in the Carnatic and the Deccan, whom the British chose to 
support. Spain ceded to Great Britain Florida, together with all her 
other possessions east of the Mississippi, in return for which France 
compensated her with Louisiana and New Orleans, while England 
restored Havana, but reserved the right to cut logwood in the Bay of 
Honduras. Manila and the Philippines were handed back, since 
the news of the conquest did not arrive until after the signature of 
the preliminaries. 

The Opposition to the Peace and the Resignation of Bute (1763). — 
These terms were substantially what Pitt had rejected in 1761, so that 
England profited nothing by another year of victories. She had made 
tremendous gains ; but she had ceded, without adequate compensa- 
tion, territories actually held at the end of the war. This roused a 
storm of protest throughout England ; Bute was hissed and pelted as 
he went to and from Parliament, and had to employ a bodyguard 
of bruisers and butchers to protect him. Numerous abusive libels 
appeared, some, it is said, instigated by the agents of Frederick the 
Great. Realizing that his unpopularity was injuring the cause of 
his royal master, Bute resigned, 7 April, 1763. He had accomplished 
the King's two main purposes of putting an end to the war and break- 
ing up the Whig connection, but he left the country seething with 
discontent and deprived of its only powerful ally. 

The Grenville Ministry (1763-1765), and John Wilkes. — Bute 
was succeeded by George Grenville (17 12-1770), who also took the 
office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was upright, industrious, 
skillful in finance and well versed in parliamentary procedure ; but he 
was narrow-minded, utterly lacking in tact and breadth of political 
outlook. No sooner had the new Minister come into office than he 
became involved in a momentous quarrel with John Wilkes, a pro- 
fane and profligate man of fashion, who, because of his wit, his 
audacity, and his skill in meeting the ill-advised attempts of the 
Government to suppress him, became the darling of the populace. 
By the agitation which he stirred up, at least two important prin- 
ciples in the progress of the liberty of the subject were established : 
that general warrants l were illegal and that the House of Commons 
may not permanently exclude any member, not legally disqualified, 
whom the constituents may choose to elect. 

The North Briton Review, No. 45, and Its Consequences (1763- 
1764). — Wilkes had been chiefly instrumental in founding, June, 
1762, the North Briton Review, a journal devoted to attacking the 

1 That is, warrants which do not specify the persons to be arrested for a par- 
ticular offense. 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 511 

Government. In the famous " No. 45," which appeared 23 April, 
1763, a speech from the Throne * defending the recent peace was vig- 
orously assailed, together with the whole policy of the past few months. 
While the personal character of the King was referred to with respect, 
his favorite was lashed unmercifully. George III, however, was in- 
furiated at the assertion that he was only the " first magistrate of 
this country . . . responsible to his people for due exercise of the 
royal function in the choice of his Ministers," and he determined to 
crush the man who sought to reduce him to a mere figurehead and 
who presumed to assail those whom he had selected to do his will. 
Accordingly, a general warrant was issued, directing the arrest of the 
" authors, printers, and publishers " of the offensive number, as well 
as the seizure of their papers. Wilkes was apprehended on the word 
of the publishers and lodged in the Tower. Protesting on two grounds 
— that general warrants were illegal, and that, as a member of Parlia- 
ment, he was entitled to the privilege of freedom from arrest on civil 
process — he succeeded in bringing the case before the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, where the Chief Justice decided in favor of his parlia- 
mentary privilege. 2 

The End of the First Stage of the Proceedings against Wilkes 
(1764). — Wilkes was not only released but was awarded damages. 
When he had the temerity to celebrate his triumph by printing an 
annotated edition of " No. 45," the Government undertook meas- 
ures of systematic vindictiveness : spies were set upon his track; 
his letters were opened at the Post Office, and the Attorney-General 
brought suit for libel against him in legal form. Parliament met 
15 November, 1763, and though the case was still pending, the Com- 
mons proceeded to vote No. 45, "a false, scandalous and seditious 
libel," and to order it to be burnt by the common hangman. In the 
Upper House, Lord Sandwich, one of Wilkes' boon companions, sud- 
denly produced an obscene parody of Pope's Essay on Man, entitled 
an Essay on Woman, and a blasphemous version of the Veni Creator, 
which the Peers at once voted to be " scandalous, obscene, and im- 
pious libels." Undoubtedly they were; but Wilkes had intended 
them only for private circulation and the motives of his opponents 
were only too apparent. The popular excitement became intense. 

1 For some time it had been the practice for the chief Ministers to prepare the 
speech from the throne, and as a matter of fact Bute had been the author of the 
one in question. 

2 In certain other suits which came up he pronounced the momentous opinion 
that general warrants were illegal. They had hitherto been held to be legal, though 
regarded as contrary to the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the liberty 
of the subject. 



5 I2 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The London mob defeated an attempt to burn No. 45, substituting a 
jack boot and a petticoat in its place. Wilkes was hailed as the 
champion of popular liberty, and his portrait became a favorite sign 
for taverns. On the other hand, the Court influence was so strong 
that Wilkes, in danger of his life, fled to France. In his absence he 
was expelled from the Commons, 19 January, 1764, and, 21 Febru- 
ary, the Court of King's Bench passed sentence against him for re- 
printing No. 45 and for writing the Essay on Woman. On his failure 
to appear he was outlawed. Four years later he was destined to re- 
turn and raise a new issue. 

The Beginning of the Breach with the Colonies. The Causes of 
the Revolution. — No sooner was Wilkes temporarily out of the 
way than Grenville, supported by George III, adopted measures 
relating to the American Colonies which resulted in a series of ex- 
plosions that led to the Revolutionary War and the consequent dis- 
memberment of the British Empire. In order to understand the 
causes for this crisis, at least two great and difficult questions have 
to be answered. First, what was the situation, political, social and 
economic, in the Colonies? and what was their attitude toward Great 
Britain when the attempt was made to impose the new policy upon 
them? Secondly, what measures really called forth the resistance 
and what measures or causes merely contributed ? 

The Institutional Divergence between the American Colonies and 
Great Britain. — The answer to the first question must be sought 
in the institutional development of the two countries from the first 
planting of the Colonies in America. This will show that two sep- 
arate branches, two types of people, had grown from one parent 
stock, that the folk dwelling in England in the eighteenth century 
and those settled across the Atlantic were two offspring of the Eng- 
land of the seventeenth century. Those who migrated carried with 
them the tradition of the opposition to absolute Monarchy and an 
established Episcopal Church, New England, particularly, coming to 
represent the " dissidence of Dissent." Those who remained at home 
turned their backs on the extreme results of the Puritan Revolution, 
and even restored, in a modified form, both Monarchy and Epis- 
copacy. Moreover, growth in a different environment tended to 
accentuate divergence in form and spirit of government, and the 
Americans had progressed to far greater lengths in the direction of 
democracy and equality. 

Differences in the Theory and Practice of Representation. — Not 
only was the right to vote much easier to acquire in the Colonies, but 
even more striking was the difference in the distribution of repre- 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 513 

sentatives and in the theory of representation. In the Colonies it 
was the general practice for a member of the assembly to represent 
his town or district, and bribery at elections was practically unknown ; 
in England corruption prevailed to an alarming extent and the great- 
est inequalities existed. Rotten boroughs with scarcely an inhabit- 
ant returned two members each, while many flourishing towns sent 
none. The British theory was that everyone was virtually repre- 
sented in Parliament. The essential thing was to have an elective 
body between the King and the people, and it was contended that a 
Cornishman was just as truly a representative of Lancashire as if 
he had been returned from that county. The Colonists, who were 
used to a different system, refused to accept this theory of virtual 
representation. Furthermore, they were in a different situation. In 
England public opinion, voiced in petitions and public meetings, 
counted for something even in the unrepresented districts, while a 
handful of Colonists three thousand miles across the sea could do little 
to affect the course of British legislation. 

Training and Preparation for Independence. — Thus the Eng- 
lishmen in the New World were steadily growing apart from the 
Englishmen in the Old. Moreover, the Colonists had received a 
long and effective training in self-government in their town meet- 
ings, in their county administration and in their provincial assemblies. 
Also, hard conditions of life in an undeveloped country had generated 
courage, resourcefulness, and independence of restraint. Their 
preachers, saturated with the revolutionary doctrines of Milton, 
Locke, and other advanced thinkers of the seventeenth century, 
preached and taught views quite at variance with the views of the 
men in power under George III. Then, although up to this time 
there had been no common grievance to call forth united resistance, 
there had been constant friction and bickerings between the Colonial 
assemblies and the Crown officials, men who were all too frequently 
either incompetent or unscrupulous. 

The Commercial System. — Along with these differences in po- 
litical theory and practice, the British commercial system was an 
equally — perhaps a more — important factor in preparing the way for 
the final break. As in the case of the other European Powers of the 
period, the British policy for the regulation of Colonial trade was mainly 
one of selfish and jealous exclusiveness. The aim of her Navigation 
Acts was to confine the carrying trade of " English " l lands to ships 
built within the British Empire, owned by the people thereof and 
navigated by officers and crews who were subjects of the English 
1 This term included the Colonies. 

2L 



514 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

King. Certain Colonial products, such as tobacco and sugar, known 
as " enumerated goods," had to be laid on the shore of England or 
pay an export duty from the province where they were produced. 
Furthermore, with few exceptions, European goods destined for the 
Colonies must pass through England, the prime object being to give 
to English merchants the profit of handling the wares. 1 In 1733 
the famous " Molasses Act " was passed, imposing heavy duties on 
rum, molasses, and sugar imported from the French, Dutch and 
Spanish West Indies into English Colonies on the American conti- 
nent. This Act, had it been enforced, would have completely stifled 
a very profitable three-cornered trade by which the New Englanders 
shipped lumber and fish to the foreign West Indies, exchanged them 
for rum and sugar and molasses, and with West Indian rum — or 
with New England rum made from West Indian molasses — bought 
slaves on the coast of Africa which they sold to the planters. Re- 
strictive as were all these regulations, they were to some de- 
gree counterbalanced in various ways. Colonial industry, especially 
shipbuilding, was promoted by the share the Colonists enjoyed in 
the carrying trade of the Empire. Then there were drawbacks of 
duties on goods reexported from England; there were bounties to 
encourage the production of certain commodities, and special priv- 
ileges and exceptions were allowed. For example, Colonial tobacco 
had enjoyed a monopoly in England and rice could be shipped south 
of Cape Finisterre directly from the Colonies. 2 Owing to the lax 
administration prevailing before the advent of Grenville, they manu- 
factured what they liked, sent ships where they pleased, and pur- 
chased European wares more cheaply than Englishmen themselves. 
The theory of trade regulation was not questioned, because it was, 
at least so far as New England was concerned, rarely enforced in 
practice ; but it was a potential grievance. The Colonies had be- 
come economically self-sufficing and were in a position to resist 
when the restrictions on their trade became a reality. 

The Seven Years' War as a Factor in Provoking the Crisis. — 
At the moment when the constitutional and economic develop- 
ment of the Colonies was reaching its maturity, the Seven Years' 
War came to precipitate the crisis. It gave the Colonies a sense 
of unity resulting from achievement in a common undertaking, it 
stimulated a martial spirit, and, by transferring Canada from France 
to Great Britain, it removed a serious menace to the safety of the 
Colonies, and thereby one of the most powerful bonds which might 

1 These provisions may be found in the acts of 1660, 1663, 1672, and 1696. 

2 Also they had the advantage of the English naval protection. 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 515 

have held them to the Home Country. 1 Moreover, the war furnished 
the occasion for the new British policy which gave the impulse to 
revolt. The Grenville program comprehended three measures: the 
enforcement of the Trade and Navigation Acts, a Stamp Act, and a 
Quartering Act. There was justification for them all. Not only 
had the Colonists openly and systematically evaded the acts regu- 
lating commerce, but they had actually supplied the enemy with 
goods during the recent conflict. Furthermore, a formidable rising 
of the Indians, in 1763, known as the Conspiracy of Pontiac, had 
shown that the Colonies were in real danger. The English Min- 
istry felt that the Home Government, laden as it now was with a debt 
of £140,000,000, should not bear the whole burden of the defense of 
the Empire, and intended to employ the money to be raised by the 
stamp tax solely for Colonial purposes. On their part, however, the 
several Colonies had made considerable contributions toward the 
French and Indian War, for which most of them were still in debt. 
Now it was proposed to curtail one of their chief means of livelihood 
and at the same time to subject them to taxation over which they 
had no control, while in addition, the Act for quartering troops in 
their midst threatened to reduce them to complete dependence. 
Naturally they were bound to resist. 

The Question of Parliamentary Supremacy over the Colonies. 
— The question of the legal right of the British Parliament to tax 
the Colonies was hotly debated, and provoked sharp differences of 
opinion both in America and in England. Franklin drew a distinc- 
tion between internal taxes and import duties ; but leading patriots 
almost from the start refused to accept it, and it was soon discarded. 
Pitt's distinction between import duties for purposes of revenue and 
for regulation of trade was one that had historical justification ; but 
it was impracticable. Moreover, the shackling of the trade was fully 
•as unjust and involved fully as much hardship as the imposition of 
revenue duties. The theory later advocated by Edmund Burke 
was the most reasonable; that, while Parliament had the right to 
tax, it was inexpedient to exercise it. The Colonies, however, not 
only denied the right of Parliament to tax them but even called in 
question the legislative supremacy of that body, asserting that they 
were the peculiar subjects of the King. 2 Here was another instance 

1 This result had been predicted by many far-seeing thinkers. Canada would 
have been just as dangerous in the hands of the French, except that after it became 
a British possession there was a chance of winning the Canadians over to the Co- 
lonial side. 

2 It was only later that they discovered that it was George III who was respon- 
sible for most of the measures which they resented. 



516 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of the institutional divergence which had developed between the 
two branches of the English race. England had no written rigid 
Constitution ; there the Constitution was the whole body of law and 
custom which had accumulated through the ages : the Puritan Rev- 
olution had decided that Parliament was practically omnipotent, 
and since 1707 the King had never ventured to veto a bill. On the 
other hand, the Colonies all had some form of written Constitution 
supreme over legislative enactment — a charter, a proprietary grant, 
or governor's instructions — and the veto was a reality. While they 
strove to extend the powers of their assemblies they had grown up 
in the tradition of limited legislative powers. The Crown lawyers, 
in maintaining the supremacy of the Parliament over the Colonies, 
could point to a long series of Statutes, including the Navigation Acts, 
which applied to them. Undoubtedly Parliament had a legal right 
to legislate for the Colonies, nor was its claim to impose taxes strictly 
illegal, though contrary to custom. George III and his supporters 
in the Ministry, like the Stuarts before them, failed to realize the 
unwisdom of insisting upon legal rights in the teeth of popular op- 
position. 

Summary of the Causes of the Revolution. — This in brief was the 
situation : the Colonies were ready to break away. ^Politically 
they had grown apart from Great Britain, they were prepared for 
self-government by long training in managing their local concerns, 
and they had been estranged by frequent quarrels with the execu- 
tives sent from Home J They were economically self-sufficing, and 
would only tolerate the selfish and exclusive system, framed in the 
interests of British merchants, so long as it was not enforced. The 
first attempt to make it a reality would, no doubt, of itself have pro- 
voked opposition. It happened, however, that the new policy was 
accompanied by an inexpedient innovation in taxation, which led 
to the first outbreak of resistance. 

Grenville's New Customs Act and Provisions for Enforcing Trade 
Regulations (1764). — Up to the close of the Seven Years' War dense 
ignorance prevailed concerning the Colonies, 1 and the British Gov- 

1 The old Privy Council was the final authority in Colonial affairs, and all com- 
missions were issued in the King's name "except those of the customs officials in 
America"; but, during the eighteenth century, various Parliamentary Statutes 
were passed relating to the Colonies; the Secretary of State for the Southern 
Department came to exercise much control over Colonial business, while inde- 
pendent departments like the Treasury and the Admiralty acquired an increasing 
share in the administration. From 1696 to 1783 the main channel of communi- 
cation between the Colonies and the British Government was the Board of Trade 
and Plantations, a body which could inquire, inform and recommend, though the 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 517 

ernment had never seriously regarded them as revenue producers. 
The new plan of imposing upon them a share of the Imperial burden 
had been contemplated in Bute's administration ; but it was left to 
Grenville to carry it through. He found that the customs revenue 
from the Colonies amounted to less than £2000, which it cost nearly 
£8000 to collect, and further, that nine tenths of their tea, wine, 
sugar, and molasses were smuggled. In 1763 the old Molasses Act 
expired. Regardless of petitions, supported even by the royal Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, against the renewal of its provisions, Gren- 
ville passed another Act imposing several new duties. The duty on 
molasses was reduced one half and new bounties and concessions 
were offered ; but all this was to no purpose, for stringent measures 
were taken to prevent smuggling, and the principle was announced 
in the preamble that the purpose was to raise a revenue. 

The Stamp Act Suggested (1764). — The apprehension thus excited 
was further enhanced on the news of the design to quarter 10,000 
troops in the Colonies. The East India Company and Ireland pro- 
vided their own armies, and the British Government felt that the 
Americans should do the same, particularly since the several prov- 
inces were extremely reluctant to supply militia for the common de- 
fense, especially to send contingents to exposed points when their 
own particular localities were free from danger. To help defray the 
expenses of this standing army the Stamp Act was imposed. It was 
expected to yield about £100,000, an amount less than one third 
the cost of maintaining the contemplated military establishment. 
There is little doubt, however, that if the Colonies had paid their 
part willingly they would very soon have been called upon to provide 
the whole. Moreover, the form of tax was a decided innovation. 
Hitherto, internal taxation had been left to the provincial assemblies. 
Grenville proposed the stamp duties in 1764, but, though he pre- 
ferred this form of tax as the fairest, as well as the easiest and least 
expensive to collect, he gave the Colonists a year to suggest a 
better scheme. 

The Passage of the Stamp Act (22 March, 1765). — The Colonies, 
however, instead of suggestions, framed resolutions and addresses 
denying the right of Parliament to tax them at all. If the measure 
were carried, they asserted, " it would establish the melancholy 

execution of its policy was left to the Ministers and to the Privy Council. The 
system was complex and decentralized. Most of the officials had no end of business 
to attend to besides that of the American Colonies ; many were negligent or igno- 
rant of Colonial conditions, for the Board of Trade, which was best qualified to 
famish information, was frequently disregarded or overruled. 



518 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

truth that the inhabitants of the Colonies are the slaves of the Britons 
from whom they are descended." In January, 1765, the measure, so 
momentous in its consequences, was carried in thinly attended session 
after a " most languid debate," and became law, 22 March. Un- 
fortunately, Pitt, the stanches t champion of the Colonial cause, was 
confined in bed with one of his frequent attacks of gout. Accord- 
ing to the Stamp Act, all newspapers, bills, policies of insurance, 
and legal documents were to be written on stamped paper to be 
sold by officials — who should be Americans — appointed for the 
purpose. 

The Stamp Act Congress and the American Opposition (1765). — 
When the news reached America, where public sentiment was being 
worked upon by skillful agitators, storms of protest burst forth, and, 
7 November, a Congress representing nine Colonies met in New York. 
Declaring : " that it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a 
people, and the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be 
imposed upon them, but with their own consent, given personally 
or by their representatives," 1 they sent petitions embodying their 
views to the King and to both Houses. But the opposition did not 
stop with peaceful methods. In Massachusetts there were wild 
outbursts of mob violence, an unruly example that was followed in 
many other Colonies. The merchants entered into agreements to 
import no more goods, to cancel orders already given, and to pay no 
debts to English creditors till the Act should be repealed. The 
lawyers refused to use the stamped paper and all legal business came 
to a standstill. On 1 November, the day the measure was to have 
gone into effect, shops were closed, bells were tolled, flags were hung 
at half mast, newspapers appeared with a death's head in place of 
the stamp required by law, and copies of the Act were hawked about 
the streets with the inscription : " The folly of England and the ruin 
of America." Finding that it was hopeless to transact business 
otherwise, the Governors were obliged to issue orders " authorizing 
non-compliance with the Act." 

The Fall of Grenville (July, 1765). — The Opposition had been 
encouraged by the fall of Grenville in July, 1765. For some time 
George had wanted to get rid of him. His Ministry was weak and 
unpopular in Parliament, and had aroused an increasing spirit of 
dissatisfaction among the people; also he had proved to be a dis- 
appointment personally, since he was too stubborn to suit the King's 
purposes and wore him out with constant interviews and long lec- 
tures. His only reason for continuing to put up with him was the 
1 This meant in their own provincial assemblies. 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 519 

dreadful alternative of falling into the clutches of a Whig Ministry. 
Finally, however, Grenville became so intolerable that George dis- 
missed him and called in the Whigs under the leadership of the 
Marquis of Rockingham, intending to submit to them only until he 
could make another arrangement. 

The Rockingham Ministry (1765-1766). — The Rockingham Min- 
istry was a " mixture of wornout veterans and raw recruits." Lord 
Rockingham, their leader, who possessed vast estates and extensive 
influence, was lacking in knowledge and industry and was a bad and 
reluctant speaker; but he was modest, amiable, and thoroughly 
upright. Though far from strong, the combination, by sheer force 
of character and united devotion to the public service, not only set 
a noble example, but made a strong fight against the arbitrary ambi- 
tion of the King and the prevailing corruption, and carried through 
important remedial measures. It repealed the Stamp Act, secured the 
parliamentary condemnation of general warrants, and put an end to 
the practice of depriving military officers of their command for politi- 
cal opposition. All this it accomplished in the teeth of the constant 
and underhanded opposition of the King, and, except in the case of 
the Stamp Act, without the much needed help of Pitt, who refused 
to join them. While sympathizing with their measures he was op- 
posed to government by an aristocratic Whig connection that did 
not rest on the good will of the King and people. 

The Advent of Edmund Burke (1765). — In the session of 1765- 
1766 Edmund Burke made his first appearance in Parliament. The 
son of a Protestant Irish attorney, he had come as a young man to 
London, where he was soon recognized as a writer of wide learning, 
deep discernment, and uncommon power of literary expression. In 
1765 he became the secretary of Rockingham, through whose patron- 
age he secured his seat. Although regarded by men of later genera- 
tions as the most profound political philosopher of his time, the medi- 
ocrities and placemen who then made up the House of Commons 
failed to appreciate his lofty ideals and were repelled by his parti- 
sanship, his stormy temper, as well as by his persistent and overlong 
speeches, which emptied the House so regularly that he was known 
as the " dinner bell." Nevertheless, he was recognized as a power 
to be reckoned with, and there were times when the sweep of his 
eloquence rendered him irresistible. He differed from Pitt not only 
upon many current questions, but in fundamental principles of 
policy. For example, in opposition to his older contemporary, he 
believed in building up a strong permanent party independent of the 
Crown. Moreover, while he strove against abuse — advocating im- 



520 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

proved methods of election and leading the fight against placemen 
and parliamentary corruption — he was strongly opposed to any fun- 
damental alteration of the machinery of the Constitution. Although 
the mainstay of the Rockingham party, he never held a seat in the 
Cabinet. 

The Repeal of the Stamp Act (1766). — Burke made two speeches 
on the repeal of the Stamp Act which " filled the town with wonder," 
and Pitt championed the cause of the Colonies with his wonted fire. 
He rejoiced that the Colonies had resisted the attempted taxation 
and insisted that the Stamp Act be " repealed absolutely, totally, 
immediately." Effective as were these speeches, a still more clinching 
argument was the attitude of the British merchants who represented, 
in strong petitions, that the interruption of American trade and the 
non-payment of debts had already involved a loss of £4,000,000. In 
vain did the King, who assured Rockingham that he was for repeal, 
seek to block the efforts of the Ministry by secret instructions to his 
agents in Parliament. Unfortunately, the Bill for repeal which 
passed both Houses in March, 1766, was coupled with a Declaratory 
Act — to which the Rockinghamites gave a reluctant consent — 
maintaining the right of Parliament to tax the Colonies. For the 
moment, however, this ill-advised and empty assertion did nothing 
to temper the joy with which the news was received throughout 
England and America. The trouble, however, had only begun. 
Most of the commercial restrictions still remained, and the Colonies, 
having won in their first encounter, were bound to resist, in the future, 
any measures that touched their interests. The Ministry, which, by 
its conciliatory policy might have won their confidence, did not long 
survive; for George took advantage of divisions among its members 
to turn it out of office in July. 

The Grafton-Pitt Ministry (1 766-1 770). — The new Ministry was 
formed by Pitt, who finally consented to employ his great talents and 
popularity in defending the Crown against the great Whig houses 
and their connections. Declining to take the Premiership himself, 
he chose the office of Lord Privy Seal and selected as a figurehead 
the Duke of Grafton, one of his admirers, whose only other merits 
were his friendship for America and the fact that he had entered 
politics from a sense of duty rather than for personal or factional 
ends. Without a party following, Pitt was obliged to fill the remaining 
offices in such a haphazard fashion that his product was known as the 
" Mosaic Ministry." Moreover, he dumbfounded his friends by 
accepting a peerage. In ceasing to be the " Great Commoner," the 
Earl of Chatham — for that was his title — impaired his influence 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 521 

with the people and shut himself out of the Lower House, which 
was the only proper field for his matchless eloquence. Tortured 
by the gout, he became increasingly irritable, and was finally 
attacked by a " gloomy and mysterious malady," probably nervous 
prostration, which led him to shun all public business. In March, 
1767, he went into retirement, whence he did not emerge for over 
two years. 

The Townshend Acts (1767). — In the absence of Pitt the chief 
power was seized by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Town- 
shend, who, when his budget for the year 1767 was defeated by a vote 
to reduce the land tax, rashly attempted, instead of resigning, to 
make up the deficiency by duties on American commerce. In thus 
reopening the controversy he shares with Grenville and the King the 
responsibility for the disastrous results that followed. Late in the 
spring he carried an Act imposing port duties on glass, lead, painters' 
colors, paper, and tea, legalizing writs of assistance, and providing 
that the revenue raised under the Act should be employed in main- 
taining civil officials independently of the Colonial assemblies. Any 
surplus was to go toward the support of troops. Another Act aimed 
to make the customs service more effective by establishing an Ameri- 
can Board of Commissioners. Before it passed, Townshend had died, 
1767, leaving a fatal legacy to his successors, involving principles 
most dangerous in their consequences — limitless possibilities of tax- 
ation, coercion, and crippling of trade. 

The Resistance of the Colonies and the Weakness of the Grafton 
Ministry (1766-1769). — The hollowness of the distinction between 
internal and external taxation was now generally evident, and the 
smoldering embers of opposition in the Colonies again burst into 
flames. Unfortunately, Grafton's Ministry was unfitted either for 
conciliation or vigorous repression, and sorely harassed by the 
attacks of opposing factions, he weakly allowed the Cabinet, which 
had only sullenly acquiesced in the passage of the Townshend 
Acts, to fall more and more under the royal control. Town- 
shend was succeeded by Lord North, a favorite of the King's, while, 
one by one, the Ministers were replaced by advocates of an un- 
compromising policy. In the Colonies such resoluteness was dis- 
played and the non-importation agreements, which had been re- 
newed, worked so effectively against British trade that the Ministry 
proposed, as a means of reconciliation, to remove all the Town- 
shend duties except 'a tax of threepence per pound? on tea. Graf- 
ton, and even North, wanted to do away with the duty on tea 
as well, but they were overruled. The measure, carried in 1770, 



522 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

was announced to the Colonies in a " harsh and ungracious " circular 

letter. 

The Middlesex Election (1768). —The situation at Home was also 
charged with trouble. High prices and hard times had aroused grave 
popular discontent which manifested itself in frequent riots and strikes. 
The general election of 1768 was marked by more buying and selling 
of votes than ever before, and those in the past had been corrupt 
enough. The most notable fact in the election, however, was the 
choice of John Wilkes as a member from Middlesex. Returning from 
abroad only a few weeks before the election, he had been escorted to 
and from the polling place by an unruly London mob. After the 
votes had been taken he submitted to the authorities. The decree 
of outlawry was reversed, but he was committed on the other charges l 
to the King's Bench prison, where he remained till April, 1770. Dur- 
ing this period of nearly two years he was active with tongue and pen, 
and, besides contesting a significant parliamentary issue, managed to 
get himself elected as an alderman of London. In February, 1769, 
the Commons decided on Wilkes' expulsion. So far, they were tech- 
nically within their rights, for they were the sole judges of the validity 
of election returns. On his reelection, however, they overstepped 
their authority by declaring him incapable of sitting in the existing 
Parliament. There was no law declaring ineligibility for any of the 
charges standing against him, and it required more than a resolution 
of either House to make one. Finally, on the fourth election, Colonel 
Luttrell, the Court candidate, though receiving a minority of the votes, 
was awarded the seat. The King, who had influenced the Commons 
partly through his " Friends " and partly by working on their jealousy 
of privilege, had won a temporary and costly victory. He had defied 
the rights of the electors, and Wilkes, who in the beginning was sup- 
ported only by the enemies of the Court and the more turbulent among 
the masses, became the popular hero. In spite of annual motions in his 
behalf, he was never admitted to the Parliament of 1768, though he 
continued to be a thorn in the flesh of his opponents. In 1774 he was 
returned in the new general election and admitted without opposition, 
and in May, 1782, he finally carried a motion to expunge irom the 
Journal the record of his incapacity made in 1769. He had given a 
decided impulse to public agitation outside, and had taught the Com- 
mons a lesson which they never forgot — that the voice of the elec- 
tors could not be defied. 

The "Letters of Junius " (1769-1772). — The example of Wilkes 
in the North Briton had greatly stimulated attacks on the Government 
1 See above, page 512. 



THE REVIVAL OF THE ROYAL ASCENDANCY 523 

in the newspapers. These were usually in the form of letters signed 
by a fictitious name, preferably that of a patriot of antiquity. The 
most famous are the " Letters of Junius," which have survived as an 
English classic. The first to attract attention appeared in the Public 
Advertiser, 21 January, 1769, and the series did not come to an end 
till 21 January, 1772. They owe their influence to three facts: the 
men and the times which they attacked, their wonderful style, and 
the mystery of their authorship. Junius, to be sure, had no firm grasp 
of general principles or liberal progressive views, having no sympathy, 
for example, either with the American cause or with parliamentary 
reform ; but he had an intimate knowledge of the political situation, 
he saw clearly the weakness and the vices of the men in power and ex-' 
posed them with fiendish skill. A man who wrote what Junius did 
naturally could not disclose his identity; but he realized fully that 
the effect which he produced was greatly enhanced by the baffling 
secrecy in which he wrapped himself. While fully fifty names have 
been suggested as possible authors of the letters, the weight of evidence 
points most conclusively to Sir Philip Francis, who in early life was an 
amanuensis to Pitt. 

The End of the Graf ton Ministry and the Advent of Lord North (1770V 
— Chatham, emerging from his seclusion in July, 1769, at once threw 
himself into opposition against the Ministry which he had constructed 
in its original form. He vehemently denounced its American policy 
and its attitude toward the Middlesex election, in which, he main- 
tained, the Commons had betrayed their constituents and violated the 
Constitution. When Grafton, finding his situation hopeless, resigned, 
28 January, 1770, George at once offered the vacant place to Lord 
North, who continued to hold the Chancellorship of the Exchequer as 
well. North was neither a statesman nor an orator of the first rank ; 
but he was an admirable gentleman, gifted with a ready wit and with 
excellent tact. Unfortunately, owing to indolent docility and undue 
fondness for the King, he allowed George to persuade him, against his 
better judgment, into measures so disastrous as to make his Adminis- 
tration one of the most inglorious in English history. Again and again 
he begged to resign, only to yield when George begged him not to desert 
him. In the face of bitter attack he placidly slept on the Treasury 
Bench, and made no effective effort to check the blundering and cor- 
ruption for which he was officially responsible. After a decade of tire- 
less and scrupulous efforts, George III had made his personal power 
supreme, and as long as North remained in office the King ruled as 
well as reigned ; but his policy proved so fatal in its results that he 
was at length obliged to resign the conduct of affairs to a Minister 



524 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

responsible to public opinion. One result, however, he achieved, — he 
broke the power of the Whig oligarchy beyond hope of recovery. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Horace Bleackley, Life of John Wilkes (191 7) ; Sir W. P. Treloar, Wilkes 
and the City (191 7). 

For further references, see ch. XLIII. 



CHAPTER XLIII 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION AND THE END OF THE PERSONAL 
ASCENDANCY OF GEORGE III (1770-1783) 

The North Ministry and the Ascendancy of the King (1 770-1 782). 

— Contrary to expectation, North's Ministry, described as a " forlorn 
hope," remained in power longer than all the previous Ministries of 
the reign combined. George III to a large degree directed the policy 
of the Government, and his extensive use of patronage and corruption, 
the activity of his " Friends," together with the adroitness of North 
as a party leader and the dissensions between the Rockingham and 
Chatham Whigs, enabled him to maintain a " crushing and docile 
majority " in Parliament. 

The Grenville Election Act (1770). — Nevertheless, the Opposition 
succeeded in carrying one or two measures of reform. First in im- 
portance was a Bill introduced by Grenville for trying disputed elec- 
tions. Formerly such cases had been tried by a committee of the whole 
House, with the result that they had been invariably decided in favor 
of the candidate whose party had a majority in the Commons, quite 
regardless of the rights of the electors. According to the new arrange- 
ment forty-nine members were chosen by lot : from them each party 
removed one member alternately until the number was reduced to 
thirteen, and then added one member each. The body of fifteen thus 
constituted was sworn to act impartially and to render its decisions 
independently of Parliament. As each party would naturally seek 
to exclude the abler men among its opponents, the method of reduction 
was known as " knocking the brains out of the committee," but the 
Act, limited at first to seven years, worked so well in practice that 
in 1774 it was made permanent. 1 

The Struggle over the Reporting of Debates (1^71). — In the session 
of 1 77 1 the Commons became involved in a quarrel with the press over 
the question of reporting debates. In view of the growing strength 
of public opinion, it was unwise to attempt to keep its proceedings 

1 It remained in force till 1868, when the duties were handed over to the judges. 

525 



526 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

secret, and it was only natural that erroneous and unfair accounts of 
what was said and done should be spread abroad in print. The matter 
came to an issue when the House of Commons sought to arrest some 
offending printers, whom the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London 
undertook to protect. The result of the struggle was really another 
step in the direction of the freedom of the press, for, although the 
House still maintained that publication of debates was a breach of 
privilege, no further attempt was made to punish the reporters or 
printers. The great progress of the press as a political factor is one 
of the most significant features of this period : next to the failure of 
George's American policy it played the most important part in putting 
an end to the personal ascendancy of the Monarchy, which he had 
succeeded in' reviving. 

The Royal Marriage Act (1772). — With his exalted ideas of royalty, 
it was a keen distress to George III when two of his brothers married 
below their station. To prevent such indiscretions for the future, 
which would inevitably lower the prestige of the kingly family and, 
in case of a secret alliance, might bring confusion to the succession, he 
procured the passage of the Royal Marriage Act. It provided that 
no descendant of George II under twenty-six years of age could con- 
tract a valid marriage without the consent of the Sovereign, nor after 
that age, except by the sanction of Parliament. While working hard- 
ship to individuals, the Act, which remains substantially in force to- 
day, has proved beneficial from the public standpoint. 

The Boston Massacre (5 March, 1770). — Meantime, early in 1770, 
the first blood had been shed in the controversy between Great Britain 
and her American Colonies. For some time, the more unruly elements 
in Boston had been annoying the British troops until, on the evening 
of 5 March, they were provoked into firing upon their tormentors. 
Whoever was to blame, the " Boston Massacre " excited the fiercest 
indignation throughout the Colonies. Yet when the soldiers were 
brought to trial, leading patriots volunteered to defend them, and all 
were acquitted except" two who received light sentences. 

The Hutchinson Letters (1 773-1 774). — Although the Government 
paid little attention to the Colonies for three years, the unrest there 
grew steadily. Extremists were active ; mobs were frequent, loyalists 
were roughly handled, in some cases tarred and feathered; revenue 
officers were obstructed in the performance of their duties ; and in 
1773 Colonial committees of correspondence were formed which, in 
conjunction with local committees organized the previous year, fur- 
nished a complete system of machinery for united revolutionary action. 
Early in this year, Benjamin Franklin, who was acting as agent for 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 527 

Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and two of the other Colonies, procured 
certain confidential letters written by Hutchinson 1 to a former secre- 
tary of Grenville, in which the methods which the British Government 
should employ in dealing with the Colonies were very frankly discussed. 
He sent them to Massachusetts to be handed about among a few of 
the leading patriots, on condition that they should not be published 
or even copied. Nevertheless, they soon found their way into print, 
were circulated throughout the Colonies, and aroused the greatest 
indignation. Franklin, who had occasion to appear before the Privy 
Council, 29 January, 1774, was denounced by Wedderburn, the Solici- 
tor-General, in terms of studied insult. The Council roared with laugh- 
ter while Franklin stood without moving a muscle. His methods of 
procuring the letters may have been questionable ; but, since he was 
an old and eminent man, the treatment which he received was bound 
to turn him into an uncompromising opponent of the English Govern- 
ment, and to affect hosts of sympathizers in the same way. 

The Boston Tea Party (16 December, 1773). — Meantime, th,e Gov- 
ernment, by an ill-advised attempt to assist the East India Company 
whose affairs were in a bad way, opened the breach still wider. Among 
other measures of relief it was provided that a large amount of tea 
which the Company had on hand, should be sent from England free of 
duty and subject only to a tax of threepence per pound at the Ameri- 
can ports. Since the tea sold in England was burdened with duties 
aggregating a shilling a pound, the Colonists were greatly favored over 
the home consumer. It has commonly been said that what they ob- 
jected to was the principle of taxation involved , and that North would 
have done wisely to impose the duty at the time of export, leaving the 
Company to reimburse itself by a proportional increase of price on 
the sale of the goods in America ; however, it has recently been shown 
that the objection was not so much to the tax as to the fact that the 
tea was consigned to friends of the Government, and that the resistance 
was instigated mainly by the English and American merchants, who 
resented being discriminated against in order that a great monopoly 
might be benefited. Toward the close of the year 1773, consignments 
of East India tea were shipped to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and 
Charleston. On the night of 16 December, a body of men, disguised as 
Indians, boarded the vessels which had recently arrived in Boston and 
emptied three hundred and forty chests into the harbor. The ships 
for New York and Philadelphia returned without landing their cargoes, 
while the consignment for Charleston was stored in the custcm house, 
whence it was sold later. 

1 He had been Governor of Massachusetts Bay since 1771- 



528 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Acts of 1774. — The action at Boston, following upon the heels 
of the printing and circulation of the Hutchinson letters, determined 
George III to make an example of the town and at the same time to 
impose such coercion upon Massachusetts as would break its spirit 
and check further resistance. To that end, four " penal laws " were 
passed in 1774. The first closed the harbor of Boston and transferred 
the port to Salem until the losses of the East India Company should 
be made good. The second amended the charter of the Province, in- 
creased the power of the Governor, transferred to the Crown the nom- 
ination of councilors, and provided that town meetings, regarded as 
" nurseries of sedition," should not be held without the Governor's 
consent. The third enacted that all persons charged with a capital 
offense in executing the law in Massachusetts should be taken to Nova 
Scotia or to England for trial. The fourth was a new Quartering Act. 
The so-called " Quebec Act," passed the same year, extended the 
boundaries of Canada to the Mississippi on the west and to the Ohio 
on the south, granted freedom of worship to Roman Catholics, and 
allowed them to be tried by French law in civil cases, though in criminal 
matters the English law was to prevail. It provided, further, that the 
Governor-General should be assisted by a legislative council appointed 
by the Crown ; there was to be no representative assembly, and taxa- 
tion was reserved to the British Parliament. The measure, designed 
to deal with problems and promises arising from the Peace of 1763, 
was a wise and just one, for it gave the Canadians — nine tenths of 
whom were French — what they expected and desired, and they showed 
their satisfaction by remaining loyal throughout the ensuing war. 
The American Colonies, however, were furious, for it seemed to them 
a design to cut them off from the western lands which they claimed, 
and to extend " Popery" and arbitrary government to their very doors. 

The First Continental Congress (5 September, 1774). — The Min- 
istry had calculated that the leaders would be intimidated by a show 
of force and that the other Colonies would not support Massachusetts. 
On the contrary, the repressive measures of 1774 called forth a deter- 
mined and united opposition from north to south and led swiftly to 
the final crisis. On 5 September a Congress met at Philadelphia in 
which all the thirteen provinces, except Georgia, were represented. 
Doubtless the majority, while insistent on redress of grievances, hoped 
that some means of averting the conflict might be arranged. Owing, 
however, to the activity of the aggressive party, the Congress took a 
series of decided steps. It approved the " Suffolk Resolves " 1 looking 
toward armed resistance in case of necessity ; it demanded the revo- 
* So called because they were passed in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 529 

cation of a number of recent laws, notably those of 1744 ; it drew up a 
declaration of rights; it framed general non-importation and non- 
exportation agreements ; it sent a petition to the King and an address 
to the English people, after which it adjourned till May. 

The Attitude in Parliament and in the Ministry. — Chatham, who 
had risen from a sick-bed in time to lift his voice against the last of 
the repressive Acts of 1774, rejoiced in the " manly wisdom and calm 
resolution of Congress." Yet he was anxious to avert a rebellion, 
foreseeing that France and Spain would seize the opportunity to avenge 
their defeat in the Seven Years' War. Moreover, both he and Burke 
were insistent on regulation of trade, failing to realize that the Colonies 
would now oppose that as strenuously as they had resisted the attempts 
to tax them. A few of the Ministers, including North, were also in- 
clined to conciliation, though they were ready to do the King's will, 
while Parliament was, since the general election of 1774, more than 
ever under royal control. Nevertheless, the Opposition in Parliament 
kept up a zealous but futile agitation against coercion. Both Chat- 
ham and Burke, early in 1775, introduced conciliation schemes which 
failed to pass, and numerous petitions from the commercial towns were 
" shelved." On 20 March, North, with the consent of the King, did 
move a resolution, providing that if any Colony would pay its quota 
toward the common defense and the expenses of the civil administra- 
tion no taxes would be imposed except for regulation of trade. Though 
it carried, it came too late. 

The Outbreak of War ; Lexington and Concord (19 April, 1775). — 
Already Massachusetts had been declared in rebellion. Soon after, 
on 19 April, occurred the memorable skirmishes of Lexington and 
Concord which opened the war that lasted until American independ- 
ence was secured. The result was due to the courage and persistence 
of a resolute minority. Many were opposed to righting at all. Others, 
who in the beginning put their hand to the plow, later sought to 
turn back. Spread through the Colonies there was a large and in- 
fluential body of loyalists numbering from a third to a half of the 
population. In a minority in New England, it formed a majority in 
the Middle Colonies and fully equaled the patriot party in the South. 
In England, at the beginning of the war, the King and his agents not 
only controlled Parliament but were supported by the bulk of the 
nobility and landed gentry, the clergy of the Established Church and 
the legal profession. The opposition was confined to the merchants, 
the Dissenting preachers and the laboring classes. 

Comparative Strength of the Combatants, — The troops who en- 
listed on the Colonial side were mostly raw, insubordinate, and unwilling 

2M 



530 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

to serve for any length of time away from their own neighborhoods. 
The total population was less than three million souls, funds were 
scanty, and the supply of arms, ammunition, clothes, and provisions 
was lamentably inadequate. The Colonists had to contend against 
a wealthy country with a population fully three times their own, 
against trained armies and a navy reputed to be invincible. Owing, 
however, to recent economies and dishonest contractors, both arms of 
the service were reduced in numbers * and faulty in equipment. Then 
the British undervalued the fighting capacity of the Americans and 
the obstacles to be overcome. The country which was to be subdued 
was three thousand miles off and extended over a thousand miles of 
seacoast. There could be no theater of war, for the vast stretch of 
country was cut into pieces by many and great rivers, and reached 
back to a region of trackless forests. It was difficult to conquer and 
impossible to hold. The Colonies were hardy and resourceful, they 
had a widely extended militia system 2 and they had a Commander 
whose greatness of character and devotion to duty have rarely been 
equaled. The British generals proved singularly ineffective, and 
confined their attention mainly to taking and holding the leading sea- 
board towns, when their best chance of success lay in tracking down 
and destroying the opposing army. The issue was only decided, 
however, when France and Spain finally threw their weight in the 
scale against Great Britain. 

The Meeting of the Second Continental Congress (10 May, 1775). 
Washington, Commander-in-Chief. — The Continental Congress 
assembled at Philadelphia for its second meeting, 10 May, 1775. It 
assumed executive powers, rejected North's plan of conciliation, and 
provided for the organization into a Continental Army of the troops 
which had flocked to the blockade of Boston after the Lexington 
fight. Doubtless their most important step was the appointment of 
Washington as Commander-in-Chief, 15 June; for to him more 
than to any other single man is due the triumph of the American 
cause. 

1 The British army at the opening of the war numbered less than 40,000. George 
had tried unsuccessfully for some time to increase this establishment. When a 
larger force became imperative he hired German mercenaries, a step against which 
both the English and the American Whigs protested bitterly. Much more repre- 
hensible was the employment of Indians. They proved of little value in regular 
fighting; for they fled to the woods at moments of danger when they were most 
needed, and were guilty of massacring defenseless women and children in lonely 
exposed settlements. Though to a less degree, the Americans were not free from 
blame in the employment of Indians. 

2 Though its efficiency was weakened by the custom of short term enlistments. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 531 

Bunker Hill (17 June, 1775). The Siege of Boston. — Before 
he arrived in Boston the Battle of Bunker Hill had occurred, 17 
June, in which the bravery of the British troops and the stupidity 
of their generals were alike conspicuous. It was a defeat for the 
Americans with all the moral effects of a victory. The siege of Bos- 
ton continued for nine months, though the American Commander 
found the greatest difficulty in holding his ill-assorted forces to- 
gether during the winter. Howe, who had superseded Gage in 
October and was " equally incompetent," was finally forced to evac- 
uate the town, 17 March, 1776. Thence he sailed to Halifax, where 
he waited for reinforcements in order to attack New York. King 
George, who was disappointed on his hope that the Southern Colonies 
would remain loyal, finally sent an expedition against the Caro- 
linas ; but an attempt, in June, to reduce Charleston was heroically 
repulsed, and the British Commander Clinton sailed to New York to 
join Howe. For three years the South was left free to send help 
to the North. 

The Declaration of Independence (4 July, 1776). — By the be- 
ginning of 1776 the idea of separation had become very strong in the 
Colonies, which hitherto had been fighting mainly to secure redress 
of grievances. The change of sentiment was due to various causes, 
among them the employment of German troops and the discovery 
that King George, and not the Ministry or Parliament, was respon- 
sible for the coercive policy of the past few years. More influential 
than all else, however, was a pamphlet by Thomas Paine entitled 
Common Sense. Paine was a radical, and later a freethinker, who 
had come to America from England in 1774, and had been warmly 
welcomed by Franklin. On 4 July, 1776, Congress at Philadelphia 
adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was printed the 
following day and signed by such members as were present, 2 August. 

The Campaign of 1776. — In spite of the Whig Opposition the 
Government made vigorous preparations for the campaign of 1776. 
The military operations of this year centered about New York. 
Howe, with his Halifax forces, his reinforcements and the troops of 
Clinton, had an army of 25,000, to which Washington, who had hur- 
ried from Boston, could only oppose 19,000 ill-equipped and half- 
trained men. He was driven successively from Long Island, from 
Manhattan Island, then over the Hudson into New Jersey and 
finally across the Delaware. It was only Howe's incapacity and 
his own energy that prevented his " disorderly mob " from being 
utterly crushed. Suddenly, however, he revived the dying hopes 
of his countrymen by recrossing the Delaware on Christmas night 



532 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and capturing a Hessian force at Trenton. Neither Commander 
attempted anything further till spring. In England, the situation 
was far from satisfactory ; for it was impossible to procure sailors ex- 
cept by impressment and extravagant bounties, and expenses were 
so heavy that another loan had to be raised and new and burden- 
some taxes imposed. 

Burgoyne's Campaign (1777). — The British plan of campaign 
for 1777 was suggested by General Burgoyne. He was to lead an 
army down from Canada, by way of Lake Champlain and the Hud- 
son, and to effect a junction at Albany with Howe, who was to march 
up from New York. Had the plan succeeded, New England would 
have been isolated, and the British would have been able to con- 
centrate their efforts against the Middle and Southern provinces. 
The cooperation of Howe was essential, in order to prevent the Ameri- 
cans from thrusting an army in between and crushing Burgoyne before 
the junction could be effected. Howe, as usual, did the wrong thing ; 
he decided to proceed first against Philadelphia, trusting that he could 
return in time to cooperate with Burgoyne. Obliged to take the long 
route by Chesapeake Bay and forced to fight a battle with Wash- 
ington, whom he defeated at Brandywine, it was 27 September before 
he occupied Philadelphia. He spent another month in opening up 
the Delaware in order to secure his communications with New York, 
and then passed the winter restfully in Philadelphia while his troops 
and officers wasted their time in idleness and social diversions. Wash- 
ington, who had been repulsed 4 October, in an attempt to enter the 
town, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge. His troops, half 
starved and almost barefoot, seemed on the verge of dissolution; 
but, during those gloomy months, they were drilled into an effective 
fighting machine by Baron Steuben, a German officer who had 
adopted the American cause. Meanwhile, events had happened 
which turned the tide of the war. 

The Failure and Surrender of Burgoyne. — Burgoyne's first move- 
ments had promised well. George on receipt of the news is said to 
have rushed into the Queen's rooms crying : "I have beat them ! 
beat all the Americans " ; but his rejoicing proved premature. The 
invaders had a rough country to travel over, they found it difficult 
to procure supplies, and a strong American force was collected to 
meet them on the west bank of the Hudson. Defeated in a series 
of engagements, and surrounded by a force outnumbering his own 
by four to one, Burgoyne surrendered to General Gates at Saratoga, 
17 October, 1777. The miscarriage of the British campaign of 1777 
determined France to throw her weight in the scale, Spain followed 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 533 

later, and the conflict between Great Britain and her Colonies was 
enlarged into another great European struggle. 

The French Alliance (1778). — For some time, the French and 
Spanish Governments had been secretly providing the Americans 
with money and supplies, and many Frenchmen, chief among them 
the Marquis de Lafayette, had volunteered for service in the Conti- 
nental Army. Benjamin Franklin, who went as diplomatic agent 
to France in December, 1776, was warmly welcomed by the circle 
who were beginning to interest themselves in those problems of re- 
ligious and political philosophy which heralded the approach of the 
French Revolution. The French Government, however, had no 
enthusiasm for the American cause; its aim was to revenge the hu- 
miliation it had suffered at the hands of Pitt and to recover as much 
as possible of the Colonial trade and possessions it had lost. On 6 
February, 1778, a formal treaty of alliance was concluded with the 
United States * by which it was agreed that, in case of war between 
France and Great Britain, neither party would make peace without 
the other, or until the independence of the United States should be 
acknowledged. This alliance proved a godsend to the Ameri- 
can cause. It created an effective diversion against Great Britain ; 
it opened French ports to American privateers ; it brought increased 
money, supplies, munitions of war, powerful fleets, and finally an 
army. At last the steadfastness of Washington and those who sup- 
ported him was to be rewarded. 

The Party Situation in England. The Death of Chatham (1778). 
— The American disaster encouraged the Opposition to renewed 
attacks against the Government. Their force was greatly weakened, 
however, by a sharp difference in policy. Chatham, though continu- 
ing to urge extreme concessions, stopped short at independence, while 
the Rockingham party were now ready to grant even that. North, 
who had carried on the war for years against his better judgment, 
after begging the King in vain to allow him to resign, finally intro- 
duced and carried a conciliation bill conceding practically all that 
Chatham had advocated. Commissioners were sent to America, but 
Congress, now backed by France, would listen to no terms which 
did not include recognition of independence, and when the com- 
missioners appealed to the people in an ill-advised manifesto, they 
met with a well-merited rebuff. The Government in its straits had 
already made overtures to Chatham, who might have had some in- 
fluence with the revolutionists, but he would take no steps without 
an " entire new Cabinet." George III replied stolidly that " no 
1 The name assumed by the Colonies in the Declaration of Independence. 



534 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

advantage to the country nor personal danger to himself would 
make him stoop to the Opposition." Stiff-necked as he was, George 
cannot be wholly blamed, for the Opposition was bitter, it rejoiced 
unpatriotically at the American successes, and obstructed his mili- 
tary plans. The majority, to be sure, had laudable reasons for de- 
siring the failure of the King's war, some because they thought it 
unrighteous, others because it would break down the royal ascend- 
ancy, force upon the Crown a Ministry of the people, and put an end 
to the regime of corruption. Naturally, though, George could not 
see this ; moreover, many supported his policy from a sincere feeling 
that the greatness of England depended upon the retention of the 
Colonies even by force. Chatham, broken by illness, appeared in 
the House of Lords, 7 April, 1778, and made his last speech, which was 
an earnest plea against conceding American sovereignty and yield- 
ing to the claims of France. In the midst of the debate he fell in a 
fit and was taken home, where he died n May. Thus passed the 
" great, illustrious, faulty being " who had achieved so much for 
England. His death made for a partial unity in the ranks of the 
Opposition. 

The Military and Naval Events of 1 778-1 779. — Clinton, who had 
succeeded Howe as Commander-in-Chief, evacuated Philadelphia, 
18 June, 1778, and hastened to New York to meet an expected French 
attack. In July a French fleet arrived, but, after failing in an attack 
on Newport, without attempting anything further, departed for the 
West Indies, where during the naval operations of 1 778-1 779 the 
advantage lay with them. Meantime, the center of the war had 
shifted to the Southern Colonies. In November, 1778, Clinton sent a 
British force to Georgia, which captured Savannah, overran the whole 
Province, and opened the way for an invasion of South Carolina be- 
fore the close of the year. On 12 April, 1779, Spain joined France 
in an alliance against Great Britain, and declared war 16 June. Her 
first step was to attempt the recovery of Gibraltar, which, however, 
was ably defended by General Eliott during a memorable three years' 
siege. All the while, American privateers were proving increas- 
ingly troublesome to British commerce, which the combined French 
and Spanish fleets strove in vain to destroy. 

The Gordon Riots (1780). — Suddenly in war- weary England a 
wave of anti-Roman Catholic fanaticism swept over the country. 
In 1778 a bill had been passed " enabling Roman Catholics who 
abjured the temporal jurisdiction of the Pope to purchase and in- 
herit land, and freeing the : r priests from liability to imprisonment." 
A similar measure for Scotland was defeated, owing to a violent popu- 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 535 

lar outcry which manifested itself in riots at Glasgow and Edin- 
burgh. This encouraged a number of bigots in England to form a 
Protestant Association under the presidency of Lord George Gordon, 
a half-crazed scion of a noble Scottish house. On 2 June, 1780, he 
marched to Westminster at the head of 60,000 persons bearing a mon- 
ster petition demanding the repeal of the Act of 1778. The firm re- 
fusal of Parliament led to a furious uprising, and from the 2d to the 7 th 
mob violence reigned in the City. Some who took part were honest 
fanatics, but the majority were the criminal and disorderly class more 
bent on plunder than the safeguarding of religion. The authorities 
seemed paralyzed, peaceful citizens were obliged to wear blue cock- 
ades and to join the cry " No Popery ! " to protect their lives and 
property. The man who finally rose to the occasion was King 
George, who declared that there was at least one magistrate who would 
do his duty. By a royal Order in Council the King's troops and the 
militia were called out, and dispersed the rioters. Smaller riots took 
place in Bristol, Hull, and Bath, but the Government stood by its 
Relief Acts. The whole affair is a curious example of belated bigotry 
and of the weakness of the public authorities. 

The Armed Neutrality (1780). — In 1778, France had adopted a 
novel principle in maritime law, namely,, that the goods of neutral 
Powers trading with belligerents were exempt from seizure, provided 
they were not contraband of war. Holland, because of her great carry- 
ing trade, welcomed this innovation, as did Frederick the Great ; 
for he saw that it would weaken Great Britain, who had always exer- 
cised freely the right of seizure of ships engaged in commerce with 
her enemies. Early in 1780, Catherine of Russia was induced to issue 
a declaration asserting, in addition to the above principle, that only 
specified goods were contraband and that blockades to be binding 
must be effectual. On the basis of this declaration — accepted by 
France, Spain, and the Americans — Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, 
and the Emperor joined her in a league of " armed neutrality." 
While Great Britain found it necessary henceforth to deal cautiously 
with neutral ships, since she was dependent upon the Baltic Powers 
for naval stores, the league proved rather an " armed nullity " in 
practice. Moreover, the British gained rather than lost by adding 
Holland to the list of their opponents, 20 December ; for her navy 
was not strong, and since she was no longer a neutral, her commerce 
and her colonies could be attacked with impunity. 

The War in 1780-1781. The Southern Campaign. — Early in 
1780, Clinton went south in person and attacked Charleston, which 
surrendered 12 May. Leaving Cornwallis, who soon overran the 



536 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

greater part of South Carolina, he returned to New York, for another 
French fleet was under way, laden with troops to assist Washington. 
The year, however, was a gloomy one for the Americans in the North 
as well as in the South. Washington's army had spent the winter 
of 1 779-1 780 at Morristown, exposed to rigorous weather and " con- 
stantly on the point of starving " ; a French squadron, which arrived 
in July with 6000 troops under the command of Rochambeau, was 
blockaded in Newport, Rhode Island, by a British fleet and did noth- 
ing ; the paper money issued by Congress had so depreciated that a 
hundred dollars in bills was only worth one of gold, and France was 
so nearly bankrupt that her chief Minister, Vergennes, suggested a 
truce. For the remainder of the war the decisive fighting was in the 
Southern Colonies and on the sea. In December, 1780, General 
Nathanael Greene, who, though he lost battles, had a genius for winning 
campaigns, was sent to the Carolinas, where with the help of guer- 
rilla leaders he managed to check the British. In May, 1781, Corn- 
wallis after a series of Pyrrhic victories marched into Virginia to join 
a British force which Clinton had sent to that Province. Before 
the end of the year, the forces which he left behind had abandoned 
everything in the Carolinas except Charleston. 

The Surrender of Cornwallis (19 October, 1781). — It was a 
time when " some splendid advantage was essentially necessary 
... to revive the expiring hopes and languid exertions of the 
country," when the " poor old currency was breathing its last gasp." 
Assured of the cooperation of Admiral de Grasse — who had eluded 
the British Admiral Rodney and reached the American coast in 
August, 1 781 — Washington and Rochambeau now arranged a joint 
movement against the British. Washington wanted to strike at Clin- 
ton in New York, but yielded to the French, who preferred to direct 
their efforts against Cornwallis in Virginia. Cornwallis — who had 
marched north against the wishes of Clinton, his superior officer, and 
who was at odds with him in consequence — concentrated his forces at 
Yorktown, on a tongue of land between the mouths of the York and 
James Rivers where he could be easily bottled up. Admiral Graves, who 
sailed south in pursuit of the French fleet from Rhode Island, found 
de Grasse blocking the Chesapeake and was so roughly handled that 
he went back to New York to refit. Cornwallis, cut off from all 
help from the sea, surrendered to Washington and Rochambeau, 19 
October, 1781. On that same day, Graves had again left New York 
bearing on board a relieving army under Clinton, but finding that 
they were too late, they turned back. The catastrophe at York- 
town sealed the fate of the war. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 537 

The Resignation of North (20 March, 1782). — The King received 
the news with his accustomed fortitude, and stubbornly insisted on 
continuing the fight, but North now gave up all hope. Various 
reverses followed ; the peace party grew to be overwhelming in Parlia- 
ment and throughout the country. The Opposition combined forces 
against the Government ; and, 20 March, North, after barely escaping 
a vote of want of confidence, 1 announced his resignation. Although 
they had acted together for the moment, there were still two parties 
in the Opposition. Lord Shelburne led the old Chatham Whigs 
opposed to party connection and American independence, while 
Rockingham, backed by Burke and Charles James Fox, stood for both 
of these policies. As the lesser of two evils, George invited Shelburne 
to form a Ministry. When he refused, George was finally forced to 
accept Rockingham as Prime Minister, though he declined to negotiate 
with him personally. Shelburne was made Secretary for Home and 
Colonial Affairs and Charles James Fox became Foreign Secretary. 2 

The Second Rockingham Ministry (March- July, 1782), and Its 
Work. — The new Ministry, in spite of the royal attempts to thwart 
its efforts, accomplished much during its brief tenure of power. Con- 
tractors were excluded from the House of Commons and revenue 
officers were deprived of the right to vote, while Burke, after having 
tried for years, succeeded in carrying a measure of economical re- 
form, which saved the country £72,000 a year by the abolition of 
useless offices. This Ministry also opened the peace negotiations 
and granted legislative independence to Ireland. 

The Irish Situation. — Although the material condition of the 
people had improved during the century, Ireland was in a pitiable 
state at the opening of the reign. It was governed as a subject 
country; it was excluded from the benefits of the Navigation Acts 
and from all commerce that might compete with that of England. 
Greedy agents and middlemen crushed the peasantry with heavy 
rents and burdens, while the great landlords were mostly absentees. 
Arable lands were turned into pasture and rights of common were 
disregarded. Intense poverty and suffering were the result. Re- 
ligious grievances were equally acute. Although the worst provi- 
sions of the penal laws were not enforced, Roman Catholics were 

1 Already, 6 April, 1 780, the Opposition had succeeded in carrying a resolution 
in the Commons that: "the influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, 
and ought to be diminished." 

2 The former combined the functions of the old Secretary of State for the North- 
ern Department and the Secretary for American and Colonial Affairs, created in 
1768. The latter took the place of the Secretary of State for the Southern De- 
partment. 



538 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

excluded from office, from the practice of law, and the army. The 
poor were called upon to pay tithes for the support of the Anglican 
Establishment, whose clergy were indifferent to their interests and 
whom they hated as cordially as they loved their own ignorant and 
devoted priests. Parliament represented exclusively the Protestant 
aristocratic minority, and abuses in corruption and patronage flour- 
ished rankly. In 1761, a secret organization, known as the White- 
boys, from the white smocks which they wore, began to manifest the 
widespread resentment against enclosures and tithes by nocturnal 
raids in which they maimed the cattle and resorted to other violence. 
Their advent marks the beginning of secret associations and armed 
risings in Ireland. 

The Independence of the Irish Parliament (1782). — Forced by the 
Irish leaders, Grattan and Flood, who took advantage of the American 
War to press their demands, Lord North, in 1778, removed a few of 
the restrictions on trade, and would have gone further but for the 
opposition of the English manufacturing interests. Another bill was 
passed enabling Catholics to secure leases for nine hundred and 
ninety-nine years, and even to inherit lands, provided they were not 
converts. As a means of receiving further concessions, non-importa- 
tion agreements were formed; but another method proved more 
effective. The war had necessitated the removal of the Irish garri- 
sons. To supply their place in defending the country from attack and 
internal disorder, the Irish Protestants 1 organized into bodies of 
volunteers. While thoroughly loyal, they were masters of the situa- 
tion and insisted on their demands. In consequence, the English 
Parliament, at North's instigation, removed a number of the remain- 
ing trade shackles in 1779-80. About the same time a bill was 
passed freeing the Irish Dissenting Protestants from the sacramental 
test for office-holding. Grattan now began an eloquent and earnest 
demand for legislative independence. This was finally granted by 
the Rockingham Ministry in May, 1782. 

The Revival of British Sea Power (1782). — The British still occu- 
pied New York, Charleston, and Savannah, and now their navy, 
which had at length been brought into shape, showed itself worthy 
of its high traditions. On 12 April, 1782, Rodney, having returned 
to the West Indies after an absence on sick leave, engaged de Grasse, 
who was planning to join the Spanish in an attack on Jamaica. The 
" Battle of the Saints," so called because it was fought off the Isle 
des Saintes, is notable for the successful employment of a form of 

1 Many of the Catholics would have joined them, but they were prevented at 
first by the old law forbidding them to bear arms. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 539 

tactics common in the Dutch wars of the seventeenth century. Re- 
cently revived, it was destined to be used with great effect in the 
next war with France. The form of fighting most in vogue during 
the interval had been to engage the enemy ship by ship, van to van, 
center to center, and rear to rear. By the new maneuver, known as 
" breaking the line," the British ships would force a gap somewhere in 
the enemy's line, isolate a portion of her ships and overwhelm them 
by force of numbers. 1 At The Saints, the French line was cut in two 
places and the attack directed against her center, de Grasse was 
captured together with five of his ships, Jamaica was saved, and a 
serious blow struck at the French navy. In September, Eliott met a 
final attack on Gibraltar with admirable skill and daring, though the 
siege was not finally raised till February, 1783, after the close of the 
war. 

Lord Shelburne (1737-1805) and Charles James Fox (1749-1806). 
— The Rockingham Cabinet worked together in securing domestic 
reforms and granting legislative independence to Ireland ; but a split 
came over its chief problem — the peace negotiations. This was due 
to the strained relations between the two remarkable men who dom- 
inated all the others. The Earl of Shelburne was a progressive 
thinker quite in advance of his time in many of the policies which he 
advocated. In spite of his great abilities and broad outlook — pos- 
sibly to some degree because of them and to his undisguised con- 
tempt for parties as well — he was, perhaps, the most unpopular and 
distrusted public man of his time. Charles James Fox was the son of 
Henry Fox, Lord Holland. At first he was chiefly noted for his 
extravagance, his dissipation, and for his reckless but brilliant opposi- 
tion to all liberal measures; but, in 1774, he left the Tory party 
largely for personal reasons and passed the remainder of his life, mostly 
in opposition, as an ardent champion of popular liberty. Joining 
the Rockingham Whigs, he came under the influence of Burke, and 
ranged himself against the war against the Colonies as well as most 
of the other policies of the King. He was violent in his attacks on 
the Government, sometimes even forgetting loyalty to his country 
in the zeal with which he defended first the American and later the 
French Revolution; also, he was deficient in qualities of statesman- 
ship and was a bad party manager. On the other hand, he was 
unusually gifted as a debater, with the rare power of stripping away 
all superfluities and penetrating directly to the heart of a question ; 

1 It is no longer believed that Rodney was responsible for the revival of this form 
of righting. Howe was among the first to take it up, while Rodney, who belonged 
to the old school, opposed it for some time. 



540 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

moreover, notwithstanding his hot partisanship, his nature was 
generous, lovable, and noble ; he was the chivalrous defender of the 
unfortunate and waged unselfish war upon religious intolerance and 
political oppression. 

Opening of the Peace Negotiations. — Aside from personal differ- 
ences, Shelburne and Fox represented opposing policies. Fox wanted 
to acknowledge the independence of the Americans immediately, in 
order to detach them from the French alliance, while Shelburne 
wished to make the acknowledgment of independence one of the con- 
ditions of a joint treaty with the Allies, as a means of obtaining 
better terms. The question was complicated from the fact that, so 
long as Shelburne's view prevailed, he remained in charge of the 
American negotiations as Colonial Secretary, while as soon as the 
United States were acknowledged as an independent Power, all diplo- 
matic dealings with them would pass to Fox as Foreign Secretary. 
Then the agent, whom Fox named to treat with Vergennes at 
Paris, complained that he was hampered by the representative whom 
Shelburne had sent to treat informally with Franklin, and that the 
Colonial Secretary was concealing information from the Cabinet, 
whereupon Fox, furiously indignant, proposed, 30 June, 1782, the 
recognition of American independence forthwith. When he was 
outvoted in the Cabinet he threatened to resign. The very next day 
Rockingham died, and George III, seizing the chance to break the 
power of the party, appointed Shelburne head of the Ministry. 

The Completion of the Peace Negotiations (1782-1783). — It was now 
possible to continue the peace negotiations without friction. Shel- 
burne, however, soon came round to Fox's policy of detaching the 
Americans from the French alliance, and, to that end, acknowledged 
the independence of the United States, 27 September, 1782. Less 
than two months later the American commissioners, 1 30 November, 
without consulting the French Minister, signed preliminaries of 
peace, on condition that a final treaty should be concluded after 
terms had been arranged between Great Britain and France. Owing 
to the conditional nature of the arrangement, the commissioners 
cannot be fairly charged with violating the terms of the alliance of 
1778. On the other hand, suspecting with good reason that France 
was backing Spain in an effort to restrict American boundaries to the 
narrowest geographical limits, and, on her own account, was anxious 
to exclude the new country from Newfoundland fisheries, they had 
not observed their instructions from Congress to negotiate only in har- 
mony with the French Government. The definitive treaty of peace 
1 Franklin was joined by John Jay in July and by John Adams in October. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 541 

between Great Britain and the United States was signed at Paris, 
3 September, 1783. France and Spain signed their treaty with the 
British at Versailles on the same day. 

The Treaty of Paris. — The chief terms of the Treaty of Paris 
were the following: (1) The independence of the United States was 
formally acknowledged and the boundaries of the new country de- 
fined. (2) The United States was to have the right to fish off the 
banks of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as 
the right to cure fish on certain specified shores. (3) The navigation 
of the Mississippi was to be open to both countries. (4) The restitu- 
tion of confiscated estates of loyalists was to be recommended by 
Congress to the several States. 

The Treaty of Versailles. — France received certain of the West 
India Islands and restored some that she had conquered. Her rights 
in the Newfoundland fisheries were defined; she received, in full 
sovereignty, the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, where she had 
been allowed to dry fish, and her commercial establishments in India 
were restored. Spain, in return for certain concessions, retained 
Minorca and West Florida, which she had recently conquered, and 
Great Britain ceded East Florida back to her. 

The Defeat of the King. — The United States, although she emerged 
from the contest poor and exhausted, had gained almost everything 
for which she had striven. Great Britain had lost the most valuable 
of her Colonies, but it was years before any change was manifest in 
the principles or practice of her colonial system, either administrative 
or economic. Nevertheless, at subsequent crises in her constantly 
increasing Empire she showed that she had not forgotten the costly 
lesson which she had learned. The more immediate result was at once 
evident. George's system of personal government had broken down, 
and, though he soon shook himself free from the hateful domination 
of the Whigs, he never succeeded in reviving his ascendancy. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. William Hunt, Political History of England, 1760-1S01 
(1905) ; also Robertson ; Bright ; Stanhope ; Lecky, and Cambridge Modem 
History. 

Constitutional. T. E. May (Lord Farnborough), Constitutional History 
of England since the^ Accession of George III (3 vols., the edition of 191 2, 
ed. by Francis Holland, continues the work to 191 1), the best work on the 
period ; the arrangement is topical and not chronological. 

Biography. The lives of Chatham cited in Chapter XLI above. Sir G. O. 
Trevelyan, The Early Life of Charles James Fox (1880) ; goes to 1774, an 



542 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

admirable picture of the life of the period. J. Morley (Viscount), Burke, 
A Historical Study (1867), the best estimate of Burke's political position. 
Morley's Edmund Burke (1879) is a brilliant and valuable sketch. Lord 
Edmund Fitzmaurice, Life of the Earl of Shelburne (Marquis of Lansdowne) 
(3 vols., 1875-6, new ed., 1913) while aiming to place Shelburne in a favorable 
light, is a distinct contribution. 

Contemporary. Horace Walpole, Letters (16 vols., ed. Mrs. P. Toynbee, 
1903-5) ; Walpole is the acknowledged prince of English letter writers. 
His Memoirs of the Reign of George III, 1760-1772 (4 vols., ed. G. F. R. 
Barker, 1894) and Journals of the Reign of George III, 1771-83 (2 vols., 
ed. Doran, 1859) are gossipy and Whig in sympathy, but are the records 
of a keen observer. N. W. Wraxall, Historical and Posthumous Memoirs, 
1772-1784 (89) (ed. H. B. Wheatley, 2 vols., 1884), garrulous and amusing. 
Correspondence of George III with Lord North, 1768-83 (2 vols., 1867, ed. 
W. B. Donne) excellent for illustrating George Ill's system of personal gov- 
ernment. Mme. D'Arblay, Diary (7 vols., 1854, new ed., A. Dobson), a 
graphic but adverse picture of life at the court of George III. The Letters 
of Junius (2 vols., 1904). 

The American Revolution. For bibliography see Hunt, 465-6 ; Cam- 
bridge Modern History, VII, 780-788. The latter work, chs. V-VTI, con- 
tains a good brief account of the causes and course of the Revolution. 
E. Channing, History of the United States (191 2), vol. Ill, the best general 
work on the period. John Fiske, American Revolution (2 vols., 1891) is a 
very readable popular treatment. Sir G. O. Trevelyan, The American 
Revolution (4 vols., published 1899-1912) is a brilliant piece of writing 
marked by the Whig sympathy for the American cause, which may be used 
to supplement the Tory standpoint of Hunt. Carl Becker, The Eve of the 
Revolution (1918), a very suggestive contribution. For special phases 
of the subject see : G. L. Beer, Commercial Policy of Great Britain toward the 
United States (1893) and British Colonial Policy (1907) ; H. E. Egerton, 
British Colonial Policy (new ed., 1913) ; A.L. Cross, The Anglican Episcopate 
and the American Colonies (1902) ; C. H. Van Tyne, The Loyalists in the 
American Revolution (1902). 

Military and Naval. Fortescue, British Army; Clowes, Royal Navy; 
Mahan, Sea Power. 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 250-254. Robert- 
son, pt. I, nos. XXXIV-XXXVII, pt. II, nos. XIV-XXI. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND TO THE EVE OF THE 
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 

The Three Leading Characteristics of the " Eighteenth Century." 
— The century following the Revolution of 1688 does not, on the sur- 
face, present any striking features of organic growth. The course 
both of domestic and foreign affairs appears to be perplexed and 
meaningless: the former little more than a constant scramble for 
power and profit between various factions, usually of the dominant 
party, the latter chiefly occupied in a series of wars, complex and 
bewildering in their causes and their results. In each case, however, 
an important issue was being worked out. The political struggles at 
home produced the existing system of Cabinet and party government, 
while the wars abroad made Great Britain the World Power she is 
to-day. Then, thirdly, the period was marked by a veritable indus- 
trial revolution. These three characteristics must be considered each 
in turn. 

The Cabinet and Party System. — The English Cabinet and party 
system is especially notable for the fact that its machinery is the 
most perfect that has yet been devised for speedily and peacefully 
voicing the will of the people, and because it is the system which 
has been adopted, with more or less variations, by the chief European 
Governments in recent times. It is essentially government by an 
executive committee of Parliament, whose members represent and are 
responsible to the majority of the House of Commons, which, in its 
turn, represents the qualified voters of Great Britain. Just as soon as 
the majority withdraws its support, the Cabinet either resigns or dis- 
solves Parliament and submits to the verdict of a general election. 
Contrary to the earlier practice, the Sovereign no longer arbitrarily 
appoints and dismisses his Ministers, and ordinarily he does nothing 
without the advice of the body which has superseded him as the 
actual head of the State. The Cabinet is united under a head known 
as the Prime Minister, and its members are both jointly and severally 



544 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

responsible to their party. Except in rare cases, if one goes they 
all go. The Cabinet system is essentially a post-Revolutionary 
product; for, it has been well said, while the Puritan Revolution 
determined that Parliament should be supreme, it was the subsequent 
course of events which determined how the sovereignty should be 
exercised. 

Ministerial Responsibility after the Restoration. — Great strides 
in this direction were taken after the Restoration. Clarendon, though 
Charles II was ready to throw him over, was really forced out of 
office by a Parliamentary attack, while Danby had to be dismissed, 
in spite of the King's efforts to save him. Even yet, however, Parlia- 
ment had not recovered the control of appointments which it had 
enjoyed for a brief period under the Lancastrians and had lost under 
the Yorkists and Tudors ; moreover, it had no means of removal 
except by impeachments on serious charges. Meantime, the prac- 
tice had become common of governing with the advice of a small 
group of men selected usually from the larger Privy Council. Charles 
II had more than one such Cabinet or Cabal, and so had James. 

The Rise of Modern Parties. — While these advisers were still 
responsible to the King, the parties were already in making who were 
later to assume that control. Under the name Whigs and Tories 
they began to take permanent and tangible form during the Exclu- 
sion struggle, although their beginnings may be traced back to the 
Cavalier and Country parties. The Roundheads, of course, had 
been broken up by the Restoration, nor did they form a party in the 
modern sense, since they had no recognized voice in the regular and 
normal control of the Administration, which is the present function 
of the party in power. It remained for William, some years after 
his accession, to take the decisive step that resulted in a form of 
government controlled and administered by a body of men represent- 
ing a particular policy. 

Progress of Cabinet and Party Government under William III. — 
William's first Cabinet was composed of men of diverse opinions, 
for he aimed to balance parties. Within a few years, however, he 
began, apparently on the advice of Sunderland, to choose his Min- 
isters exclusively from the Whig party — which was then in a ma- 
jority in the Lower House, — gradually got rid of his Tory Ministers, 
and depended for a few years mainly on a body of Whig Ministers. 
William, however, remained the real head of the Government; he 
was his own Foreign Minister, acting often independently, sometimes 
in opposition to' his Ministers, and frequently consulting outside 
advisers. Nor was there as yet any ministerial solidarity ; for Par- 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 545 

liament held individuals, not the whole body, responsible for a par- 
ticular policy. However, the practice that was in the end to pre- 
vail — that the duties and responsibilities of government belonged 
not to the Privy Council as a whole, but to a small committee chosen 
and retained largely because of their ability to command a majority 
in the lower House — had been advised and tried. William's suc- 
cessor, Anne, had a Whig Ministry forced on her in the middle of 
her reign, but though a weak Sovereign she was anxious for personal 
rule, and, aided by a popular reaction, she was able to force out her 
unwelcome advisers and temporarily to check the progress of the 
new system. 

The Completion of the System under the Hanoverians. — It was 
under the first Kings of the House of Hanover, George I and George II, 
that Cabinet government assumed practically its modern form. Not 
only was the lost ground regained, but the Prime Minister took the 
place of the Sovereign as head of the Cabinet ; he became the leader 
of the majority party in power in the House of Commons, dependent 
rather on their support than on royal favor ; while the Cabinet mem- 
bers came to act "asa unit under him," — came, at last, more and 
more frequently, to be responsible jointly as well as individually for 
their acts. Many reasons explain this striking development. For one 
thing the new Monarchs threw few obstacles in the way. George I, 
ignorant of the language and customs of the country and taking little 
interest in English affairs, soon ceased to attend Cabinet meetings, 
and George II followed his example. Moreover, their title was par- 
liamentary rather than hereditary, and they had been called in by 
the Whigs, whose policy was to diminish as far as possible the royal 
prerogative. Another important factor was the ascendancy of 
Walpole who, during the years of his supremacy, would brook no 
rivals. 

The Perfection of the System by the Extension of the Electorate. — 
George III attempted for a time personal in place of ministerial rule ; 
but the new system had become too firmly established to be shaken 
permanently ; consequently he had to give in before he had half finished 
his reign. The crowning step was taken in the nineteenth century, 
when by a series of reform bills the House of Commons was made 
truly representative of the people. Cabinet and party government as 
it exists to-day, while it is not the result of any principles embodied 
in the Revolution of 1688, was made possible by events which de- 
veloped in consequence of that movement. 

The Wars of the Eighteenth Century and Their Significance. — Pass- 
ing to the external history of the period, the most evident feature 

2N 



546 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

is the constant succession of wars. During the interval of one hun- 
dred and twenty-seven years which elapsed between the Revolution 
of 1688 and the overthrow of Napoleon at Waterloo in 181 5 there were 
seven, occupying sixty-four years, or more than half the period. 1 
They not only convulsed all Europe but extended over a wide area 
of the globe as well. While, at first sight, they seem to have no 
unity of cause or result, a closer study makes it clear that, so far 
as Great Britain is concerned, a single issue connects them all. 
Five began and ended with France, and, though the third began 
with Spain and the fifth with the American Colonies, France be- 
came involved in both before the close. The chief result of this 
persistent duel was that England gained an unrivaled commercial 
ascendancy and vast colonial possessions, chiefly at the expense 
of France. 

In King William's War, which was directed mainly against the Euro- 
pean ascendancy of Louis XIV, these issues were not yet evident, but 
the crippling of French resources had an important bearing on the 
subsequent struggles. In the War of the Spanish Succession many 
causes were operative, but commercial questions played a leading 
role ; for the English entered the conflict largely from fear of the 
colonial monopoly which might result in case the House of Bourbon 
should acquire the Spanish inheritance, and secured by the Peace of 
Utrecht trade concessions and territories in the New W T orld. In the 
three wars from 1739 to 1783, although many other questions were in- 
volved, a most significant factor was a prolonged struggle between 
England and France for the control of America and India. Great 
Britain lost the thirteen colonies, but she secured from France the 
territory now known as the Dominion of Canada and gained the upper 
hand in India. Even in the Napoleonic wars, as will be seen later, 
colonial issues were by no means overlooked. In this " gigantic 
rivalry between England and France " it will be necessary to search 
for the causes which led England to prevail. 

The Rise of the Atlantic Seaboard States and the Decline of Portugal, 
Spain, and the Dutch. —Up to the middle of the fifteenth century the 
Mediterranean remained the center of commerce, and the chief seats 
of business and wealth were the Italian cities. But the capture of 

1 They were : 

1. "King William's War," 1689-1697. 

2. The War of the Spanish Succession, 1 702-1 713. 

3. The War of the Austrian Succession, 1 739-1 748. 

4. The Seven Years' War, 1 756-1 763. 

5. The War of the American Revolution, 17 75-1 783. 

6. 7. Two Wars with France, 1 793-1802 and 1803-1815. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 547 

Constantinople by the Turks, in 1453, together with the subsequent 
discovery of new routes by sea to India and China and of the con- 
tinent of America, led to the momentous result that the Atlantic 
took the place of the Mediterranean as a highway of commerce. 
Italy, harassed at the same time by invasions of rival sovereigns con- 
tending for dominion, and by the depredations of the rising Turkish 
sea power, rapidly declined. Gradually, the five Atlantic seaboard 
states, Portugal, Spain, the Dutch, France, and England, came to the 
front. The first three, one after another, fell back in the race, in spite 
of promising starts, leaving France and England to fight for the ulti- 
mate supremacy. 

Reasons why Great Britain Prevailed over France. — France 
had great resources, broad territories, and industrial aptitude, yet she 
failed to prevail. Certain local causes were operative in America, — 
her object was to trade and to ^ advance the Roman Catholic faith 
rather than to send colonists who would found homes, and her posses- 
sions were inferior from the standpoint of both climate and strategy 
to those of the English ; but the chief reason for her failure was that 
her energies were divided between the New World and the Old. At 
the very time that she was contending for colonial supremacy she was 
obliged to fight constantly in Europe to maintain her ascendancy, 
frequently to defend her own borders. Great Britain entered com- 
paratively late in the race for maritime supremacy ; for she first be- 
came a recognized Sea Power in the time of Elizabeth, and it was not 
till the following century that she acquired any considerable colonial 
possessions. By her buccaneering expeditions and her repulse of the 
Armada, she was a powerful factor in breaking down the supremacy of 
Spain. Under the first two Stuarts, English colonies were established 
in Virginia, New England, and Maryland ; then, under the Common- 
wealth and the Protectorate, with the navy developed to an effective- 
ness hitherto unequaled, war was opened with Holland and another 
blow struck at the monopoly of Spain. The progress continued after 
the Restoration. Charles II obtained Bombay by his marriage, 
New York was captured in the second Dutch War, the Carolinas and 
Pennsylvania were founded and Delaware was acquired. After the 
Restoration, England united for a time with her former commercial 
rival, Holland, in a common effort to check France and Catholicism. 
Holland, however, who never recovered from the effect of her wars 
with her present ally, was further exhausted by the strain of the great 
efforts against the French and ceased to be formidable. While Great 
Britain's only remaining antagonist was seriously handicapped, the 
British were protected from European attack by intervening waters ; 



548 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

they were not obliged to send armies abroad unless they chose, and, 
as a matter of fact, confined themselves largely to subsidizing allies in 
the Continental struggles, thus leaving their energies free to develop 
their navy, and to extend their colonial possessions. 

The Industrial Revolution. — In all three of the characteristic fea-. 
tures of the eighteenth century, the period between 1688 and 1784 may 
be considered as a unit. While the development of the party system 
was not finally completed until the reform of Parliament gave the 
people a full share of representation, the Cabinet had, by 1760, taken 
practically its modern shape, and the advent of the younger Pitt to 
power twenty-four years later marked the end of the efforts of George 
III to stop its growth. If Great Britain's position as a World Power 
was not secure until the overthrow of Napoleon, she had by 1763 
driven the French out of Canada and become the dominant power 
in India, and within twenty years the American Revolution, together 
with the teachings of Adam Smith, had contributed to break up the 
old Colonial system, to discredit its principles, and to prepare the way 
for a more liberal commercial policy. Still a third factor making for 
the new policy was the Industrial Revolution, which introduced ma- 
chine production and factories, and which was even more momentous 
in its consequences than the great political upheaval in France. The 
series of inventions by which the transformation was brought about 
culminated in the application of the steam engine as a motive power 
about 1785. The effect in changing the attitude of the manufacturer 
and the merchant toward the traditional trading policy is obvious. 
With superior methods of production they realized that they could 
supply better and cheaper goods than any other European country, 
and that, with unrestricted competition, they could command the 
markets of the world. 

Industrial Development Previous to the Great Inventions. — The in- 
terval between the Revolution of 1688 and the era of machinery and 
steam was not without evidences of industrial progress. Much of this 
was due to the Huguenots, fleeing from France, who introduced new in- 
dustries and unproved methods. But industries and processes which 
came into conflict with those already established were bitterly opposed, 
while the difficulties of the protective system were illustrated by 
attempts of manufacturers to thrust the burden of taxation on 
trades other than their own. Furthermore, native workmen mani- 
fested stubborn hostility to the competition of the refugees and the 
introduction of labor-saving devices. Also, there was a growing 
friction between labor and capital ; for, even before the age of ma- 
chinery and factories, there were evidences of the rise of capitalism. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 549 

In a few towns, manufactures on a large scale had appeared, while, 
even in the country, capitalists had begun to supply the domestic 
workers with materials as well as with looms and stocking frames. 
The purer form of the domestic system survived longest in Yorkshire, 
where, as a rule, the spinners and weavers owned their instruments of 
production, provided their own wool and sold their cloth to traders 
in neighboring towns or at periodical markets and fairs. Elsewhere, 
however, troubles in the cloth trade indicated that differences were 
developing between the worker and the capitalistic owner, which, 
in spite of an early eighteenth-century proclamation against " lawless 
clubs " and a statute against combinations of workmen, went to 
the length of occasional strikes. The wool manufacturers steadily 
fought their rivals the linen manufacturers — chiefly strong in Ireland 
— as well as the importers and manufacturers of cotton. 

The Cotton Industry. — ■ Cotton products in the form of calicoes, 
cambrics and chintzes were originally brought from India, and be- 
came speedily popular because of their lightness and cheapness. 
Before the close of the century they began to be manufactured in 
England. Those interested in the woolen business, having become 
seriously alarmed, succeeded in arousing such popular opposition 
that those who wore cottons were attacked in the streets. Notwith- 
standing enactments prohibiting the importation of these fabrics, 
as well as the use of printed or dyed goods containing any cotton, 
there developed a public demand for such goods too strong to be re- 
sisted, the law was evaded, and an Act of 1736 allowed the manu- 
facture of goods with a weft of cotton, provided that the warp was of 
linen yarn. The prohibition of pure cotton fabrics was not removed 
till 1774. As a matter of fact, the linen warp was essential, since 
the art of spinning a sufficiently tough cotton thread for the purpose 
was for a long time unknown. The chief center of the industry was 
in and about Manchester. This Lancashire district was peculiarly 
adapted for the industry ; Liverpool furnished a convenient port for 
the importation of raw cotton from India, and, more particularly, 
from the American Colonies, which soon came to be the chief source 
of supply, while in the moist climate of the West Midlands the threads 
were less likely to break than in dryer regions. 1 

The Flying Shuttle and the Spinning Jenny. — Although it required 
several spinners to keep one weaver supplied, the first of the new 
inventions was an improvement in the hand loom. Hitherto, the 
shuttle which carried the weft had to be transferred from one hand 

1 Most important of all, after the introduction of steam, was the fact that this 
was the region of the coal and iron mines. 



550 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of the weaver to the other as it passed through the warp. Not only 
was the process slow and cumbersome, but, owing to the shortness of 
the human arm, breadths of cloth wider than three quarters of a yard 
had to be woven by two persons. This was remedied by a mechanical 
device, known as the flying shuttle, patented by John Kay in 1733, 
by which the shuttle was thrown from side to side along a board. As 
a result, the inequality between the weavers and the spinners was 
greater than ever. Kay and others busied themselves with the prob- 
lem of improving the process of spinning; but no practical results 
were achieved until James Hargreaves, about 1764, invented the 
spinning jenny with which eight spindles could be worked in a row ; 
moreover, the machine was so simple that a child could run it. Both 
Kay and Hargreaves were attacked by angry mobs of artisans, who 
furiously insisted that bread was being snatched from their mouths. 
Kay died in poverty on the Continent, and Hargreaves got only an 
inadequate return for his invention. 

The Water Frame and the Beginning of the Factory System. — The 
spinning jenny was worked by hand. It had scarcely appeared when 
Richard Arkwright (1 732-1 792) put into practical operation a spinning 
machine which came to be known as the " water frame," though it was 
first worked by horse power. Aside from the more effective motive force, 
it had a further advantage of spinning a harder and firmer thread than 
Hargreaves' jenny. Since Arkwright was absolutely without mechani- 
cal training, he sought the aid of a clock-maker who showed him a 
model which he proceeded to appropriate. Obtaining his first patent 
in 1769, he at once erected a spinning mill, and in 1775 " patented a 
series of adaptations for performing on one machine the whole process 
of yarn manufacture." Unscrupulous in making use of the inventions 
of others, a forerunner of the modern captain of industry, he was 
energetic and resourceful in developing previous processes as well 
as in enlisting capital for his enterprises, and, more than any other 
single man, may be regarded as the founder of the factory system. 
With the invention, in 1779, of the spinning mule, combining the 
best features of the jenny and the water frame, the art of spinning 
still further outstripped the art of weaving, but the water loom of Ed- 
mund Cartwright — a machine which he patented in 1785 — restored 
the balance. The improved processes of spinning and weaving were 
first employed in the cotton manufacture and were only slowly adopted 
in the woolen industry. 

The Pottery and Iron Industries. — The second half of the eight- 
eenth century also marks an era in the pottery industry. Although 
the native product was serviceable and some of it not without beauty, 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 55 1 

the finest work was done abroad until Josiah Wedgwood began to 
produce his wares. Having learned his trade, he opened works of 
his own in 1759, and ten years later established his famous manu- 
facturing village of Etruria. He took out only one patent in his 
lifetime, relying upon the superiority of his product. Besides pottery 
for practical use, he produced works of exquisite art, and not only 
gained the English market but invaded the Continent, whither he 
exported five sixths of his wares. The progress of the iron manu- 
facture was for a long time seriously hampered from the fact that 
charcoal was used in smelting, and there was a great outcry against 
depleting the forests for this purpose. With the employment of coke, 
in 1735, a slight development began. However, the first considerable 
step in advance came twenty-five years later with the introduction 
of blast furnaces supplied by pit coal, though it was only after the 
advent of steam engines to work the blast furnaces that substantial 
progress became evident. 

Canal Transportation. — Improved facilities for transportation, 
due to the construction of canals, contributed vastly to the increas- 
ing industrial development. Canals with locks had long been in use 
on the Continent; but it was not till 1761 that the first one was 
opened in England. It connected the coal mines of the Duke of 
Bridgewater with Manchester, seven miles distant. While the funds 
were provided by the Duke, who devoted vast wealth and inex- 
haustible patience to the problem, the actual construction was due 
to the genius of his steward, James Brindley. Some of his engi- 
neering feats, such as carrying the canal over a river by an aqueduct 
thirty-nine feet high, made him seem a magician to his contempo- 
raries. From Manchester he extended the canal to the Mersey, 
thus uniting by a water route the growing manufacturing center to 
Liverpool, destined to become the greatest of Atlantic ports. Brind- 
ley, before his death, had designed nearly four hundred miles of canal, 
and, before the introduction of railroads, 2600 miles had been con- 
structed in England alone. In view of the miserable condition of 
the roads, the effect of the new system of transportation, which de- 
creased the cost of carriage about seventy-five per cent, was incal- 
culable. Markets were extended, and coal, iron, stone, and other 
heavy materials, could, for the first time, be utilized at consider- 
able distances from the center of supply. The potteries profited 
greatly, for, in the case of this brittle ware, safety as well as cheap- 
ness had to be considered. 

James Watt and the Steam Engine. — The final stage in the 
Industrial Revolution came with the introduction of the steam engine 



552 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for running machinery in mills l and factories. Although a steam 
engine was mentioned as early as 120 B.C., it was not till the very 
end of the seventeenth century that the expansion of steam was 
practically applied. In 1698 Thomas Savery patented a steam pump 
for raising water from mines. Soon, cheaper and more effective 
engines were in operation, but for three quarters of a century steam 
power was used only for pumping. It was the genius of James Watt 
(1736-1819) that transformed it into a genuine motive force. Watt, 
who was for a time instrument maker to the University of Glasgow, 
developed not only great manual dexterity but unusual scientific 
attainments and wide culture. With the conscious purpose of improv- 
ing upon his predecessors, 2 he mastered French, Italian and Ger- 
man in order to familiarize himself with the work already done in other 
countries, and made a careful study of previous models. As a re- 
sult, he developed the old device for pumping up and down into an 
impulse for circular motion. He took out his earliest patent in 1769. 
First associated with a Scotch ironmaster in the construction of im- 
proved steam engines, he joined himself, about 1773, with Matthew 
Boulton, who had a great manufacturing works at Soho near Bir- 
mingham. Though they had a long uphill fight in the face of mis- 
haps, opposition of reactionaries and rivals, and infringements on 
patents, success finally came, and Watt opened the way for endless 
possibilities in production and distribution. In 1785 the first steam 
spinning machine in a cotton factory was set up, the example was 
soon followed in industries of all sorts, and the factory system, which 
was destined within a generation to make England the workshop 
of the world, had entered upon its modern phase. 

The Effects of the Factory System. — The effects of the Indus- 
trial Revolution, for good or ill, were tremendous. One of the most 
immediate was that it gave the country resources to carry on another 
war with France, which resulted in the overthrow of Napoleon. Then 
it led to a complete transformation of conditions of laborers. Those 
who had hitherto lived in the country, spinning and weaving in their 
own cottages and generally cultivating a little farm at the same time, 
were turned into factory hands. Another result was the shifting 
of the chief area of population from the south and east to the mid- 
lands and north. Bare moorlands, dotted with small villages, began 
to swarm with life, crowded towns sprang up and the air was blackened 
with the smoke from countless chimneys. The moneyed classes 
had formerly been the landowners, the merchants and the financiers ; 

1 The name "mill" is a curious survival from the days of water power. 

2 The old story about the tea-kettle is apparently a myth. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 



553 



now a new class emerged — the capitalist manufacturer — destined 
to attain great social and political influence. Some were cultivated 
men, like Boulton and Wedgwood, others were grinding taskmasters. 
Much good came from multiplying the conveniences of life; more- 
over, the cheapening of processes of production stimulated consump- 
tion, and, in the long run, made for increased employment; but at 
first the displacement of old employments resulted in bitter suffer- 
ing. Also, the overcrowding of towns with no sanitary provisions for 
increased numbers, as well as exacting supervision in the factories, 
was grievous to those brought up in fresh country air, and who, if 
they worked long and hard, had at least been their own masters. 
In one sense the riots provoked by the new inventions were blind 
and unreasoning ; in another, they were justified ; for they were pro- 
voked by real misery. The domination of capital, and the move- 
ments to resist it, antedate the factory, and the balance of advan- 
tage lay with the capitalist system; but the problem now became 
more acute. There were no laws to hinder the employment of 
child labor and no effective regulations against lowering wages, while 
increasingly strict measures were passed against combinations of 
workmen. Cessation of trade and labor regulation, of protection 
and special privileges, made for expansion of business, and developed 
a robust self-reliance, but, with the absolute and uncontrolled power 
which the great masters of industry enjoyed under the regime of 
laissez-faire that came to prevail for half a century or more, the 
strong throve and the weak were crowded to the wall. Private 
philanthropy and a few legislative measures in the interests of the 
worker began to manifest themselves in the interval; but little was 
done until the reform of Parliament gave the lesser folk a real voice 
in choosing their representatives. 

Maritime Enterprise. — During the eighteenth century, English 
seamen were sailing in distant waters and exploring far-off lands. 
Many of them were chiefly bent on seizing the treasure and crippling 
the resources of Britain's enemies, some even were buccaneers, but 
they contributed much to foster the colonial and commercial su- 
premacy of their country by extending her oversea possessions and 
opening new markets. In the early part of the period the West 
Indies and the African coast were still terrorized by the pirates who 
made war on British and foreign merchantmen alike. One of those 
sent out to suppresss these sea rovers was the notorious Captain 
Kidd, who turned buccaneer himself, and, after five years of nefarious 
activity, was captured and hanged in 1701. The greatest explorer 
of the century was Captain James Cook (1728-1779), who finished 



554 



SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 



" the main track of ocean discovery " and prepared the way for 
British dominion in Australia and New Zealand. 

The New Agricultural Revolution. — There was, during the eight- 
eenth century, a revolution in agriculture as well as in industry. 
Instead of turning the common lands and the small holdings into 
sheep pasture, which had been the primary aim of the enclosures 
of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and which had left five 
sixths of the land untouched, the guiding motive of the new move- 
ment was to redistribute and consolidate the scattered strips of arable 
land, with a view to effecting improvements in tillage which were im- 
possible while the old system of common cultivation lasted. The 
defects of the old system of intermingled strips, common cultivation 
and common pasture, were many and serious. An enterprising farmer 
was seriously handicapped, because he could do nothing without the 
consent and cooperation of those associated with him, who might be 
incompetent and backward. Again, much time was consumed 
in going from one acre strip to another, and much land was wasted 
by footpaths, as well as by the balks which separated the various 
holdings. Then the absence of permanent walls, fences or hedges 
led to encroachment, to disputes and consequent litigation. Finally, 
the herding of cattle, belonging to all sorts of men, on the common pas- 
tures was a fruitful source of contagion. The new system was 
attended with many inestimable advantages ; not only were the scat- 
tered strips consolidated and the common pastures partitioned, 
but much uncultivated land was enclosed, waste was reclaimed and 
more scientific farming was introduced, thus making it possible to 
meet the demands of the growing industrial population. 

Pioneers in the Movement. — The chief pioneers of improve- 
ment were Jethro Tull, Lord Townshend, Robert Bakewell, and the 
famous traveler and agricultural expert, Arthur Young. Jethro 
Tull (1674-1740), who has been called " the greatest individual im- 
prover of the century," was more significant for the principles he 
established than for his own practical achievements. More effect- 
ively than any one before him he demonstrated the value of clover 
and turnips as a substitute for fallow. The increase of the turnip 
crop, he argued, made it possible to keep more stock, this meant 
more fertilizer for the soil, which thus enriched would, in turn, yield 
more crops for man and beast. TulPs more original contributions 
were the drill for planting seed, which prevented the waste from sow- 
ing broadcast, and the introduction of horse hoeing, which facilitated 
the work of keeping turnips and other growing crops free from weeds. 
His experiments were only carried to practical success by such great 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 555 

landowners as Lord Townshend, in this period, and Coke of Holkam 
chiefly in the next. The great innovator in stock-breeding was 
Robert Bakewell. Up to his time, sheep had been raised mainly for 
wool, and cattle for draught purposes and milking. Thin sheep pro- 
duced the finest wool, while long-legged, raw-boned cattle were best 
for drawing heavy burdens. To meet the growing demand for food, 
Bakewell set himself to breed fat types that would yield more mutton 
and beef. His efforts were crowned with amazing success, though 
more especially in the case of sheep. As a result of the impulse 
which he fostered the average size more than doubled. 

Results of the Agricultural Revolution. — The results, however, 
were not effected without grave disturbances of the old rural order. 
In spite of nominal compensation, the small freeholders almost in- 
variably lost by the redistribution. Indeed, from lack of capital to 
introduce the improvements required under the new system, a great 
majority of them, and of the lesser tenants as well, were extinguished. 
Much of the land was bought up by the great landlords or by wealthy 
merchants and manufacturers who either let it to large farmers on 
long leases or cultivated it themselves. 1 Some of the dispossessed 
yeomanry sank to the rank of laborers, others flocked to the growing 
industrial centers, while a few were fortunate enough to rise to the 
position of capitalist tenant farmers. The typical member of this new 
class was often a very grand person indeed. He kept great hospi- 
tality ; he entertained his guests with French or Portuguese wines, 
his daughter played the piano and dressed in imitation of the no- 
bility. In short, he became more prosperous than the old squire, and 
was as much above the freeholder as the manufacturer was above 
the artisan. The agricultural transformation, though not accom- 
plished without petitions and even riots, was inevitable. The do- 
mestic system with its adjunct farming was on the road to extinc- 
tion when the rise of the factories precipitated it. 

Science and Scholarship. — While no discoveries in pure science 
were made during this period comparable to Newton's, or to those 
which the future had in store, the eighteenth century was a period 
of growing enlightenment and diffusion of knowledge and of patient 
research as well. This was manifest in many fields, among others, 
in chemistry, in biology, in geology, and in astronomy. Joseph 
Priestley discovered oxygen in 1774, a discovery which, through the 
work of Lavoisier in France, led to a complete reconstruction of 
chemical science. Benjamin Franklin, in 1754, sent to England an 

1 While a greater portion of this land was devoted to tillage, there were certain 
districts where cattle raising preponderated. 



556 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

account of his famous experiment with the kite and key which " es- 
tablished the identity of thunder and lightning with the phenomena 
of electricity," and important work was done by contemporary Eng- 
lishmen in the subject destined to be so big with possibilities. 
Among the few signs of advance in medicine was the introduction 
of inoculation, which became a general practice about 1740. In 
spite of its dangers it contributed much to stay the scourge of small- 
pox before the days of vaccination. 

Richard Bentley (1662-1742), generally regarded as the greatest 
of England's classical scholars, marked an epoch in the science of 
critical investigation by introducing methods for detecting ancient 
forgeries. Then the second half of the century witnessed the rise 
of a new and important school of historians — the popular and 
literary. Foremost among them was the celebrated philosopher 
David Hume, whose History 0} England (1754-1761), though mani- 
festly biased against the Puritans, and now largely superseded, 
is distinctive for its style and from the fact that it fashioned the 
views of the rank and file of readers for a century. But the great- 
est of all English historians was Edward Gibbon, whose Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire (17 76-1 788), notwithstanding its unsym- 
pathetic treatment of Christianity and its ponderous style with 
monotonously recurring periods, remains among the world's classics. 

Religion and Theology. — While not lacking in acrimonious con- 
troversies, the greater part of the century was marked by an ab- 
sence of religious enthusiasm, by a tolerant, rational and material^ 
istic spirit. It was an age of common sense in thought and conduct. 
The mass of the rural clergy were still poor and often ignorant. 
Among those with better incomes, the sporting parson, keen on 
hunting and hard drinking, was becoming a familiar figure, while 
many of the incumbents of London parishes were immersed in so- 
ciety and politics. Even the better sort preached cold, unimpassioned 
sermons, inculcating industry and moderation on prudential grounds, 
advocating charity and benevolence, to be sure, but shunning any 
approach to mysticism and asceticism. Another evidence of re- 
ligious apathy was the decline of Nonconformity, which began to be 
remarked about the beginning of the second quarter of the century. 
A characteristic feature of the age was the rise of a school of English 
Deists who, while believing in a personal God, rejected most of the 
distinctive features of the Christian religion, such as revelation and 
the authority of the Church. These Deists are particularly notable 
for the influence which they exercised on the pre-revolutionary 
French thinkers and on the rise of Biblical criticism in Germany. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 557 

Philosophical Speculation. — The third Earl of Shaftesbury (1671- 
1713), whom his opponents have classed among the Deists, led a re- 
action against the ethical doctrines of his former master Locke, 
maintaining that the moral sense was innate and that morality was 
not something imposed by external authority. Bishop George 
Berkeley (1685-1753), who made war on the Deists, but more es- 
pecially on materialism, was a more profound thinker than Locke. 
He rejected the reality of matter and taught that time and space 
have no existence except in the mind. In one sense, his teaching 
led to skepticism, in another, by making mind the ultimate reality 
he was the founder of modern idealism. The most acute thinker of 
the century, however, was David Hume. In 1 739-1 740 he pub- 
lished his Treatise of the Human Understanding, with the design of 
introducing the experimental method of reasoning into moral sub- 
jects, and most of his subsequent philosophical writings are de- 
velopments of this early work. While his attacks on the prevailing 
systems of metaphysics and natural religion and his attempted 
reduction of all reasoning to a product of experience were destruc- 
tive or sceptical, he prepared the way for constructive work in 
many fields. Though he owed much to Locke and Berkeley, he 
repaid the debt with usury, and even anticipated Kant in some of 
his metaphysical views. 

The Wesleyan Methodists. — Meantime, earnest men had come to 
realize that a revival of spiritual life could not be brought about by 
the prudential ethics and rational orthodoxy inculcated by the di- 
vines of the period, that it was essential to make an appeal to the 
common people by means of the supernatural and the spiritual, by 
fervid, evangelical exhortation. This was achieved through the 
efforts of three Oxford men — John Wesley (1703-1791), Charles 
(1707-1788) his brother, and George Whitefield (1714-1770) — ■ 
who, in 1729, joined a little band of students in an organization for 
mutual improvement nicknamed the " Methodists," and who 
brought about a tremendous revival, known as Wesleyanism, or 
Methodism, which ranks as one of the great movements of the cen- 
tury. John, the elder Wesley, was the real organizer, Charles was 
most famous for his hymns, many of which are in general use to- 
day; while Whitefield was the eloquent popular preacher. The 
truly vital moment came in 1739 when John was " converted," when he 
first felt that Christ had taken away his sins. Then followed the 
wonderful course of field preaching with appeals to men and women 
to seek salvation by throwing themselves on the mercy of the Sav- 
iour. Unhappily, a difference grew up between John Wesley and 



558 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Whitefield over the question of free grace, but although, in 1749, 
the two men became hopelessly estranged, each continued to pur- 
sue, in his own way, the work which they had begun in common. John 
was curiously enough, a High Churchman who always regarded him- 
self and his Society as members of the Establishment, and insisted 
that the Communion should not be administered except by ministers 
ordained according to the forms of the Church of England. It was 
not till 1795, four years after his death, that the Wesleyans or Metho- 
dists became an independent sect. 1 

There is much to criticize about Wesley and his followers — they 
were often self-righteous, extravagant, and superstitious- — but they 
accomplished a great mission. They created a great sect, one of the 
greatest in the English-speaking world. They sought out the lowly 
and the vicious, and revealed to them " a new heaven and a new 
earth " ; they restored their self-respect and kindled joyous hopes 
by assurance of forgiveness and salvation for all who repented of 
their sins. They diverted into channels of religious enthusiasm 
much of the discontent engendered by the suffering caused by the 
industrial changes and stimulated by the French Revolution. They 
contributed to awaken the Church from its torpor, and infused new 
religious enthusiasm into the old nonconformist bodies. Further- 
more, they quickened the development of Sunday schools, and, 
directly or indirectly, the philanthropic and humanitarian move- 
ments, which led to prison reform and the abolition of the slave trade, 
and which were big with results in coming generations. 

Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations. — In 1776 Adam Smith 
published his Wealth of Nations, which opened an epoch in political 
economy. Even before the book appeared, advanced thinkers had 
attacked the most cherished of the mercantile theories, arguing that 
money was not wealth but only a measure of value; that it was a 
fallacious principle to hamper trade by prohibiting the export of specie, 
by fixing legal rates of interest, and by forcing foreign merchants to 
spend the proceeds of their sales in buying native goods. Already, 
too, the American Colonies had repudiated the exclusive trade policy 
pursued by Mother Country, and manufacturers had begun to strive 
against the old restrictions which shackled competition in the produc- 
tion and distribution of wares. Hence, Smith's admirers have gone 
altogether too far in hailing him as the creator of modern political 
economy; nevertheless, his work is of incalculable significance in 
first presenting, in a luminous, orderly and convincing form, views and 

1 Though already, in 1784, the foundations of the American Methodist Episcopal 
Church had been laid. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 



559 



tendencies that were just beginning to take shape. The gist of his 
argument, which, within a generation, came to meet with general ac- 
ceptance, was : that, under the mercantilist system, resting on balance 
of trade and the accumulation of specie, the interests of consumers and, 
indeed, of a great mass of producers, were sacrificed either to those of 
a small privileged group or to considerations of national power ; that 
the individual should be left free to pursue gain in his own way ; and 
that the greater the sum total of individuals who prospered, the greater 
would be the national wealth. He showed, too, that, in international 
trade, every nation must buy as well as sell, and that, in time of peace, 
such reciprocal trading was a benefit to all parties concerned. Some 
of his views and assumptions were erroneous ; but, in the main, his 
teachings were adapted to the stage of development at which Great 
Britain had arrived. 

Prose Writers of the Age of Anne. Addison and Steele. — Clas- 
sicism, or pseudo-classicism, dominated English literature during the 
greater part of the century. Many eminent writers flourished, par- 
ticularly during the reign of Anne, which is sometimes called the " Au- 
gustan Age " of English literature. While there was perfection within 
certain limits, it was a period of decided limitations. In contrast 
to the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, there was little sweep of im- 
agination, little display of ornate diction or quaint and obscure learn- 
ing. Conventions were carefully observed, and clearness and finish 
were sought rather than originality. Much of the writing reflects 
the artificiality of existing society, and is often social or political in its 
aim. In prose, the miscellaneous or social essay was highly perfected 
and the novel took its rise. Most famous among the essayists were 
Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, who in the Taller (1709) and in 
the Spectator (1 71 1) , accomplished a notable work. By their comments 
on current events they have left a valuable record of the political and 
social conditions of their time ; by their exhortations and by their 
example — for they sought to combine " morality with wit " — they 
made the coarseness and cynicism of the Restoration drama unfashion- 
able ; by gentle irony and by precept they inculcated more gracious 
standards in the art of living ; by their reviews of British and foreign 
books they fostered knowledge and love of literature ; and, finally, by 
the easy elegance of their style they furnished a model which affected 
the development of English prose writing. Addison, the chief creator 
of the immortal Sir Roger de Coverley, while he achieved his lasting 
fame as an essayist, also wrote verses, produced Cato, a tragedy which 
had a great vogue in his day, and was active as Whig pamphleteer. 
In contrast to Addison's placid, prosperous existence, " Dick " Steele, 



560 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

who was likewise a stanch supporter of the Whig party, led a checkered 
career, being frequently involved in financial and other difficulties ; 
but he was as lovable as he was irresponsible, and, in spite of his 
irregularities of conduct, remained through life a genial apostle of 
decorum, elegance, and good taste. He generously recognized the 
superior popularity of his collaborator and prided himself on starting 
him as an essayist, declaring that the world owed Addison to Steele. 
Unhappily, toward the end of Addison's life, the two friends got into 
a quarrel that was never healed. 

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)- —The most striking literary figure, 
however, of the period of Anne and the early Georges was Jonathan 
Swift. Born in Dublin of English stock, he served, after a reckless 
term at Trinity College, for some years as a private secretary in Eng- 
land. Subsequently, he took holy orders, becoming Dean of St. 
Patrick's, Dublin, in 1713. His life was a series of disappointments 
which embittered a nature, not without noble, generous qualities, 
though curiously crossed with traits of meanness, of bullying and self- 
seeking. During his later life he was afflicted by a mental disorder, 
evidences of which had manifested themselves even earlier and which 
help to explain his peculiarities. Most of his writings were called forth 
by one or another current problem ; with one exception they appeared 
anonymously ; and Gulliver's Travels was the only one for which he 
received any pay. Famous among his early works is The Tale of a 
Tub, a remarkable satire on the theological conflicts between the 
Romanists, the Anglicans and the Dissenters. He also contributed 
several notable party pamphlets, first on the Whig and then on the 
Tory side, his Conduct of the Allies ranking as his greatest achievement 
in this field. Much of his political satire, violent as it is, was inspired 
by hatred of sham, injustice, and oppression rather than by party bias. 
His pleasantest work is his Journal to Stella, a daily account of his do- 
ings — during the brief period that he was a foremost figure in London 
society and politics — written to Esther Johnson, whom he is supposed 
to have secretly married. Gulliver's Travels, on account of its strange 
and diverting adventures, has always been a favorite children's book, 
a curious fact, since it is fundamentally a scathing satire on the weak- 
nesses, follies, and vices of mankind, with particular reference to Swift's 
own day. For biting humor and unadorned simplicity and clear- 
ness — often veiling, however, a most subtle innuendo — his style has 
never been equaled. Coarse but virile, it ranges from the most comical 
grotesqueness to the sternest tragedy. 

The Age of Dr. Johnson. — New characteristics are manifest in the 
early Georgian period. For one thing, it marks the beginning of the 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 561 

Grub Street author, 1 who had to fight poverty and lived in a literary 
Bohemia. The era of literary patronage had practically passed and 
men of letters had to rely more and more on their own efforts, though 
it has been argued that the Grub Street tradition has been exaggerated, 
and that much of the suffering was due to the faults and peculiarities 
of individuals themselves. Yet the lot of struggling authors was hard 
enough in all conscience. Another distinctive feature of this period 
was the rise of the modern novel. The age, too, was stamped by the 
literary domination of Dr. Johnson, though, all-powerful as he was, 
he strove in vain to stem the tide of a growing romantic revolt against 
the prevailing classic traditions. Samuel Johnson (1 709-1 784) was 
the son of a bookseller. He was educated at Oxford, spent a few years 
as a provincial journalist and schoolmaster, and, in 1737, went to 
London. He had a long, hard fight to attain recognition and financial 
independence; but the experiences which he underwent taught him 
pity for the struggling members of his craft. His famous Dictionary, 
1755, the fruit of seven years of toil, marked the turn in his fortunes. 
Undoubtedly the best of his many works is his Lives of Poets, which 
appeared in ten volumes between 1779 and 1781. Meanwhile, in 
1763, he made the acquaintance of James Boswell, who later immor- 
talized him in the most delightful biography in the English language. 
It is a mine of quotable sayings, and, moreover, since nothing was too 
minute for his biographer to record, Johnson is made to stand out be- 
fore us in the midst of his circle as no man in the past. He was a 
unique personality. A talker of unusual gifts, though somewhat pon- 
derous and domineering, he shone preeminently at the Literary Club, 
founded in 1764 by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and frequented by Burke, 
Goldsmith, Garrick, and Gibbon. As a writer, Johnson was a critic 
rather than an originator, with a style that is over elaborate, heavy, 
and — particularly in his early days — wordy, though always clear 
and correct. In spite of strong prejudices, he was generally sane in 
his judgments, an enemy to all shams, and one who set high moral 
standards in writing and conduct. All together, he was a man greater 
than what he wrote. 

Defoe and the Rise of the Novel. — The novel, the rise of which 
dates from this period, is as dominating in modern English literature 
as was the drama in the Elizabethan and early Jacobean age. The 
name is derived from novella, the Italian word for a short prose story. 
The more realistic form descends from the Spanish picaresque 2 tales 
which relate adventures of roving scapegraces, selected as heroes. On 

1 So called from a poor street where many of the hack writers lived. 

2 From picaro, meaning literally "rogue." 

2 o 



562 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the other hand, the knightly epic of the Middle Ages prepared the way 
for the later novel of romance. After Bunyan, Daniel Defoe (1661- 
1731) was the pioneer among modern realistic novelists. While he 
made no use of religious allegory and chose to picture sordid phases 
of life with the coarsest frankness, the edifying and moral endings of 
his books show that, like the author of Pilgrim's Progress, he aimed 
at reaching the Dissenters of the lower and middle classes. He spent 
the greater part of his life as a journalist and pamphleteer and was 
nearly sixty before he produced his first famous work of fiction, 
Robinson Crusoe (1719)^ joy to succeeding generations of youth. In 
1722 appeared the Journal of the Plague Year, a fictitious account of 
the visitation of 1666 put in the mouth of a pretended eye-witness. 
In his novels, of which Moll Flanders and Colonel Jacqne are the best 
known, the incident is the main feature, and there is little direct at- 
tempt at characterization. Defoe was without imitators in his own 
lifetime. Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), a printer, who produced 
Pamela, Clarissa Harlowe, and Sir Charles Grandison, almost discarded 
adventure. In his novels, told in the form of letters, love appears as 
the main theme, there is considerable attempt at analysis of character, 
and contemporary life is minutely pictured. Richardson was the first 
of the sentimentalists and very didactic as well, aiming in his writing 
to inculcate virtue and correctness of behavior. 

Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne. — The most delightful novelist of 
the century, unquestionably, was Henry Fielding (1707-1754). A 
man of good family, he went to Eton, studied law at Leyden and served 
as a London police magistrate, thus seeing many aspects of life. Be- 
ginning his literary career as a writer of plays, his first novel, Joseph 
Andrews (1742), was a parody on Pamela, the smug sentimentalism 
of which aroused his disgust, but, instead of telling his story in the 
form of letters, he reverted to Defoe's novel of incident, and developed 
his subject into a vivid picture of life in contemporary England, of 
the innkeepers, justices, parsons, people of fashion, and their footmen 
and ladies' maids. Tom Jones and Amelia, while primarily an elab- 
oration of the same general type, have the added element of more in- 
volved plots. Fielding was intensely realistic. " I have writ little 
more than I have seen," he tells us; his characters and incidents are 
drawn from life, " and not intended to exceed it." His humor is 
broad; he is never analytic; he rails at pretense and selfishness, 
endowing some of his characters with a plentiful supply of these qual- 
ities ; but by nature he was a wholesome optimist, without a touch of 
sourness or moroseness. Tobias Smollett (17 21-17 71), whose best- 
known books are Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, and Humphrey 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 563 

Clinker , is another novelist of the picaresque type, who, from his ex- 
perience as a ship's surgeon, added to our knowledge of the life of the 
period by his pictures of seafaring people and conditions on shipboard. 
He had an original and powerful gift for character drawing ; but his 
work is marred by coarseness and his savageness in satire. Laurence 
Sterne (1713-1768) was a parson of a very unclerical sort. Tristram 
Shandy he wrote " with no clear design of what it was to turn out; 
on a design of shocking people and amusing myself." This was fol- 
lowed by the Sentimental Journey. Sterne's work is marked not only 
by the absence of plot, but by a conscious disregard of it ; his humor 
is subtle, allusive, and insidious. He was a fantastic sentimentalist 
who pictured life, not as it actually existed, but for the sake of the 
moods it aroused in him. His real achievement was the creation of 
such a lovable whimsical character as Uncle Toby, one of the immortals 
of literature. 

Goldsmith, Fanny Burney, and Horace Walpole. — Among the 
notable single novels of this period is the Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver 
Goldsmith (1728-1774), which Dr. Johnson sold for him in 1766, thus 
saving him from a debtor's prison. The peculiar charm in this work 
is due to the sweet, unworldly figure of Dr. Primrose, to its bits of ex- 
quisite nature-description and to its pervading sentimentalism which 
vaguely foreshadows the later romantic prose. Fanny Burney, or 
Madame D'Arblay (1752-1840), continued the realistic tradition, 
notably in Evelina. Like Richardson, she wrote with a moral aim ; 
but her work is chiefly interesting for the light which it throws on the 
fashionable London life of the period. Horace Walpole (17 17-1797), 
fourth Earl of Orford, famous as a collector, a virtuoso in art, as the 
author of spirited memoirs, and as the most fascinating letter writer 
in the English language, led a return to far-off, unreal things, to medi- 
eval romance, in his Castle of Otranto, 1764. This gave the impulse 
to a type of " Gothic " romance, many of which appeared during the 
half century following. Philip, Earl of Chesterfield (1 694-1 773) in 
his Letters to II is Son, once so widely read, represents the hollow, 
superficial standards and worldly wisdom characteristic of the men of 
rank of his day. 

The Poetry of Pope. — The unquestioned leader among the poets 
of the days of Anne and the first two Georges was Alexander Pope, 
( 1 688-1 744) a man who attained perfection in a particular form of art 
by virtue of his very limitations. As a Roman Catholic he was cut off 
from the public service, and from various other forms of activity by 
deformity and weak health. He took up the heroic couplet of Dry den 
and gave to it an exquisite finish that surpassed even that of his mas- 



564 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ter. The oft-quoted Essay on Man, a subject suggested to him by 
Bolingbroke, was only a part of a contemplated series of poems in- 
tended to be a comprehensive survey of human nature. Not only was 
he unexcelled as a deft craftsman in versification, but he voiced the 
spirit of the age, its love of polished satire, its proneness for moral re- 
flections, and its regard for external elegancies and artificial social 
conventions, together with its lack of imagination and imperfect ap- 
preciation of nature. 

The Signs of the Romantic Revolt. — Although some excellent 
poems appeared during the interval between the passing of Pope and 
the wonderful revival which began toward the close of the century, 
these two generations can scarcely be called a poetic age. The most 
significant fact was the growth of a revolt against the reigning classi- 
cism — against the heroic couplet of Dryden and Pope, and against 
the tendency to deal with man chiefly in his conventional social en- 
vironment. There was an effort to sound the deeper springs of the 
human soul, to reawaken reverence for the past and an enthusiasm 
for the beauties of nature. The Seasons of James Thomson is a mani- 
festation of the new tendency, both in the subject which he chose and 
the blank verse in which he wrote it. 1 Then the Night Thoughts of 
Edward Young is marked by an introspective gloom, a communing 
of man with his own heart, quite foreign to the school of Pope. Thomas 
Gray (1716-1771) noted for his wide learning, also had an enthusiasm 
for natural scenery and Gothic architecture ; yet, for all his romantic 
aspirations, he never wholly freed himself from the fetters of the times 
in which he lived. However, his Elegy Written in a Country Church- 
yard is one of the most perfect poems in the English language. A 
curious evidence of the reviving interest in the past were the literary 
forgeries of the precocious poet Thomas Chatterton (1 752-1 770) who, 
as a boy of twelve, attained access to the medieval charters of an old 
church in Bristol, and began to fabricate verses, and other pieces, 
which he tried to pass off as genuine works of antiquity. Unable to 
obtain recognition, he was reduced to despair and poverty, and poi- 
soned himself in London when only eighteen. Another work, which 
had the profoundest effect in reviving an interest in old English poetry 
and which inspired the leaders of the dawning romantic movement, 
was the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published by Bishop Percy 
in 1765. 

Drama and Music. — Though many of the so-called " Restoration " 
dramatists were writing at the beginning of the century, they were sur- 
vivals of a past age. In the reign of Anne the theater began to give 

1 Among other poems he was also the author of the famous Rule Britannia. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 565 

way to Italian opera, which for a time had great vogue. This was 
due partly to the fashionable craving for novelty, partly to a real re- 
action of morals and taste, and partly to the activity of the Govern- 
ment in suppressing as " licentious," plays of a dangerous political 
complexion. To be sure, Colley Cibber (1671-1757) won considerable 
success, both as a playwright and as an actor, but the stage only came 
to its own again when David Garrick (17 17-17 79) began his wonder- 
ful career with the revival of Shakespeare in 1741. In 1774, Mrs. 
Sarah Siddons was the first of the famous Kemble family of actors to 
achieve recognition. About this time began to appear those comedies 
of Goldsmith and Sheridan which have been a source of delight ever 
since. The best-known are the Good- Natured Man, and She Stoops 
to Conquer, by Goldsmith, and The Rivals, The School for Scandal, 
and The Critic, by Sheridan. Meantime, the oratorio had gained an 
enduring hold on the English public. This was due to the genius of 
Handel (1685-1759) who, in 171 2, took up his permanent residence in 
England, and developed choral music to a point which has never 
been excelled. From the appearance of Saul, in 1739, his success was 
permanent and lasting. Among his most famous productions are 
The Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, and Jos htm. 

"The Golden Age " of English Painting. — In painting there was, 
from the Revolution to the middle of the eighteenth century, an in- 
terval of darkness destined to be followed by a glorious dawn. The 
official portrait painters were mediocre foreigners and natives of even 
less talent ; but, gradually, art societies were founded which did much 
for the encouragement of painting, particularly by founding competi- 
tive prizes and by lending their rooms for exhibitions. Meanwhile, 
in the painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764), an artist 
of unique genius had arisen. Knowing his London as few have known 
it before or since, he portrayed its comedy and its tragedy with a rare 
gift of pictorial satire and a strong didactic sense. His first print, The 
Taste of the Town, appeared in 1724. Among his best-known works 
are : the Harlot's and the Rake's Progresses, and the Marriage a la 
Mode. During the second half of the century there flourished a won- 
derful triumvirate — Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney. Sir 
Joshua Reynolds, the first president of the Royal Academy (founded 
1768), created a new epoch in portrait painting, and is generally re- 
garded as the greatest master of the art which England has ever pro- 
duced, excelling particularly in portraying the individuality of his 
subjects in feature and pose as well as in dress. Thomas Gainsborough, 
forced to rely on portrait work for a living, not only enriched the world 
with masterpieces, but was a pioneer in reproducing distinctively 



566 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

English landscapes, while George Romney, although a less finished 
artist, had a keener sense of purely physical beauty and painted with 
more warm human feeling than either of his two great contemporaries. 

Population. — The population of England in 1801, the date of the 
first official census, had reached nearly nine millions. This is very 
striking in comparison with the growth since the Restoration, when 
the country was estimated to contain about five milUon inhabitants. 
Equally striking was the shifting of the centers of density from the 
south and east to the midlands and the north. Thanks to abundant 
harvests and steadily increasing trade, the laboring classes seem to have 
been fairly well off during the first three quarters of the eighteenth 
century, or until the depression due to the Industrial and Agricul- 
tural Revolutions. 

Evidences of Reforming Zeal. — Although the age, particularly 
before the Wesleyan revival, was a material one, when the majority 
were chiefly intent on business or pleasure, there are some isolated 
instances of philanthropy and reforming zeal. In 1736 an Act was 
passed to check the alarming increase of gin drinking among the 
lower classes. It led to so much smuggling and evasion that its prin- 
ciples were practically abandoned in 1743. Later regulation of the 
traffic, in 1 75 1 and 1753, abated the evil only to a small degree. There 
were a few private philanthropists, lonely voices crying in the wilder- 
ness. Chief among them was James Oglethorpe who, in 1729, suc- 
ceeded in procuring a parliamentary inquiry into prison conditions. 
Horrible abuses were exposed, a few regulations were made and some 
of the worst offenders were removed and punished ; but no thorough- 
going reform was undertaken for over a century, and Oglethorpe turned 
his attention to the colony of Georgia, which he founded in 1733 as a 
refuge for poor debtors and oppressed foreign Protestants. Forty 
years later, John Howard took up the work which Oglethorpe had 
abandoned in discouragement. He was a Dissenter of independent 
means who became High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773, and began 
his work of prison reform in the same year, apparently inspired by 
the knowledge, gained from his new office, that persons acquitted of 
guilt were kept in confinement on account of fees incurred while held 
for trial. He also discovered appalling conditions, resulting in a fright- 
ful prevalence of jail fever. As a result of his evidence presented be- 
fore the House of Commons, two bills were passed in 1774 : one pro- 
viding for fixed salaries in place of jailers' fees, the other, for improving 
the prevailingly unsanitary conditions. These provisions were gen- 
erally evaded ; but he kept on unwearyingly, publishing his findings in 
a series of works on the State of Prisons, the first of which appeared in 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 567 

1777. Reform came slowly, but his ceaseless efforts bore fruit in the 
following century. 

Lawlessness and Crime. — Brutal punishments still continued. 
Prisoners hung in chains all over the land; after the '45, heads were 
seen rotting on Temple Bar, while by a law on the Statute-book till 
1790, women guilty of murder or treason were to be publicly burnt, 
though in practice they were usually strangled first. Men convicted 
of treason were still cut down before they were half dead and their 
bowels burned before their eyes. The barbarous law of pressing to 
death prisoners who refused to plead before a jury was not repealed 
till 1772, though the practice was abandoned in 1735. The pillory 
was still a cruel and degrading spectacle, and men and women were 
still publicly whipped at the cart's tail. All that can be said is, that 
conditions were worse on the Continent, where torture and arbitrary 
imprisonment were still legal. Partly owing to the overseverity of 
the criminal code, but far more owing to the inadequate machinery 
for its enforcement, lawlessness prevailed to an alarming extent. 
Goods were landed by night at secluded inlets and bays, and loaded 
by armed bands on wagons and pack horses. Customs-house officers 
were overawed, or more often bribed, and we even hear of fifty or a 
hundred desperate men doing their work by day on the open beach. 
Highwaymen continued to ply their calling. The mail between 
London and Bristol was robbed five times in five successive weeks, 
and in 1757, a mail robbery took place within two miles of London; 
indeed, thefts, even open robbery, to say nothing of shoplifting and 
pocket-picking, occurred in the very heart of the City. Hanging and 
transportation proved of little avail. Jack Sheppard, who was hanged 
in 1724, and Dick Turpin, who followed him to the gallows in 1739, 
were regarded as heroes by many youths who were tempted to emulate 
their stirring adventurous careers. 

Life in London. — In London, throughout the century, there was 
an epidemic of card-playing among the upper and middle classes which 
tended to displace reading and intelligent conversation. Lotteries 
and raffles were extremely popular, while fashionable folk gambled 
for stakes that were appalling; for example, Charles James Fox ran 
up debts amounting to a million dollars, most of which he lost at play. 
The standard of manners and conduct set by the essays of Addison and 
Steele declined under the first George, largely owing to the example 
set by him and his Court, but developed toward the middle of the 
century into the formal stilted type represented in Chesterfield's 
Letters. About 1750, Mrs. Montagu, following the lead of the late 
Queen Caroline, made an heroic effort to improve the intellectual 



568 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

status of women by giving parties at which cards were excluded. 1 
Mrs. Thrale was another woman of literary aspirations, and, at her 
parties, Burke and Dr. Johnson exercised their unequaled gifts in 
conversation. Great extravagancies of dress continued nearly through 
the century. Men were resplendent in coats, waistcoats and breeches 
of bright-hued silks, while women appeared with huge hoopskirts 
and amazing head dresses or pompadours a foot high. But the new 
inventions for producing woolen, linen and cotton clothes, as well as 
the effects of the American and French wars, were soon to change all 
this. In dress, as in agriculture, in industry, and in so many other 
ways, England had reached the threshold of the modern world. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

General Conditions. Traill, Social. England, IV, V; Robertson, Eng- 
land under the Hanoverians, Introd., pt. I, ch. IV, pt. II, ch. IV. Leadam, 
Political History, ch. XXVIII. Hunt, Political History, ch. XIII. Lecky, 
Eighteenth Century, I, chs. I, II ; II, ch. V ; VII, ch. XXI. 

Social and Industrial. J. Ashton, Social Life in the Reign of Anne (2 vols., 
1882) and Old Times (1885) ; the latter made up of newspaper cuttings 
and caricatures. W. C. Sydney, England and the English in the Eighteenth 
Century (2 vols., 1891). E. S. Roscoe, The English Scene in the Eighteenth 
Century (191 2). T. Wright, England under the House of Hanover (2 vols. 
3d ed., 1852, reprinted as Caricature History of the Georges). Creighton, 
History of Epidemics. J. Howard, The State of the Prisons (4th ed., 1792). 
Warner, Landmarks in English Industrial History (1899), and E. P. Cheyney, 
Industrial and Social History of England (1901) ; both of these are good 
brief sketches. Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce (5th ed., 
1912). Macpherson, Annals of Commerce (4 vols., 1805). J. R. Porter, 
Progress of the Nation in its Various Social and Industrial Relations (1851, 
new ed. F. Q. Hirst, 191 1). A. Toynbee, Lectures on the Industrial Revolu- 
tion of the XVIIIth Century in England (1896) . S. Smiles, Lives of Engineers 
(3 vols., 1 86 1-2). S. and B. Webb, English Local Government, 1688-18 35 
(3 vols., 1906), valuable for local conditions. A. Young, Tour in the Southern 
Counties (4 vols., 1768) ; Tour through the North (4 vols., 1770) ; and The 
Farmer's Tour through the East of England (4 vols., 1771). Rogers, Six 
Centuries of Work and Wages, and Agriculture and Prices, V, VI. R. E. 
Prothero, English Farming Past and Present (191 2). J. L. and Barbara 
Hammond, The Town Labourer, 1760-1832 (191 7) and The Village Labourer 
(19 18). W. T. Jackman, The Development of Transportation in Modern 
England (2 vols., 1916) ; F. J. Foakes- Jackson, Social Life in England, 
1750-1850. Usher is particularly full on the Industrial Revolution. 

1 She and her set gained the name of "blue stockings" from the fact that a 
prominent scholar attended some evening assemblies at Bath in grayish worsted 
stockings, instead of the black silk required for evening dress. 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND 569 

Learning and Literature. Cambridge Modern History, VI, chs. XXIII, 
XXIV ; Moody and Lovett ; and Taine. G. Saintsbury, Short History oj 
English Literature (1898). Cambridge History of Literature, IX, X. T. S. 
Perry, History of English Literature in the Eighteenth Century (1883). E. 
Gosse, Eighteenth Century Literature (1898). L. Stephen, English Thought 
in the Eighteenth Century (2 vols., 2d ed., 1881), and English Literature and 
Society in the Eighteenth Century ( 1 909) . W.Raleigh , The English Novel ( 1 894) . 
C. B. Tinker, The Salon and English Letters (191 5). Julia Patton, The 
English Village: a Literary Study, 1750-1850 (1919). A. E. Dobbs, Edu- 
cation and Social Movements, 1700-18 50 (1919). 

Religion. Wakeman, and Stoughton, above cited. Lecky, III, ch. VIII, 
for a discriminating account of Wesleyanism. For a full bibliography of 
religion in the eighteenth century, see Cambridge Modern History, VI, 851- 
857- J- W. Legg, English Church Life from the Restoration to the Tractarian 
Movement (19 14). 

Life in Scotland. Lecky, II, ch. VI. H. G. Graham, Social Life in 
Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (2 vols., 1900). For a full bibliography 
see P. H. Brown, III, 435-444. W. L. Mathieson, The Awakening of Scot- 
land, 1747-1797 (191 1), continues his Scotland and the Union. 



CHAPTER XLV 

THE YOUNGER PITT : THE NEW TORYISM AND ADMINISTRATIVE 
REFORM (1784- 1 793) 

The Coalition Ministry (April-December, 1783). — Shelburne was 
forced out of office, 24 February, 1783, by a combination of Fox and 
North against their common political enemy ; an " unnatural junction " 
which was defended by Fox on the ground that the country needed 
a " broad and stable administration," and that, with the close of the 
war and the end of George's personal rule, his chief grounds of dif- 
ference with North were at an end. After a stubborn fight, the 
King, who had always hated Fox and who was infuriated at North 
for deserting his cause, was obliged to accept the Coalition Ministry. 
The Duke of Portland was made nominal head, but the real leaders 
were North and Fox, who became Secretaries of State. George's 
hostility to Fox was accentuated because of his intimacy with the 
Prince of Wales, a dissipated spendthrift, who warmly supported the 
Coalition, which the King was accustomed to designate as " my son's 
Ministry." Determined to get them out as speedily as possible, he 
nearly succeeded on the question of providing for the Prince's es- 
tablishment ; but the rock on which the Coalition foundered was a bill 
for the settlement of the government of India. 

The State of India at the Close of the Seven Years' War, 1763. — 
Up to 1763, the English in India had been mainly occupied in over- 
coming European competitors. By that date they had practically 
excluded their rivals, and, henceforth, they were concerned chiefly 
with extending their sway over the native rulers and in establishing 
a satisfactory system of government. The Company, under its 
royal charter, renewed at intervals of about twenty years, con- 
sisted of a court of proprietors or stockholders and a board of directors. 
In India, where it was represented by the governors, or presidents, 
and their councils at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay, the affairs of the 
Company were sadly mismanaged during the period following its 
triumph over the French. The authority of the Moguls at Delhi 



THE YOUNGER PITT 57 1 

had faded almost to a shadow. Beside the viceroys of provinces 
and the rulers of tributary states, who exercised practically inde- 
pendent powers, there were the Marathas, a group of tribes of Hindoo 
stock who, under the Peshwa of Poonah, were very strong in the 
western and central districts, though they too were somewhat on the 
decline. 

North's Regulating Act (1773). — Suddenly, Madras was exposed 
to dangerous attacks from a native ruler on its western border. This 
menace, added to the absence of Clive — who, owing to ill-health, was 
never in India after 1760 except for a short interval from 1 765-1 767 — 
to dissensions at the India House and the general ineffectiveness of the 
Company's rule, caused its stock to drop to 60 per cent. At length, a 
famine in Bengal, in 1770, so reduced the Company's resources that it 
had to turn to the Government for help, as the result of which Lord 
North, in 1773, passed a measure known as the Regulating Act, pro- 
viding, among other concessions, that a loan of £1,000,000 should be 
advanced and that bonded tea might be shipped to America free 
from English duties. In addition, the government in India was 
extensively reorganized : a supreme court was set up ; the Governor 
of Bengal was made Governor-General, and was surrounded by a 
Council of four members named by Parliament. 1 

Warren Hastings (1732-1818). — Warren Hastings, the Governor 
of Bengal, who was appointed the first Governor-General, had come 
to India as a youth, and had worked his way up to the top by sheer 
force of ability. Frail in appearance, he was a masterful and even 
ruthless man. The situation which he had to face was one of enormous 
difficulty : the people were in the depths of distress, affairs had been 
grossly mismanaged, the English in India were intent on private gain, 
and the directors in London were at odds among themselves in every- 
thing except a consuming desire for dividends. Hastings brought 
order out of chaos; by improved methods of taxation and by care- 
ful economies, he increased the revenue, while at the same time he 
protected the people against plunderers. Unfortunately, however, 
the pressure of war and the financial demands of the Company led 
him to adopt too many high-handed and cruel measures. One of the 
earliest was to let to the Wazir of Oudh, for forty lacs of rupees, 2 a 

1 During the investigation leading up to the passage of this Act, a fire of criticism 
was directed against Clive, and a vote of censure was passed condemning many 
of his acts. Though it was declared that he "did at the same time render great 
and meritorious services to his country," he .was so unstrung by the strain of the 
conflict that he died by his own hand, 22 November, 1774. 

2 A. rupee is worth about fifty cents and there are a hundred thousand in a lac. 



572 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

body of English troops to destroy his enemies the Afghans who had 
conquered Rohilcund on the northern border. Confronted, after he 
became 'Governor-General, first with a war against the Marathas and 
then with another in the south, he resorted to acts of pitiless extortion. 
He required from the Raja of Benares, in addition to his annual 
tribute of £50,000, a war contribution and a contingent of troops. 
When the Raja, already suspected of disaffection, refused, Hastings 
promptly increased his tribute tenfold — a penalty out of all proportion 
to the offense — and displaced him by a successor pledged to obedience. 
Then he made a bargain with the young ruler of Oudh to deprive his 
mother and grandmother, the Begums or Princesses, of the lands and 
treasure of the late Wazir, and in order to accomplish his purpose 
subjected them to a siege, wasted their territories, and tortured and 
starved their chief ministers. The landed property was given to the 
reigning Prince, the treasure was appropriated for the Company. 
While it does not excuse the inhumanity and injustice of the acts for 
which he was responsible, it must be bor^ie in mind that Hastings 
took nothing for himself, 1 that his sole aim was to secure resources to 
save the British dominion in India. 

Fox's India Bill (1783). — Rumors of what was going on, and the 
hostility of the Rockingham Whigs to an official who was a product 
of North's Regulating Act, led to a parliamentary investigation in 
1781. In the report which followed, the administration of the Com- 
pany was condemned and the removal of Hastings recommended. 
The directors refused. Since they had the legal right so to do, the 
only way of effecting any reforms was by a complete reorganization. 
The struggle became acute in the autumn of 1783, when Fox introduced 
a famous measure — largely the work of Burke — to deprive the Com- 
pany of its exclusive powers of government and to remedy the crying 
abuses in the existing system. There were really two bills, one trans- 
ferring the Company's government of India to a body of seven com- 
missioners nominated, in the first instance, by Parliament and holding 
office for four years ; 2 the other dealing with administrative reforms : 
for example, the curtailing of monopolies and the extortion of presents. 
The first part of the arrangement was furiously attacked, both as a 
party measure and as a violation of vested rights, emphasis being 
laid on the fact that the first appointees were all supporters of Fox, 
who would be put in control of patronage worth £300,000 a year 
which would give them enormous influence. While reforming zeal 

1 Moreover, the treasure belonged not to the Begums but to the Prince, and the 
Begums were engaged in a conspiracy to root out the British power in India. 

2 Vacancies were to be filled by the Sovereign. 



THE YOUNGER PITT 



573 



and politics were, to some degree, combined, the measure, however, 
was defeated, not on the ground of any of the objections which were 
raised, but by the King's hatred of the Ministers who framed it. 

The Defeat of Fox's India Bill and the Overthrow of the Coalition 
(December, 1783). — After.it had passed in the Commons, King George 
eagerly adopted a suggestion for blocking it in the Upper House. 
Lord Temple was given a paper to circulate among the peers stating 
that his Majesty would " consider as an enemy " whoever voted for 
the India Bill, and was empowered to use stronger words if he thought 
necessary. By this underhand means it was lost by nineteen votes. 
The Commons vainly protested in a resolution, declaring that " to 
report any opinion or pretended opinion of his Majesty upon any bill " 
pending in Parliament in order to influence votes, was " a high crime 
and misdemeanor." 

Struggle with the Coalition (1783-1784). — On 18 December 
George dismissed the Ministry, and in his perplexity he turned to 
William Pitt to form a new one. Pitt was the second son of the Earl 
of Chatham, who had entered Parliament at the age of twenty-one, and 
Shelburne, in 1782, had paid a tribute to his name and talents by 
making him Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House 
of Commons. Now, when not yet twenty-five, with a remnant of the 
Chatham Whigs and a few Tories at his back, and discredited by the 
fact that he was the appointee of a Sovereign who had been guilty 
of a piece of unscrupulous tyranny, he had to face a hostile majority 
led by two veterans, one the most skillful party manager and the other 
the most adroit debater of the period. The battle which followed 
is perhaps the most remarkable in parliamentary history. At first 
it was an up-hill fight ; motion after motion was carried against him ; 
nevertheless, he refused to resign, nor was he keen on dissolving Parlia- 
ment until he was sure of a majority in the elections. Fox, who led 
the Opposition, played into his hands by his violence and his blunders. 
His most fatal error was in insisting that the present Parliament 
should continue, with the aim of holding on to his majority, till 25 
March, 1784, when he hoped, on the expiration of the Mutiny Bill, to 
paralyze the Administration by refusing to renew it. Pitt's patience, 
courage, calmness and disinterestedness gradually won him supporters 
until, when the Mutiny Bill came up for vote, it easily passed. Multi- 
tudes of addresses, from all parts of the country, now convinced Pitt 
that he could safely try the issue of a general election, in which he 
secured an overwhelming majority. Fox had offended the Whigs 
by his outspoken opposition to an appeal to the people during the 
preceding winter, and had alienated the Tories by his attacks on the 



574 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

royal prerogative. Although the Whigs had been routed, it was a 
triumph not for the King but for Pitt. Henceforth the Prime 
Minister controlled the Government. While he came to call himself 
a Tory, he represented a new, more liberal form of Toryism, resting on 
popular more than on royal support. 

The Westminster Scrutiny (1784-1785). — Pitt's triumph was 
marred by one ungenerous action — his treatment of his rival in the 
so-called " Westminster Scrutiny." The election was hotly con- 
tested, and all eyes had been centred upon it because of the candidacy 
of Fox, who was supported by numerous powerful friends, among 
them the Prince of Wales and the charming Duchess of Devonshire, 
accused of dispensing kisses in return for votes. Westminster 
returned two members, for which there were three candidates, 
including Fox. Fox, who started at the bottom of the list, had 
finally reached second place when the polls were closed at the end of 
forty days. The rejoicing of the Whigs was cut short when the de- 
feated candidate demanded a scrutiny on the ground of fraudulent 
voting. As a matter of fact, there had been more votes cast than there 
were electors, so the High Bailiff was quite within his rights in grant- 
ing the request, but he should have returned Fox's name on the day 
the writ was returnable, and left the final settlement to the com- 
mittee of the Commons appointed under the Grenville Act. This 
he refused to do, and was supported by Pitt. Although the Bailiff 
was ordered to proceed with " all possible dispatch," months were 
wasted, and it was only after a vote had passed the Commons, ordering 
an immediate return, that Pitt gave way. Fox, who in the meantime 
had been sitting for a small Scotch borough, finally took his seat as a 
member for Westminster and ultimately secured £2,000 damages. 
Parliament sought to prevent such injustice for the future by a law 
providing that, henceforth, the polls were to be closed at the end of 
fifteen days, and that, though scrutinies might still be granted on de- 
mand, they must be stopped six days before the day on which the writs 
were returnable, i.e. about a month after the close of the polls. 

"William Pitt. — For an unbroken period of seventeen years Pitt was 
Prime Minister. As a parliamentary leader he had uncommon talents, 
which had been carefully developed ; he spoke with convincing logic, 
and, when he chose, with extreme clearness ; though owing to the need 
of parrying the searching questions of the Opposition, his utterances 
were most frequently those of the party manager rather than those of 
the impassioned orator. This was partly temperamental; he had 
plenty of courage and resourcefulness and a rare power of sensing the 
temper of the nation, but little imagination or fervid enthusiasm, nor 



THE YOUNGER PITT 575 

was he very original or profound. Absolutely indifferent to financial 
gain, his only personal vice was one all too common in those days — 
intemperate drinking of port, which contributed to his early death at 
the age of forty-seven ; on the other hand, he was avaricious of power, 
more than once dropping a measure of which he approved for fear of 
weakening his position, though he had this excuse, that he ruled in a 
critical time, and may have honestly felt that the security of the State 
depended upon his tenure of office. 

His Position and Problems. — His position in the spring of 1784 was 
one of unusual strength. Besides the prestige of his father's great 
name, he had won a dramatic fight against a combination which seemed 
well-nigh irresistible ; the Whigs were hopelessly eclipsed and the 
extreme Tories were still discredited by the failure of the American 
War. He was pledged to no particular policy, he was supported by 
the moderate men of both parties, while the King, bound to him by 
gratitude, and realizing that the strength of the Government depended 
upon his popularity, was obliged to recognize him as Prime Minister 
in fact as well as in name. Pitt not only restored and firmly estab- 
lished the rule of the responsible Minister, but during his ascendancy 
practically did away with parliamentary corruption, 1 a work in which 
the second Rockingham Ministry had led the way. Almost the only 
questionable means to which Pitt resorted for strengthening his 
power was the lavish creation of peers, the result of which was to make 
the House of Lords a Tory stronghold and greatly to lower the average 
intelligence of that body : this was the price paid for breaking up the 
Whig oligarchy. 

Pitt's India Bill (1784). — In the session of 1784, Pitt succeeded in 
carrying an India Bill which differed in some particulars from that 
which had wrecked the Coalition. It provided for a Board of Control 
consisting of six members appointed by the King. While the Com- 
pany was left in the control of patronage, its civil and military admin- 
istration was put under the superintendence of the new Board. The 
Governor-General, together with the presidents and councils in 
India, was chosen by the Company, subject to the royal approval, 
and the King had the power of removal at any time. With the excep- 
tion of a few amendments, Pitt's arrangement, with its system of dual 
control, continued in force until 1858. 

The State of the Finances. — Pitt's greatest services were in the field 
of financial reform, where the situation which he had to face demanded 

1 For example, he did away with the abuse of distributing contracts for loans 
and lotteries to favored supporters of the Government, and awarded them to the 
lowest bidder. 



576 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

uncommon courage and ability. The public credit was at a low ebb. 
Three per cents x stood at 56 or 57 ; about £14,000,000 of the debt was 
unfunded, while outstanding bills circulated at a discount of 15 to 
20 per cent. Commerce had suffered from the loss of colonial trade, 
and the customs revenues were greatly diminished owing to whole- 
sale and shameless smuggling. There were many other ways, too, by 
which the State lost money. For example, grave abuses existed in 
the department of public accounts: there were four Treasurers of 
the Navy whose accounts had never been settled since they left office, 
and one Treasurer had retained public moneys in his hand for forty 
years. The auditors left all business to clerks who were powerless, 
even if they tried, to enforce any regulations. Moreover, the customs 
were in a most confused and complicated state; there were sixty- 
eight separate groups of duties, while many different duties were im- 
posed on the same article — in one case fourteen — appropriated to 
pay interest on different branches of the National Debt. 

Pitt's Reforms. — Pitt set himself to simplify and purify this chaos 
of confusion and corruption, to increase the revenue, and to put the 
finances on a sound basis. He began, in 1784 and 1785, by funding 
the unfunded debt. Also he framed effective measures against 
smuggling. By the " Hovering Act " he provided for the confisca- 
tion of suspected vessels found hovering within four leagues of the 
coast ; furthermore, he lessened the temptation to smuggle by reducing 
many duties that were too high, making good the loss by imposing 
other taxes more equally distributed and less liable to evasion. To 
guard against further misuse of public moneys he provided that the 
Treasurers of the Navy should close their accounts every year. In 
place of the old inefficient auditors he set up a new commission, and 
appointed another body to inquire into fees and perquisites of public 
officers. Doubtless his greatest reform in financial administration, 
and one of the most important in English commercial history, was his 
consolidation of the different branches of the customs and excise in 
1787. First he abolished the existing duties on different articles, sub- 
stituting in each case a single duty, usually equal to the former total, 
after which he brought the whole into a single Consolidated Fund on 
which the public debt was secured. This measure, so simple in theory, 
proved so complicated in practice that it required no less than three 
thousand resolutions to carry it into effect. In common with a few 

1 Government stocks paying 3 per cent interest. They were called "consols" 
because the interest was paid from the Consolidated Fund. Three of the great 
funds, the South Sea, the Aggregate, and the General Funds had been consolidated 
in 1751. 



THE YOUNGER PITT 577 

advanced thinkers of the time Pitt saw inestimable advantages of 
unrestricted commercial intercourse between Great Britain and her 
neighbors, and in 1786 he succeeded, against strenuous opposition, in 
carrying through a commercial union with France which lasted till 
the opening of the new French War in 1793. 

Pitt's Sinking Fund (1787). — Of all Pitt's financial measures his 
Sinking Fund doubtless made the greatest impression upon contem- 
poraries. His motive was most praiseworthy. With the return of 
peace he felt that steps should be taken to redeem at least a portion 
of the Public Debt in order that posterity might not be so heavily 
burdened. Partly owing to his wise administration and partly to 
the growth of commerce and manufactures, he found himself with a 
surplus of £900,000 at the end of 1786. By a slight increase of taxa- 
tion he determined to bring this amount up to £1,000,000 and to 
raise a like sum every year for the reduction of the debt. Instead of 
being paid out at once, this annual surplus was to form a Sinking 
Fund. His scheme — suggested by Dr. Price, a Nonconformist minis- 
ter — was in substance to set aside an annual sum for the purchase of 
stock, the interest of which was to be employed in buying more stock, 
and so on. Thus the fund was to go on accumulating at compound 
interest and was ultimately to be applied toward the extinguishing 
of the debt. The principle worked admirably so long as there was a 
surplus ; but the difficulty arose when money was borrowed to main- 
tain and increase the Sinking Fund. This happened in 1792, when it 
was provided that one per cent of every loan contracted should be 
applied to this object. Sometimes money was borrowed at a higher 
rate of interest than the old debt bore or the Sinking Fund earned. 
Even if the rate was the same, there was a loss due to the expense of 
the transaction. It was estimated that before the Sinking Fund was 
done away with, in 1823, it had cost the country about £20,000,000. 

Pitt's Strength and Achievements. His Limitations. — A survey 
of Pitt's activity as Prime Minister, during these years, will go to 
show that he did his greatest work as a reformer of administrative 
detail, especially in finance. It is true that he made use of the ideas 
of others ; but he showed the capacity of the statesman in carrying 
them into effect. In matters of larger policy he was less successful, 
as his later management of the Sinking Fund indicated. In other 
fields of domestic policy, for example, parliamentary reform, 1 aboli- 

1 He introduced three bills for parliamentary reform — for the purpose of trans- 
ferring members from decayed boroughs to counties and populous towns and for 
extending the right to vote — but after the third bill was defeated, in 1785, he never 
brought up the subject again. 



578 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

tion of the slave trade, religious toleration and concessions to Ireland, 
his views were generally wise and liberal. Nevertheless, he accom- 
plished almost nothing to carry them into effect. He had had ideals 
which his great predecessor Walpole had apparently scorned, but, 
like him, was over-ready to drop measures which threatened such 
opposition as to endanger his ascendancy, though it should be borne 
in mind that for some years his personal following was small, that 
the Crown party might be diverted, if ever the stubborn adroit King 
undertook once more to take the bit in his teeth, and that, by the time 
he had secured a dependable majority, the French Revolution broke 
out, followed by a long war which put a decisive check on progressive 
measures for a generation. 

The African Slave Trade. — His attitude on the abolition of the 
African slave trade, while not beyond criticism, was more praiseworthy 
than in the case of many other reforms. In 1787 a society was formed 
for the suppression of this horrible traffic, whereupon Pitt appointed 
a committee to investigate the charges of cruelty alleged against those 
engaged in the transportation of slaves. Shocking disclosures re- 
sulted. It was found that the unfortunates were packed tightly on 
the lower decks and in dark stuffy holds, that they were supplied only 
with bread and water and very scantily at that, and were flogged at 
frequent intervals to give them sufficient exercise to keep them alive. 
Pitt introduced the bill to suppress the trade in 1788 ; in the following 
year he joined Fox and Burke in supporting another, and in 1792 he 
made a speech on the subject which was perhaps the greatest effort he 
ever delivered. Powerful interests, however, with which the King was 
allied, stood in the way, and it remained for Fox to draft the bill which 
finally abolished the slave trade in 1807. 

Impeachment of Warren Hastings (1786-1795). — In February, 
1785, Warren Hastings returned from India. While the King and 
the Court party received him with great favor, the Opposition straight- 
way proceeded to attack him as a means of dealing a blow at the Gov- 
ernment. Their hostility was whetted by the opportunity of putting 
Pitt in a dilemma. If he supported their charges he ran the chance of 
breaking with the King and his following, if he refused he might prop- 
erly be accused of seeking to c"bver up grave scandals. As a result, 
charges preparatory to an impeachment were framed and put to vote 
in the Commons. The first, relating to the Rohilla War, was dismissed. 
The second, dealing with the fine imposed on the Raja of Benares, 
was passed, largely owing to Pitt, who, in this case grudgingly sus- 
tained by the King, rose superior to party considerations and declared 
that while the Raja was bound to furnish money and men, the fine 



THE YOUNGER PITT 579 

imposed upon him was " exorbitant, unjust, and tyrannical." The 
third charge, based on the treatment of the Begums of Oudh, was 
then easily carried. Burke presented the impeachment before the 
Lords, n May, 1786, but the trial did not begin till 13 February, 1788, 
and dragged on for seven years. The accusers, especially Burke, spoke 
with wondrous eloquence, but marred their case by violence and abuse. 
Finally it was established that Hastings had been confronted by un- 
usual problems, that, while he had been guilty of acts of cruelty and 
extortion, he had done nothing for his own enrichment, and that he 
had ruled with effectiveness and success; consequently, in 1795, he 
was acquitted on every count. The trial cost him £70,000 which was 
subsequently repaid to him. 

The King's Insanity and the Regency Question (1788). — Mean- 
time, a crisis had occurred in which Pitt once more proved his superi- 
ority over Fox as a parliamentary tactician. On 5 November, 1788, 
the King was attacked by a fit of insanity which for a while was re- 
garded as incurable. A Regency seemed inevitable. Though the 
Prince was far from fit to rule the country, every one agreed that the 
office of Regent belonged to him. That meant the return of the Op- 
position to power under Fox, his political tutor and boon companion. 
On a chance that the King might recover, Pitt postponed the meeting 
of Parliament by successive adjournments, but only for a time ; much 
as he loved power, he was prepared to lay down office ; but he was 
determined that the Prince should only be appointed Regent with 
limited authority defined by Parliament. Fox and his party, anxious 
for a free hand especially in patronage, insisted that Parliament had 
no right to impose limitations. This was absolutely inconsistent with 
all of Fox's political principles and a great tactical error. Pitt, 
when he heard him declare his position, slapped his leg and cried: 
" I'll unwhig the gentleman for the rest of his life." Placards were 
posted in the streets with the legend : " Fox for the Prince's preroga- 
tive, and Pitt for the privileges of Parliament and the liberties of the 
nation." 

The Regency Bill (1 788-1 789). The King's Recovery. — Finally, 
a bill was drawn up conferring the Regency upon the Prince of Wales 
and defining the limitations to be imposed upon him. With rare dis- 
interestedness, Pitt agreed that the Regent should have full power of 
dismissing his Ministers and dissolving Parliament ; but, by the Bill, 
he was bound by various rigid restrictions. He could confer no peer- 
ages save on members of the royal family ; he could grant no offices or 
pensions not terminable at the King's pleasure, except in unavoidable 
cases ; such as judgeships ; he could not give away any part of the 



580 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

King's estate, real or personal ; and he was to have nothing to do with 
the care of the King's person or the management of the royal house- 
hold, which was intrusted to the Queen. The Prince, with the great- 
est reluctance, accepted the terms, on condition that they should not 
be binding for more than three years. The measure passed the Com- 
mons and had already reached the committee stage in the Lords, when 
it was stopped by the news that the King was on the road to recovery. 
Pitt, by the tact and good judgment which he had shown throughout 
the crisis, strengthened his position with King, Parliament, and people, 
while Fox, by his woeful blunders in striking at the authority of Par- 
liament and in attempting to overthrow a Ministry possessing the 
popular confidence, greatly diminished the already waning influence 
of his party. 

The French Revolution and Its Effect on England. — Not long after, 
a tremendous upheaval began in France which was destined to exer- 
cise a profound influence upon the history of England. The spirit 
of liberty, of equality, of opposition to established institutions, and 
hostility to class privileges which underlay all the French revolution- 
ary excesses, proved ultimately a potent factor in helping to create the 
modern English democratic State ; but the immediate effect was to 
check the progress of reform for years to come. The Revolution pro- 
duced a terror of innovation not only in the minds of conservatives 
but even of moderate men, and it plunged the country into a war which 
absorbed its chief wealth and energy from 1793 to 181 5. The Tory 
party, which carried this war to a triumphant conclusion, was securely 
intrenched in power for more than a decade after its close. Mean- 
time, England was going through a great Industrial Revolution due 
to the introduction of the factory system. Acute social problems were 
pressing for solution, problems resulting from overpopulation, and 
from poverty caused by the war and by the readjustment of economic 
conditions. With these problems, and with the difficult question of 
the relations with Ireland, the dominant party, primarily concerned 
with preserving its class privileges, had little understanding or sym- 
pathy. The Whigs, who, since the break-up of their aristocratic 
cliques, had again become the party of progress, were weakened by 
the secession of their more moderate members, and discredited by 
the revolutionary principles of the extremists and by the critical 
and anti-national attitude which they assumed toward the French 
war. 

The Reception of the Revolution in England. — The news of the 
events in France leading up to and immediately following the out- 
break of the Revolution — the summoning of the Estates General, 



THE YOUNGER PITT 581 

5 May, 1789, the formation of the Constituent Assembly 1 and the 
oath of the Third Estate not to separate until they had given their 
country a Constitution, the storming of the Bastille, 14 July, the aboli- 
tion of feudal privileges and titles, and the Declaration of the Rights 
of Man, 27 August — was received in England with general satisfac- 
tion. Pitt thought with the majority that the "overthrow of the old 
arbitrary and corrupt regime would be followed by the establishment 
of orderly constitutional government. Moreover, with Britain's old 
enemy thus occupied, he hoped for a period of peace and light taxes. 
Burke, however, took an opposite view from the start. He foresaw 
that the frenzy which had manifested itself in mob violence would 
never stop with moderate reforms, that the French example might be 
so contagious as to endanger the stability of existing institutions in 
England and other European countries. The attitude of Fox was 
quite different from that of either Pitt or Burke. While regretting 
the attending bloodshed, he rejoiced at every step in the progress of 
the Revolution. Events proved that Burke's fears were only too 
well founded. The upheaval in France resulted not in constitutional 
government but in anarchy, followed by a military despotism and a 
series of aggressive wars in which almost every State in Europe was 
shorn of territory or had its government overthrown. The ultimate 
results of the Revolutionary movement, however, went far to justify 
Fox's admiration of its fundamental principles. The democratic 
spirit, if not widespread, was at first very active in England. A few 
ardent spirits began to dream of a " glorious prospect for mankind " 
with an end to all civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, and, 9 November, 
1789, the Revolution Society — a little group organized to commem- 
orate the Revolution of 1688 — met and sent a congratulatory address 
to the National Assembly, a proceeding which called forth Burke's 
celebrated Reflections on the French Revolution. Other clubs sprang 
up in many of the larger towns and the press was busy turning out 
pamphlets and libels expressing advanced views. Nevertheless, the 
spirit of disaffection made little progress. The King had recovered 
the popularity lost by the failure of the American War, his illness had 
called forth increased loyalty, and the control of affairs was in the 
hands of a Prime Minister secure in the public confidence. 

The Breach between Burke and Fox. The Split in the Whig Ranks 
(1791). — Burke's Reflections was answered by Thomas Paine in his 

1 The various Revolutionary Governments were : the National or Constituent 
Assembly (1789-1791); the Legislative Assembly (1791-1792); the National 
Convention (1792-1795); the Directory (i795 -I 799); the Consulate (1799- 
1804) ; and the Empire under Napoleon (1804-1815). 



582 SHORTER HISTORY 01 ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Rights of Man, a rough stirring appeal to the masses, and by James 
Mackintosh in his more polished Vindicice Gallicce; but they failed 
to check the steadily increasing conservatism of the majority. Fox 
and Burke were growing more estranged, owing to their opposing views 
on the French Revolution, and the final break came in the spring of 
1 791. Previous differences of opinion had never interrupted Burke's 
long and intimate friendship with his old political disciple. That 
friendship he now declared he was prepared to sacrifice, while Fox, 
moved even to tears, protested without avail. The break resulted in 
more than a personal estrangement between Fox and Burke, it marked 
another split in the ranks of the Whig party. At first Burke, denounced 
as a deserter, stood almost alone ; within a year, however, the majority 
came round to his side, while the following of Fox shrank to the " weak- 
est and most discredited opposition " England has ever known. In 
his Appeal from the Old to the New Whigs and in his private corre- 
spondence Burke defended the consistency of his attitude, distinguish- 
ing, with great effect, the Revolution of 1688 and the American Revo- 
lution from the movement in France, and making a powerful plea for 
the party " attached to the ancient tried usages of the Kingdom " 
and to security of property. He was hot for intervention, on the ex- 
press condition, however, that such intervention should be solely for 
the purpose of restoring order in France and with no idea of territorial 
aggrandizement or setting up despotism anew. But he failed to real- 
ize the futility of attempting to suppress permanently the new ideas 
to which the French Revolution had given birth, or to gage accurately 
the selfish conflicting aims of the European Powers. 

Pitt's Foreign Policy (1783-1788). The Triple Alliance (1788). — 
Pitt was more cautious, and his policy, though the logic of events 
forced him later to depart from it, was simple and consistent — to 
avoid interfering directly or indirectly in the affairs of France. The 
British had emerged from the American War without a friend on the' 
Continent, and during the decade which had elapsed since he came to 
power, the Premier had managed to keep clear of European wars. 
Prussia, who was equally isolated, seemed to offer the only prospect 
of alliance ; but Frederick the Great was still unfriendly. His death, 
17 November, 1786, paved the way for the closer relations between 
Prussia and England. Shortly after, an occasion arose which led to a 
close alliance. France allied with the Dutch republicans and drove 
the Stadtholder from power. When the dominant party went so far 
as to arrest the Princess of Orange and refused to grant satisfaction 
for the insult, Frederick William II, 1 who was her brother, determined 
1 He was King of Prussia from 1786 to 1797. 



THE YOUNGER PITT 583 

to take action. He sent an army into Holland, England made active 
preparations to assist him in the interests of the Orange Party, France 
backed out, and a Triple Alliance was formed, in 1788, between Great 
Britain, Prussia, and Dutch Orange Party for mutual defense and the 
maintenance of peace in Europe. The British had succeeded in with- 
drawing from their isolation. 1 

Pitt's Effort to Avoid Intervention in French Affairs. — For a time 
Pitt held aloof from any attempt to intervene in France. In spite of 
his belligerent attitude towards Russia — whose designs against Po- 
land 2 and the Turkish territory along the northern shores of the Black 
Sea he feared and was unable to check — he was really anxious for 
peace, to develop his commercial and financial reforms, to keep down 
taxes and to reduce the debt. Moreover, he thought that Burke ex- 
aggerated the danger and even the importance of the French Revolu- 
tion. It was clear that the majority of Englishmen were opposed to 
Revolutionary doctrines. However, it soon became apparent that 
the French Revolutionists, far from confining themselves to their own 
country, were determined to spread their gospel of freedom through- 
out Europe. In England, in spite of the prevailing hostility to Revo- 
lutionary ideas, various societies were formed to promulgate them. In 
addition to the Revolution Society 3 there were the Society for Con- 
stitutional Information and the London Correspondence Society, all 
of whom were in communication with the Jacobins in Paris. The 
London Society was the most violent of all. Inflammatory speeches 
were made at its meetings, and under its auspices the most violent 
pamphlets and broadsides were circulated. In spite of the opposition 
of Fox and the other extreme Whigs, a royal proclamation against sedi- 
tious writings was issued, 21 May, 1792, and proved effective in check- 
ing the Revolutionary propaganda. 

French Aggressions in the Netherlands, 1792. — Meantime, events 
were moving rapidly on the Continent. Marie Antoinette, the Queen 
of Louis XVI, and an Austrian princess, had gone to the length of ap- 
plying to the Emperor for aid; but the initial step was taken by 
France, who' declared war on Austria, 20 April. In August, Louis 
XVI was deposed and he and his Queen imprisoned. The English 

1 The support of his new allies, as well as the hostility of revolutionary France 
to an effete monarchy, enabled Pitt to block Spain in an attempt to oust the British 
from a trading and fishing settlement which they had established on an island in 
Nootka Sound off Vancouver, 1 789-1 790. 

2 There were three partitions of Poland between Russia, Austria, and Prussia, 
in 1772, 1793, and 1795 respectively. 

3 The Society of Friends of the People was chiefly interested in parliamentary 
reform and held aloof from the French Revolutionary party. 



584 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ambassador was recalled forthwith, on the ground that the Sovereign 
to whom he was accredited reigned no more, though the French repre- 
sentative remained in London without official status. Then came the 
September massacres in Paris, which filled even Fox with horror. 
About the same time, the Austrians, and the Prussians who had allied 
with them, crossed the frontier. Frederick William II had declared : 
" The comedy will not last long ... the army of advocates will soon 
be annihilated; we shall be home before autumn " ; but the invaders 
were repulsed at Valmy, 21 September, and before the end of October 
were forced to withdraw from France. The French commander next 
turned to the Netherlands, where he defeated the Austrians, 6 No- 
vember, after which he overran the whole country. Territorial ag- 
gression and the spread of Republican ideas went abroad hand in 
hand. In Holland the old Republican party raised its head again, 
whereupon the States General appealed to Great Britain and received 
assurances that in case of need they would be protected. 

The Opening of the Scheldt, and the Decrees of 19 November and 
15 December, 1792. — On 16 November, the French declared the 
river Scheldt open to navigation. This was at once a violation of the 
treaty rights * of the Dutch and a defiance of Great Britain, who was 
bound to protect them. The triumphant Revolutionists, who had 
also annexed Savoy and Nice, declared in their exultation that they 
would " break all the Cabinets of Europe." They held out hopes to 
the English societies with whom they corresponded that a republic 
would soon be set up in Great Britain, and sent emissaries to stir up 
disaffection in different parts of the country. It was an especially 
favorable time. Owing to a bad harvest the price of wheat was high, 
and the poor, particularly among the manufacturing classes, were 
suffering for food. Riots broke out, accompanied by frequent cries 
of "No excise !" "No King !" On 19 November, the National Con- 
vention issued a decree offering to assist, even by force of arms, all 
nations aspiring to liberty. In view of the aggressions in the Nether- 
lands and of this open invitation to revolt, the English Government 
began to prepare for a possible conflict, though Pitt still hoped to 
maintain peace. A proclamation was issued 1 December, calling out 
the militia, and when Parliament assembled, the Government, which 
had already taken steps to increase the army and navy, introduced 
an Alien Bill that became law in January, 1 793. It placed all foreigners 
under surveillance, prohibited them from bringing arms or ammuni- 
tion into the country, and authorized the Government, if necessary, to 
expel them. Fox declared that the danger was exaggerated, resisted 

1 It had been closed to all except the Dutch by the Peace of Miinster in 1648. 



THE YOUNGER PITT < 585 

all restrictive measures, and advised the recognition of the French 
Republic, which had been declared, 22 September. But he was little 
heeded, for the designs of the dominant Revolutionary party grew 
steadily more menacing. They began to treat the Austrian Nether- 
lands as a part of France and to introduce democracy. On 15 Decem- 
ber, 1792, the National Assembly issued another decree declaring that 
in every country occupied by French armies the commander should 
proclaim the sovereignty of the people and suppress the existing sys- 
tem of government, treating as enemies all who cpposed them. 

The Outbreak of War with Prance (1793). — As late as 31 December, 
1792, the British Foreign Secretary declared that his Majesty still 
desired peace, but a peace " consistent with interests and dignity of 
his own dominions, and with the general security of Europe." All 
the while the French were preparing to invade Holland, though they 
were full of soothing assurances to the English that they did not mean 
to hold the Netherlands in permanent subjection, and that their decree 
19 November was meant to apply only to countries where the desire 
of the people for a Republican government was manifestly expressed. 
However, in a vote of 13 January which was really an ultimatum, they 
refused to reverse their action in opening the Scheldt ; they insisted 
that they should judge when to interfere in behalf of insurgents in 
other countries ; and declined to set a definite time for their withdrawal 
from the Netherlands. The Foreign Secretary sent a haughty reply ; 
but negotiations were still dragging on when the execution of Louis 
XVI, 21 January, sent a shudder of horror through England, and the 
very people in the streets cried: " War with France I" The French 
Minister, who had been informally representing the Republic, was 
ordered to leave the country, and, 1 February, France declared war 
on Great Britain and Holland. Though the declaration came from 
France, Pitt had come to realize that the conflict was inevitable and 
had virtually closed the negotiations by refusing to listen to more 
assurances and by the abrupt dismissal of the Republican representa- 
tive. The active promulgation of Revolutionary doctrines taken alone 
would not have dragged him from his neutral attitude ; and, unlike 
Burke and the Prussian and Austrian rulers, he had no desire to under- 
take a crusade for the restoration of Monarchy in France. It was the 
violation of the treaties relating to the Scheldt, which threatened the 
security of the public law of Europe, the occupation and threatened 
annexation of the Austrian Netherlands, and the danger cf an invasion 
of Holland that finally determined his attitude. 1 In his opinion it 

1 France in possession of the Low Countries with Antwerp as a port would have 
been a grave menace to British maritime supremacy. 



586 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

would be a " very short war and certainly ended in one or two cam- 
paigns." Burke predicted that it would be a " long war and a dan- 
gerous war." As a matter of fact, with one brief lull, it lasted for over 
twenty years. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 
See Chapter XL VII below. 



CHAPTER XLVI 

THE GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 

(1793-1802) 

General Features of the War. — The outbreak of the war in 1793 
found England unprepared to undertake military operations on a 
large scale. In the year 1792 the British army numbered only 17,300 
men, while, at the time of the French declaration, it had only been 
increased by 10,000. Instead of strengthening it at once, Pitt relied 
on small expeditions sent out to cooperate with the French royalists 
— a plan which proved futile ; for a people, however disaffected, 
seldom cooperate cordially with a foreign invader. It was not till 
new methods were employed after Pitt's death that the British army 
achieved effective results. Another source of weakness, in the begin- 
ning, arose from the fact that the first generals were chosen because of 
their family connections rather than for their military ability. In strik- 
ing contrast, the British navy showed, from the start, the superiority for 
which it had been famed, and under skilled and heroic commanders a 
steady succession of victories resulted. Nevertheless, while the British 
navy effected much by blockading French ports, severing her fleets from 
the sea, and capturing her colonies, the final issue had to be fought 
on land. A significant factor was the ultimate transformation in 
the character of the war. Great Britain's Continental allies in the 
beginning were not peoples but absolute monarchs concerned in 
maintaining their power and preserving or extending their boundaries. 
Then the French Government changed from a Republic bent on a 
general crusade for liberty to a military despotism aiming primarily 
at territorial aggrandizement. The result was to produce a great 
national reawakening in Spain, Russia, and Prussia. Only after that 
happened was France struck down in her victorious career. Mean- 
time, with her fleets and her subsidies, Great Britain had saved 
Europe by sustaining her allies until they were able to turn and over- 
throw their aggressor. 

The First Coalition (1793-1797). — The war opened with a period 
of hard times and a money stringency ; in spite of this unpromising 

587 



588 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

state of affairs the Government went on effectively with its prepara- 
tions for war. Alliances were formed with Holland, Prussia, and 
Austria ; Russia, whose troops were occupied in Poland, agreed to lend 
her fleet to assist the British in preventing neutrals from supplying 
the French with food ; smaller States were secured by treaties and 
subsidies, and troops were hired from Hanover and Hesse. This 
First Coalition, as it came to be called, began with a series of decided 
successes. The French were driven out of the Netherlands and 
defeated in the Rhine country, while a British fleet, assisted by Spain, 
who joined the Coalition in May, captured the important naval 
station of Toulon. The prospect looked dark enough for France. On 
the borders her troops were unruly, her generals were inefficient, 
and her War Ministers proved incompetent. Most of the leading 
cities outside Paris were in revolt, while a formidable insurrection 
had broken out in the Vendee. The Allies, with 300,000 men posted 
along the frontier from the Alps to the Netherland sea coast, might 
by a sudden concerted movement have taken the French capital, but 
their troops were kept inactive while they quarreled about the parti- 
tion of territory much of which was not yet in their possession. The 
crisis inspired the French to heroic efforts. In August they ordered 
a universal conscription, and under a new War Minister, Carnot, 
who proved a genius in the work, the raw recruits were amalgamated 
with the regulars into an effective army. They recovered ground in 
the Netherlands as well as in the Rhine country, they crushed and 
scattered the Vendeans and also recovered Toulon, in which achieve- 
ment a young Corsican artillery officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, first 
came into military prominence. 

Pitt Becomes a Reactionary. — The turn of the tide, due to the 
patriotic enthusiasm of the French and the selfish division of the 
Allies, was accompanied by the " Reign of Terror " in France — a 
carnival of bloodshed lasting from early in 1793 to the summer of 
1794, one result of which was to convince Pitt of the necessity of 
overthrowing the existing Government. At length he had come 
round to adopt the attitude of Burke. Fear that the French victories 
and the ascendancy of the violent party might encourage the Repub- 
lican sympathizers in England — although there is little evidence 
that they were gaining ground — led to further repression measures. 
Printers and preachers of sedition, or what was interpreted as such, 
were prosecuted, and spies were employed to report every sign of 
disaffection. A few were rigorously punished. One poor bilisticker 
was imprisoned for six months for posting an address asking for parlia- 
mentary reform, and an attorney, who remarked in a coffee-house 



GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 589 

that he was " for equality and the rights of man," had to go to 
prison and stand in the pillory. The courts, however, showed 
their fairness in the acquittal of others, notwithstanding the fact 
that the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended for the first time since 

1745- 

The Campaigns of 1794-1795. — The Reign of Terror in France 
came to an end, July, 1794, when Robespierre was arrested, together 
with a number of his violent associates. With the moderates again 
in control and the prospect of a stable government, the English peace 
party raised its voice. Pitt, however, realized that it was not a time 
to secure favorable terms. To be sure, the British successes con- 
tinued at sea, particularly in a notable fight lasting from 28 May to 
1 June, 1794, known as the " Glorious First of June," where Hood 
won a decisive victory over the Brest fleet, though he failed to inter- 
cept a provision convoy from America for which the French were 
anxiously waiting. But the campaign of 1 794-1 795 in the Austrian 
Netherlands resulted disastrously for the Allies, who were forced 
to evacuate the country, whereupon the Franco-Dutch party set up 
the Batavian Republic, and, 10 May, 1795, entered into a dependent 
alliance with the French invaders. Prussia, who was mainly interested 
in the final partition of Poland which took place in this year, concluded 
peace with the French, 5 April, and, 22 July, Spain followed suit. 
Austria, thus isolated, was, in spite of subsidies advanced by Great 
Britain and Russia, unable to hold her ground against the French 
either in Germany or Northern Italy. Moreover, royalist risings 
in the west of France, assisted by French emigres and British forces, 
were resolutely stamped out. 

Suffering and Discontent in England. The Repressive Acts of 
J 795- — The year 1795, so disastrous to the Allies on the Continent, 
was also marked by great suffering among the English poor, largely 
accentuated by a succession of bad harvests. Bread riots broke out 
in many places, and the Government, in spite of its efforts to meet 
the situation, was blamed for the prevailing distress. Two more 
repressive measures resulted. The Treasonable Practices Bill de- 
clared the mere speaking or writing against the King or the established 
Government to be treason and made it a misdemeanor to incite another 
to such speaking or writing. The Seditious Meetings Bill forbade 
any political meeting except upon previous notice by a resident 
householder, and authorized any two justices of the peace to dis- 
solve even a meeting called in a legal way. These drastic acts were 
fortunately limited in duration, and, as a matter of fact, were never 
enforced. 



590 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Critical Years 1796-1797- —The power of France was greatly 
strengthened by a new constitution. October, 1795, vesting the 
executive in a Directory of five. Carnot, who was a leading mem- 
ber, planned a comprehensive campaign against Austria in which 
three armies were to converge against Vienna by way of the Main, 
the Danube, and the Po. While the two northern armies were un- 
successful, the third, under Napoleon Bonaparte, managed to push 
its way to within eighty miles of Vienna. In consequence, the Aus- 
trians were forced to sue for peace in April, 1797, while Pitt was 
now ready to treat, since the Republican excesses had apparently run 
their course and the French government seemed established on a 
stable basis ; but the Directory rejected his advances ; indeed, as a 
matter of fact, in spite of a strong peace party in France they nourished 
dreams of ruining British trade by closing the Continental ports 
against her, of isolating her from her European Allies, of stirring up 
rebellion in Ireland, of invading her shores, and of overthrowing Pitt 
and the Monarchy. Notwithstanding the fact that two French 
invasions, — ■ one against Ireland and one against the Welsh coast ■ — 
miscarried, the condition of England was critical ; indeed, the years 
1796 and 1797 were the darkest in the whole war. Her allies had met 
with an almost constant succession of defeats, and, threatened at any 
moment with an invasion, strenuous efforts were made to strengthen 
the army and navy and to raise more money. The response was warm 
and enthusiastic. Yet although a loan of £18,000,000 was sub- 
scribed so quickly that hundreds were turned away, an acute mone- 
tary crisis followed, due mainly to a scarcity of specie occasioned by 
payment of foreign subsidies, the necessity of purchasing food sup- 
plies abroad, and the closing of the markets in France, Spain, Holland, 
and Italy, and a certain amount of panic resulting in withdrawal of 
bank deposits. To meet the threatened run, the Bank of England, 
after consulting with the Government, suspended cash payments in 
February, 1797, a measure, intended to be temporary, which lasted 
till 1 819, though there was never more than a slight depreciation of 
paper. 

The Battle off Cape St. Vincent (14 February, 1797). — Notwith- 
standing the recent fiascos, the French proceeded with their plans of 
invasion. A Spanish fleet was to join the French at Brest, and, to- 
gether with a Dutch squadron gathered off the Texel, the combined 
forces were to make a simultaneous descent on the English coast. On 
St. Valentine's Day, 14 February, 1797, Sir John Jervis attacked the 
Spanish, who greatly outnumbered him, off Cape St. Vincent, where, 
after a hard day's fighting in which Nelson distinguished himself by 



GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 59 1 

his audacious courage, the British fleet won a notable victory. 1 The 
result was to cheer greatly the English in the midst of their financial 
crisis and to lessen materially the danger of the dreaded French inva- 
sion, though the French and Dutch fleets, each guarded by a British 
squadron, were still intact. 

The Mutinies at Spithead and the Nore (1797). — -At this juncture, 
when all depended upon the navy, a widespread mutiny broke out. 
While the sailors were worked upon by pamphlets distributed by the 
democratic societies, they had many real grievances. Their pay 
had not been increased since the reign of Charles II, though the cost 
of living had risen 30 to 40 per cent ; 2 owing to the dishonesty of 
contractors their food and clothing were both bad and insufficient ; 
their quarters were frightfully unhealthy, and they were subject to 
arbitrary and barbarous punishments. Most of the men were -pressed, 
and many of them were recruited from the lowest criminal class, who 
were ripe for anything. In the winter of 1 796-1 797 the able seamen, 
who had an especial grievance in being withdrawn from the more, 
profitable merchant service, sent a petition to Lord Howe. When 
the Admiralty hesitated to grant their demands, they raised the red 
flag of mutiny at Spithead on 15 April, just as the fleet for Brest was 
about to put for sea. Then the authorities agreed to all their claims. 
It required another armed demonstration, however, before the bill 
to raise their pay was pushed through Parliament, whereupon Howe, 
whom the sailors knew affectionately as " Black Dick," went down 
from London with the news of the vote, together with a royal pardon, 
and quelled the mutiny. The result encouraged an outbreak, 12 May, 
in the fleet off the 'Nore which was destined to reenforce the North 
Sea squadron. The movement here was in the hands of a much more 
desperate class who even demanded a voice in the movements of their 
ships ; eventually, owing to the vigorous efforts of the authorities, 
assisted by the better-minded men, the mutineers were forced to give 
in and surrender their leader, who was hanged at the yardarm. The 
Government, recognizing the gravity of the crisis and the justice of 
the complaints, were wisely lenient. 

The End of the First Coalition (1797). The British Victory off 
Camperdown (11 October). — While Great Britain was struggling with 
a financial crisis and a mutinous fleet, France, too, was in difficulties. 
Public spirit was at a low ebb, loans could only be procured at exorbi- 
tant rates of interest, and taxes were arbitrary and crushing. Austria 
however, on 17 October, 1797, concluded with France the Treaty of 

1 Jervis was created Earl St. Vincent. 

2 The pay of the army had to some degree kept pace with changing conditions. 



592 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Campo Formio ; Great Britain was isolated, and the First Coalition 
had been broken into pieces. An invasion of England was only 
averted by another great naval victory. The mutiny had spread 
even to the fleet of Admiral Duncan who was blockading the Dutch 
off the Texel, though at length he was strong enough to engage, and 
won a decisive victory off Camperdown, n October, 1792. 1 The 
French were so reluctant to give up their cherished project, that, in 
the following spring, they collected an invading force along the 
coast prepared for transport, but Napoleon, who was placed in 
command of this " Army of England," felt that it was hopeless 
to attempt an invasion while Great Britain retained her mastery 
of the seas. Consequently, he turned to another plan which he 
had formed, of striking India by way of Egypt. This left Eng- 
land free to deal with a dangerous rebellion which had come to a 
head in Ireland. 

The Situation in Ireland (1 782-1 789). — In Ireland the grant of 
legislative independence, in 1782, had done little or nothing to relieve 
the situation ; for the interests of the Roman Catholics, the Protest- 
ant Dissenters, the Episcopalians, the native Irish, the Anglo-Irish, 
the English, the landowners and the peasantry conflicted and inter- 
mingled in a most bewildering fashion. The Irish Parliament, while 
nominally free, was composed of Protestant nobles, gentry, and place- 
men over whom the English Government officials exercised great 
control by means of patronage, bribery, and influence. The Roman 
Catholics not only had no representation but no vote, and were ex- 
cluded from office, as well as all the professions except that of medicine. 
The Protestants were divided among themselves; for not a few 
chafed under the English control, some desired genuine parliamentary 
reform, while a small group, headed by Grattan, were even desirous 
of admitting Roman Catholics. Below those who were working 
mainly for political equality, were the peasantry, whose chief grievances 
were financial and economic. The exorbitant rents, squeezed from 
them by the middlemen who hired the lands from the great landlords 
— often absentees — together with the tithes extorted for the support 
of the Established Church were burdens which bore heavily on the 
lessee folk whether Protestant or Catholic. In their wretchedness 
they saw no hope but in force, and plied their nightly raids with a 
vengeance, though in Ulster, in spite of common grievances against 
the agrarian system and the Established Church, the Presbyterians 
and Catholics formed rival organizations and fought each other with 
bitter animosity. 

1 Duncan was created Earl of Camperdown. 



GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 593 

The French Revolution. Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. — 
In the midst of this wild disorder came the news of the French Revo- 
lution and the visit of Revolutionary agents promising the overthrow 
of tyranny, religious and secular, and a millennium for the down- 
trodden. The Roman Catholics at first had little sympathy with 
the movement which included in its propaganda the overthrow of 
their Church ; but the northern Protestants of the lesser sort, many 
of whom were Republicans at heart, eagerly welcomed the new teach- 
ings. They hated the exclusive knot who governed the Irish Parlia- 
ment as much as they hated those of the opposite faith, and they 
longed to be rid of middlemen and tithes. There was an opportunity 
for the ruling classes to maintain their ascendancy by playing the 
opposing religious parties against each other. Foreseeing this, Wolfe 
Tone, a Dublin barrister, nominally a Presbyterian but really a free- 
thinker, formed, in 1791, the Society of United Irishmen, in which he 
sought to make the hostile elements set aside their religious animosity 
in pursuit of a common object — the breakdown of the English power 
through reform of Parliament. Tone's activity caused a split in the 
ranks of the Roman Catholics. The minority, composed of the bishops 
and the educated classes who looked to Pitt for further measures of 
relief, broke off all connection with the more violent majority, who, 
trusting that persistent agitation would alleviate their rents, and put 
an end to tithes, threw in their lot with the United Irishmen. Instead 
of wisely granting sufficient concessions to satisfy the moderates, 
those in authority, after holding out great hopes, only grudgingly 
conceded just enough half measures to anger the Protestant clique 
and to stir up the Roman Catholics to increasing agitation. In 1792 a 
bill was forced through the Irish Parliament admitting them to the 
practice of law and repealing restrictions on education and inter- 
marriage. In 1793 they were admitted to the grand juries and to 
the magistracies ; the prohibition to bear arms was repealed and they 
were given the right to vote for members of the Lower House. This 
last concession was far from satisfactory ; for the .poor and ignorant 
tenantry who received the franchise were completely under the con- 
trol of the landlords and borough owners, while the wealthy and intelli- 
gent Catholics, who might have represented them, were still excluded 
from sitting in Parliament and from the higher offices of State. 

The Approach of Revolution. — However, a liberal-minded Lord 
Lieutenant who mistakenly thought that Pitt had given him a free 
hand, directly on his arrival, in 1795, arranged with Grattan to intro- 
duce a bill to admit Roman Catholics to Parliament, and dismissed 
from office the chief of the Protestant connection. The placemen 

2Q 



594 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and pensioners at once set up a furious howl and appealed to London. 
Pitt, with the French War on his hands and opposed by the Protestant 
prejudice of George III, bowed to the storm. The Lord Lieutenant 
was recalled, the old set were reentrenched in power and the bill was 
defeated. The result was to defeat the only possible chance of a peace- 
ful settlement of the Irish question. Although the violence of the 
embittered Catholics forced a number of northern Protestants over 
to the Government side, many of the disappointed were thrown into 
the arms of the United Irishmen, who, after being forcibly suppressed 
in 1794, were reconstituted on a basis distinctly Republican and 
treasonable, adopted military organization and appealed to France, 1 
whither Tone went for aid in 1796. The French reply was to send 
the two expeditions which came to such a futile end. Meanwhile, 
the Government acted with prompt decision. In the autumn of 1796 
the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, and bodies of yeomanry and 
infantry were organized from the gentry. Shortly before the sailing 
of the French fleet several leaders of the United Irishmen were arrested 
in Belfast. Early in 1797 martial law was proclaimed. Arms were 
searched for and seized, houses were burned and Catholics were bar- 
barously tortured and put to death. There were few regular troops 
in the country, and the volunteers who supplied their place were 
goaded to excess by long existing feuds. The English Commander-in- 
Chief sought to mitigate their harshness, but he was overruled and 
resigned, and the work of suppression was carried on by a less merci- 
ful successor. Informers reported regularly the movements of the 
conspirators, the Irish authorities were given free hand and the English 
Ministers declined all requests to interfere on the side of leniency. 

The Rebellion of 1798. — A general rising was planned for 23 May, 
1798, but, owing to the prompt arrest of many leaders, to the loyalty 
of the moderate Catholics, and the energy of the authorities, the de- 
signs of the rebels- were in a large measure frustrated. An attempt 
on Dublin failed, and a rising in Kildare, marked by destruction and 
cruelty on the part of the insurgents, was speedily put down. In 
various other counties they were suppressed with a savagery that sur- 
passed their own. Houses in which arms were found were burned, 
suspected persons were shot or barbarously tortured. After the re- 
volts to the north and west had been practically suppressed, the civil 
war came to a head in Wexford and Wicklow, where little resistance 
had been anticipated. The outbreak, particularly in Wexford, where 

1 Many of the more desperate Roman Catholics were won over to the godless 
French Revolutionists by the assurance that they had improved the lot of the 
lesser man, and had abolished tithes. 



GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 595 

civil war waged for some weeks, was precipitated by the Protestant 
yeomanry and militia, though their excesses in Ulster had had precisely 
the opposite result. Anti-Protestant hatred was abundantly inflamed 
by fiery sermons, but, frenzied and undisciplined, the insurgents failed 
to make the most of their opportunities except for violence and revenge. 1 
The loyalist forces struggled bravely until the arrival of British troops, 
who broke the back of the rebellion. It had been practically confined 
to the province of Leinster, for only two outbreaks had occurred in all 
Ulster, while Munster and Connaught remained quiet. 

The Aftermath of 1798. — The French, hampered by the fact that 
the British fleets controlled the Channel, sent two more small expedi- 
tions to Ireland, which arrived after the rebellion was over, only to be 
finally overcome and taken. Among the prisoners was Wolfe Tone, 
who was condemned to death, but committed suicide in prison. Lord 
Cornwallis, who had succeeded as Lord Lieutenant and Commander- 
in-Chief, 20 June, managed, by an act of indemnity containing only 
a few exceptions, to check the bloodthirsty execution which followed 
the Wexford war. Unhappily, the burning and wasting, the ruthless 
destruction of life and property committed by both parties, impover- 
ished the country, led to a stagnation of industry and credit, revived 
and accentuated the old religious and racial animosities, and undid 
the effect of such slight conciliation as had been attempted during the 
past two decades. The most direct result of the Rebellion was to de- 
termine Pitt and his Cabinet to bring about a union between the Irish 
and the English Parliaments. As early as 1782 he had thought of 
this possibility as the only solution of the vexed question of Catholic 
relief. Catholic members absorbed in the English Protestant Parlia- 
ment would count for little, while they would inevitably dominate the 
Irish, once they were admitted within its walls. Moreover, a union 
offered a means of breaking up the corrupt rule of the Protestant mi- 
nority and of checking the revengeful fury of the Protestant Orange- 
men. 

The Irish Union (1799-1800).- — The proposal, brought forward in 
the Irish Parliament in 1799, was bitterly, and, for the moment, suc- 
cessfully opposed by the leaders of the Irish Opposition, headed by 
Grattan, though the Roman Catholic bishops supported the Govern- 
ment in the hope of securing provision for their priests, commutation of 
tithes into money payments, and Catholic emancipation. The main en- 
ergies of Cornwallis, aided by his Secretary, Castlereagh, were directed 
toward the manipulation of the members of Parliament and the power- 

1 Many of the better sort, however, including priests, did their best to preserve 
order. 



596 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ful interests which controlled the seats, justifying the means which 
they employed on the ground of disagreeable necessity. To Cornwallis 
it was particularly " dirty work," for which he despised himself, and he 
often longed to kick those whom he was obliged to court. Not daring 
to hazard a general election, some members of the existing House of 
Commons were replaced by supporters of the Government ; some votes 
were bought with titles, places and pensions, some by direct bribes, 
though the amount employed for the latter purpose has doubtless been 
greatly exaggerated, and. Cornwallis seems not to have had anything to 
do with it. In one way and another, however, the Government spent 
£ i ,000,000. Notwithstanding the preponderating strength of the Gov- 
ernment supporters, the anti-Unionists fought stubbornly, even rais- 
ing £100,000 to outbid their opponents. The Articles of Union were 
carried in the new session which opened, 15 January, 1800, and the 
bill based upon them, after passing both the Irish and English Parlia- 
ments, received the royal assent, 1 August. 

The Terms of Union. — By the terms of the Act of Union, four 
spiritual peers, sitting in rotation in successive sessions, and twenty- 
eight temporal peers elected for life, represented Ireland in the House 
of Lords, 1 and one hundred members in the House of Commons. Free 
trade was established between the two countries. The preservation 
of the United Church of England and Ireland was to be an " essential 
and fundamental part of the Union." 

Pitt and the Union. His Resignation (1801). — The Union seemed 
to offer a way out of pressing difficulties. Nevertheless, the measure 
was carried by methods that cannot be justified, and was forced down 
the throats of the Irish, five sixths of whom were against it. Further- 
more, the most influential Roman Catholics were won over by the 
assurance circulated by Castlereagh that as soon as the Parliaments 
were united they would be rewarded by the three concessions which 
they desired -■- State payment for their priests, commutation of tithes, 
and, above all, Catholic emancipation. While Pitt gave no formal 
pledges, he was sincerely anxious to realize their hopes ; but he had 
to contend against the monumental obstinacy of King George, who had 
been persuaded that he could not grant Catholic relief without a 
breach of his coronation oath binding him to maintain the existing 
Fstablishment in Church and State. However, in September, 1800, 
Pitt brought a measure of Catholic relief before the Cabinet for dis- 
cussion. One of his colleagues betrayed the secret to the King, so 
(hat the Prime Minister had no opportunity, either of preparing the 

Contrary to the Scotch practice, Irish peers, not in the House of Lords, were 
eligible for election to the House of Commons. 



GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 597 

mind of his Sovereign gradually or of pushing through his project with 
a rush. When he formally opened the question in January, George 
declared : " I shall reckon any man my personal enemy who proposes 
such a measure." Rather than oppose the royal will he resigned, 
5 February, 1801, and in March, after the King had been threatened 
with another attack of his old malady, he agreed, whether in or out 
of office, never again to open the question during the reign. The 
failure to carry these concessions to which the Government was morally 
if not literally bound, was responsible for much of the trouble with 
Ireland which followed. 

Napoleon in Egypt (1798-1799). — A few days before the outbreak 
of the Rebellion of 1798, Napoleon started for the Mediterranean with 
the design of destroying the British power in India. He was able to 
carry out the first steps in his new project without a setback. He 
captured Malta, passed on to Egypt, took Alexandria, July, 1798, and 
defeated the Mamelukes 1 in the Battle of the Pyramids on the 21st. 
Nelson, however, in hot pursuit, attacked him at Aboukir Bay, and 
in the famous battle of the Nile, 1 August, destroyed his fleet, and with 
it his hopes of establishing a French empire in the East. Napoleon, 
after his defeat, started for Syria with the view of capturing Constan- 
tinople and attacking Europe from the East. Failing in an attempt 
to take Acre, the key to the control of the Syrian coast, May, 1799, he 
returned to Egypt, where he received news which caused him to leave 
his army and hasten to France. In India, Tipu — the successor of his 
father Haidar Ali as ruler of Mysore — who had been in communica- 
tion with Napoleon, was awaiting aid from him to start a revolt. To 
anticipate the threatened danger, the Governor-General, Lord Morn- 
ington, sent an army against him. Tipu was defeated and slain, 
while Mysore was divided and placed under British protection . Morn- 
ington was created Marquis of Wellesley. The failure of the Eastern 
expedition was attended by two important results : it averted a serious 
danger to the British ascendancy in India as well as the supremacy 
of British commerce in the East, and it led to the formation of the 
Second Coalition. 

The Second Coalition (1799-1801). — The first step toward the 
new Coalition was taken by the half-crazy Paul, Emperor of Russia, 
prompted among other things by fear of the spread of republicanism, 
but the actual organization was the work of Pitt. The Coalition, 
consisting of Great Britain, Russia, Austria, Portugal, Naples, and 

1 Formerly slaves, they were now an effective body of cavalry who, under their 
beys or chiefs, ruled the country, of which the Sultan of Turkey was the nominal 
overlord. 



598 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Turkey, was completed in the early months of 1799. At the start the 
Allies were successful in forcing the French across the Rhine and in 
driving them out of northern Italy, but in the autumn of 1 799 the tide 
began to turn. A Russian army, with a body of Austrian allies, was 
defeated at Zurich, and a joint invasion of Holland by the British and 
Russians resulted in an inglorious capitulation and retirement. Dur- 
ing the winter, Paul, disgusted at the failure of his arms and convinced 
that Austria and Great Britain had not cooperated cordially with him, 
withdrew from the Coalition. 

The Breakup of the Second Coalition. — Meantime, Napoleon hurry- 
ing from Egypt had reached France in October. With the aid of his 
grenadiers the Directory, which had grown very unpopular, was over- 
thrown by a coup d'etat, and, by a new Constitution proclaimed in 
December, the fourth since 1789, Napoleon was made First Consul 
for ten years with virtually supreme powers. In England the burden 
of the war was growing heavier and heavier, an income tax went into 
effect in April, 1799, and new loans were contracted. The commercial 
classes were thriving and so were the farmers ; but the poor suffered 
more and more from soaring prices, especially of food. A meeting was 
held in London which petitioned for peace; but the great majority 
still supported the war policy of the Government, and frowned on 
the expression of Revolutionary opinion. Accordingly, bills were 
passed, toward the end of the year 1800, suppressing corresponding 
societies, restricting debating societies and combinations of workmen, 
and obliging printers to obtain certificates and to affix their signatures 
to all they printed. Austria, who was supporting the Allied cause in 
northern Italy, was defeated by Napoleon at Marengo, 14 June, 1800, 
largely owing to the failure of the British to send troops in season. 
Great Britain recovered Malta, but the Austrians, defeated at Hohen- 
linden, 3 December, were unable to hold out any longer, and 9 Febru- 
ary, 1 801, signed the peace of Luneville. The Second Coalition had 
gone the way of the first. 

The Bombardment of Copenhagen (1801). — Paul, won over by 
the blandishments of Napoleon whom he hoped would crush out Re- 
publicanism and establish a dynasty, had, in the meantime, planned 
an armed neutrality similar to that organized by his mother nearly 
twenty years earlier. Its signature by Russia, Sweden, Denmark and 
Prussia in December, 1800, made the situation again critical for Great 
Britain. She was bereft cf her strongest allies, while the action of 
the Northern Powers threatened not only to exclude her from profitable 
markets but to cut off her main source of supply for naval stores and 
for much of her wheat. However, the British navy was still the strong- 



GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE TO THE PEACE OF AMIENS 599 

est on the seas and was successfully blockading the French and Spanish 
in all their principal ports. On 14 January, 1801, the Government 
placed an embargo on the ships of Russia, Sweden, and Denmark 
and prepared to send a fleet to the Baltic. It sailed for Copenhagen, 
12 March, under Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson second in command. 
When the Danes refused to accede to the British demands the fleet 
attacked their capital. Exposed to a fierce bombardment, the city 
must soon have surrendered, when suddenly the news arrived that 
Paul had been murdered in the night of 23 March. His successor, 
Alexander I, being willing to compromise, it was agreed that blockades 
by proclamation should be given up and the right of search was more 
accurately defined, and the League broke up without gaining its other 
demands. The French forces left behind in Egypt, after a series of 
defeats, were forced to abandon the country in September. As an off- 
set to these British successes the French scored some diplomatic gains ; 
Spain, for example, ceded back Louisiana, 21 March, 1801, and agreed 
to make war on Portugal, who was obliged to contract alliances with 
both France and Spain and to close her ports against Great Britain. 
The Peace of Amiens (25 March, 1802). — Pitt, on his resignation 
the previous February, was succeeded by Addington, a dull though 
well-meaning man in close agreement with the King. Under the new 
Government the peace negotiations were finally concluded at Amiens, 
25 March, 1802. Great Britain gave up all her conquests from France 
together with all those from French allies except Trinidad and Ceylon, 
which had been taken from the Spanish and the Dutch respectively. 
The Cape of Good Hope, also a conquest from the Dutch, was to be a free 
port, Egypt was to be handed back to Turkey, while Malta was to be 
restored to the Knights of St. John, to whom it belonged, and its in- 
dependence guaranteed by the signatory powers. Such were the main 
terms of the peace, which in the words of Sheridan : " all men are 
glad of, but no man can be proud of." 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 
See Chapter XL VII below. 



CHAPTER XLVII 

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON: FROM AMIENS TO 
WATERLOO (1802-1815) 

The Resumption of War (1803). —The Peace of Amiens proved to 
be a mere breathing time. Indeed, Napoleon admitted frankly that : 
"A renewal of war was necessary for his existence " ; and before many 
months it became evident that he was bent on utterly destroying the 
European balance of power, while his colonial projects were even more 
disquieting to great Britain; for he planned to recover Egypt and 
stir up disaffection in India. In one direction his designs miscarried. 
He had aimed to establish a great empire in North America ; but a re- 
volt in San Domingo cost him so many troops that he gave up his proj- 
ect in disgust and sold Louisiana to the United States in the spring of 
1803. Yet, in spite of all, he had in no way violated the letter of the 
treaty of Amiens. On the other hand, he had long resented the attacks 
made upon him in papers conducted by French exiles in London. To 
be sure, Jean Peltier, editor of L'Ambigu, who was particularly fero- 
cious, was convicted of libel, though numbers of Englishmen were out- 
spoken against the sentence, and the Government refused either to 
expel the emigres or to suppress their papers. Moreover, Great Brit- 
ain refused to evacuate Malta, on the ground of Russia's refusal to 
guarantee the independence of the island, 1 and she persisted in holding 
on to the French towns in India. This failure to carry out the terms 
agreed upon at Amiens technically justified Napoleon's angry accusa- 
tion that Great Britain was a nation that did not respect treaties ; but 
he was the real disturber of Europe, and it was a genuine fear that 
they could not keep peace with honor or safety which led the British 
to declare war, 18 May, 1803. The situation was absolutely changed 
since the beginning of the conflict ten years before. It was no longer 
a question of the preservation of monarchy, aristocracy, and property 
against the spread of Republicanism, now it was a struggle for exist- 

1 In view of the resumption of Napoleon's designs against Egypt, Turkey, and 
India, it would have been quite unsafe to allow the island to fall again into his 
hands. 

600 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 601 

ence on the part of Great Britain and the Continental countries against 
Napoleonic aggrandizement. 

Pitt's Second Ministry (May, 1804, to January, 1806). The Third 
Coalition. — In view of the crisis, Pitt succeeded Addington, 29 April, 

1804. Greatly broken in health and hampered by a growing Whig 
opposition, he set to work undauntedly, and, before the close of 1805, 
had combined Russia and Austria with Great Britain in the Third 
Coalition against Napoleon, who in the meantime had had himself 
crowned Emperor of the French and King of Italy. 

End of the Third Coalition. — Napoleon desired to undertake again the 
invasion of England which he had been once obliged to give up. To this 
end, he gathered an army at Boulogne which was to be conveyed across 
the Channel in flat-bottom boats under cover of the Brest and Toulon 
fleets. In order to shake off Nelson who had been watching the Medi- 
terranean for two years, Admiral Villeneuve sailed with the Toulon 
squadron to the West Indies. Nelson, however, followed him over 
and back, and finally engaged him, off Cape Trafalgar, 21 October, 

1805, and though mortally wounded in the action, lived long enough 
to learn that he had won a great victory. Again, as in 1797, England 
had been saved by her navy. Some weeks before, Napoleon, despair- 
ing of any help from Villeneuve, had marched across the Rhine with 
his " Army of England." He entered Vienna, 13 November, whence 
he marched forth and at Austerlitz gained a decisive victory, 2 Decem- 
ber, over the Austrians and a contingent of Russians. By the Peace 
of Pressburg, concluded on the 26th, the Austrian Emperor was obliged 
once more to withdraw from the war. The break-up of the Coalition 
was too much for Pitt, whose constitution was already undermined 
by drink and overwork, though in his last speech he showed that in- 
vincible faith which had animated him from the beginning of the 
struggle, by the memorable words: " England has saved herself by 
her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example." He 
died 23 January, 1806. In one sense Pitt had not shown himself to be 
a great War Minister : he frittered away the resources of the country 
in subsidies to foreign Powers and in scattered, futile expeditions. On 
the other hand, his popularity, his persistence and courage kept alive 
the national enthusiasm and thus tided the war over a critical period. 
He was succeeded by the " Ministry of all the Talents," a coalition in 
which the Whigs were largely in the majority. Fox, who became Foreign 
Secretary, only survived his great rival by a few months, closing his 
career, marked by single-hearted devotion to the cause of oppressed 
humanity, 13 September, 1806. However, he had often lacked judg- 
ment in his obstructionist policy and he failed in his dearest hope of 



602 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

bringing about a peace. The break-up of the Third Coalition ended 
the attempts of the British Government to wage war against Napoleon 
by means of such dynastic combinations. Fox had long declaimed 
against them, and Pitt before his death had come to recognize their 
futility. Under new men, another policy was soon developed of aiding 
national risings against Napoleonic aggression — a policy which led 
ultimately to glorious results. 

Napoleon's Further Triumphs (1806-1807). — Frederick William 
III had been bribed by the gift of the Kingdom of Hanover to join the 
French side and to close his ports to British ships ; unable, however, 
to endure the constant humiliation which Napoleon heaped upon him 
— particularly when, regardless of his recent concession, the Dictator 
offered to restore Hanover to Great Britain — the Prussian King was 
obliged to declare war. Without a single ally to help him his armies 
were crushed at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt, 14 October, 
1806. Although Russia managed, 8 February, 1807, to administer 
the first check to Napoleon's victorious career in the drawn battle of 
Eylau, the British Government failed to profit by the opportunity to 
send troops or even adequate subsidies, and, assisted only by the feeble 
support of Prussia, the Russians were overwhelmed at Friedland, 14 
June, 1807. The Tsar Alexander, incensed at Great Britain's neglect, 
desirous of conquering the Turks who had declared war on him, and 
full of vague dreams for the reconstruction of Europe, thereupon gave 
ear to Napoleon's enticing proposal for dividing between them the 
empire of the East and West. The two held an interview which re- 
sulted in the Treaty of Tilsit, 7 July, 1807, to which Prussia was forced 
to accede. Among other things, the Tsar agreed to join France in 
coercing Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal into adopting Napoleon's 
" Continental System " by which the European markets were to be 
closed to British trade, and, by a secret article, even pledged himself 
to join in a war against Great Britain in case she did not make peace 
before 1 November, while the French Emperor agreed to render like 
assistance to Alexander against the Turks and the Poles. To forestall 
the danger in the north, Great Britain promptly sent a naval armament 
to Denmark, offering an alliance to which the condition was attached 
that the Danes lend their navy to the British Government. On their 
refusal, Copenhagen was bombarded and the Danish fleet taken to 
England as a prize of war. This high-handed act , which caused a great 
outcry even among the English, was justified on the ground of military 
necessity. 

The Continental System. — Already, 21 November, 1806, Napo- 
leon had issued his celebrated Berlin Decree, which proclaimed a 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 603 

blockade of the British Isles; prohibited all commerce between 
them and France including the States dependent on her; and 
announced the confiscation of British merchandise in the har- 
bors of such countries. On 7 January, 1807, British Orders in 
Council forbade neutrals, under penalty of forfeiting ships and 
cargo, to trade between the ports of France and her allies, or be- 
tween ports of nations which should observe the Berlin Decree. 
Napoleon's Milan Decree of December, 1807, and other restrictive 
measures, were followed by more Orders in Council till neutral trade 
was in theory absolutely destroyed, while, by the close of 1808, every 
country of Europe, except Sweden and Turkey, had been brought into 
the System. Neither side, however, could enforce completely its policy 
of commercial exclusiveness. Not only was there much smuggling, 
but both the Emperor and the British Government were obliged to 
issue licenses authorizing evasion in specified cases. Napoleon's plan 
was to reduce Great Britain to subjection by a policy of absolute isola- 
tion ; but Britain had an overwhelming advantage in her method of 
warfare. She controlled the seas, she was able to exercise a far more 
effective right of search than the French, and with her powerful navy 
she was able to inflict irreparable damage on the merchant marine of 
those whom Napoleon sought to combine against her. Moreover, he 
needed commodities which she alone could supply, such as cloth, ma- 
chinery and certain raw materials ; indeed, on one occasion, he pro- 
cursd 50,000 British overcoats for his troops. However, inadequately 
as it was enforced, his Continental System caused serious hardship 
and suffering to the countries involved, and contributed, perhaps as 
much as his territorial aggressions, toward the growth of that combined 
national opposition which subsequently overthrew him. 

The Opening of the Peninsular War (1808). — Spain set the example. 
As a step in enforcing his Continental System Napoleon determined 
to secure control of the Peninsula, to close its vast stretch of seacoast 
to British shipping; to break up the alliance which had connected 
England and Portugal for over a century and to possess himself of 
Portugal's rich and extensive colonies. To that end he deluded the 
Spanish Minister Godoy into making a treaty whereby the House of 
Braganza r was to be driven from the throne and its Kingdom parti- 
tioned between Spain and France. Having established an army for 
the ostensible purpose of conquering Portugal, he took advantage of 
a revolt against the worthless Charles IV — during which his still 
more worthless son Ferdinand was proclaimed in his stead — to force 
both of them to retire on a pension, and to set up his brother Joseph 

1 The Royal House of Portugal. 



604 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

as King of Spain. This was in May, 1808. The original rising of 
the Spanish had been prompted by fear of French subjugation, and 
the movement now spread swiftly throughout the land. Already, in 
the latter part of 1807, the royal family of Braganza had fled to Brazil ; 
but the Portuguese, counting on British support, also rose in rebellion 
and forced Junot, the commander of the French invading army, to 
shut himself up in Lisbon. On 13 August, 1808, Sir Arthur Wellesley 
landed near Oporto with a force of 12,000 men, bearing instructions 
to afford " the Spanish and Portuguese nations every possible aid in 
throwing off the yoke of France." Thus began a six years' conflict 
known as the Peninsular War. After a terrific struggle the British 
army which — largely through the efforts of Castlereagh l — had 
been reorganized into an effective fighting force, finally succeeded in 
driving the French across the Pyrenees. 

The French Evacuate Portugal (1808). The Spanish Campaign 
(1808-1809). — Castlereagh had designed Wellesley for the supreme 
command in Portugal; but the latter's efforts were hampered for a 
time by the fact that two ineffective seniors were placed over him in 
succession. He routed the French, 21 August, 1808; but was not 
allowed to follow up his victory, and terms were made by which Junot 's 
army was permitted to evacuate Portugal. In October, Sir John 
Moore was given the command under orders to cooperate with the 
Spanish against the French forces in Spain, south of the Ebro. Owing 
to inadequate equipment and the ineffective support of the native levies 
he was obliged to turn and flee before the French. Conducting a 
masterly retreat, he reached Corunna, 16 January, 1809, where he man- 
aged to repulse his pursuers and cover the embarkation of his troops, 
though he himself was mortally wounded and was buried on the field 
of battle. Such were the unpromising beginnings of a great triumph. 
Napoleon, who declared that " no Power under the influence of Eng- 
land can exist on the Continent," failed to realize the strength of a 
people, however incapable and undisciplined, once roused to defend 
their native land against foreign aggression. The boastfulness of the 
Spanish far exceeded their achievements ; often they embarrassed the 
British by their untrustworthiness and insubordination ; but, by their 
relentless hostility to the invader and their persistent guerilla warfare, 
they contributed in no small degree toward the final success of their 
ally in liberating their country. 

Wagram and Walcheren (1809). — The Spanish example encouraged 
Austria once more to enter the lists ; but Napoleon hurried an army 

1 As Secretary for War (1807-1809), in a new Cabinet which replaced the 
"Ministry of all the Talents " March, 1807. 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 605 

across Europe, and, by a series of victories culminating in the bloody 
battle of Wagram, 6 July, forced her to sign a peace at Vienna which 
put her out of the fighting for four years. Meantime, the British, 28 
July, had sent a tremendous armament to attack Antwerp, to close 
the Scheldt and to reduce the island of Walcheren ; but the expedition 
was hopelessly mismanaged, and, 27 December, returned ingloriously 
home. Fortunately, 2 April, 1809, Wellesley had finally been appointed 
Commander-in-Chief of the British armies in the Peninsula. Before 
leaving England he submitted to the Government a plan for the con- 
duct of the war to which he adhered steadfastly in his subsequent 
campaigns. This was to make Portugal the center of his operations. 
With the sea on the west and the mountains on the east he had a base 
which could be readily supplied by the British navy, and which could 
be easily defended against the French. Shortly after his arrival he 
advanced into Spain, in the direction of Madrid, with a combined force 
of British and Spanish ; but though, 27, 28 July, he defeated a French 
army drawn up to bar his progress, his victory was barren of immediate 
results. The diverting of men and supplies for the fruitless Wal- 
cheren expedition threw him on his own resources and exposed him 
to great deprivation, at a time when Napoleon's victorious Austrian 
campaign freed thousands of French troops who overran Spain. So 
he retired to Portugal to wait for better times. 

The Beginning of the Regency (1811). — In November, 1810, 
George III, after six years of failing eyesight, became blind : his insanity 
came on again as well, and he passed the last ten years of his life in 
complete mental and physical darkness. Within a few months, the 
Prince of Wales was made permanent Regent, but contrary to the 
hopes of the Whigs his advent brought no change in the party situa- 
tion ; for the overtures which he chose to make were not such as they 
could accept. When, 11 May, 1812, Spencer Perceval — who had 
been Prime Minister since 1809 — was struck down by a demented 
assassin, Lord Liverpool was chosen to head the Cabinet ; most of the 
Ministers were retained and the Tory ascendancy continued unbroken 
for fifteen years. 

The Peninsular Campaign (1810-1812). — The Turn of the Tide 
(1812). — The French made a vain attempt, during the winter months 
of 1810-1811, to penetrate impregnable lines of defense which Welling- 
ton x had constructed between the Tagus and the sea, north of Lisbon, 
after which they retired from Portugal much spent by the campaign. 
The following year was marked by bloody battles along the Spanish 
border and by harassing guerilla warfare conducted by the natives. 
1 Wellesley had been created Viscount Wellington in 1809. 



606 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Owing to Napoleon's withdrawal of 60,000 of his best troops to assist 
in the invasion of Russia, Wellington made notable gains early in 181 2. 
Securing control of the northern and southern roads between Spain and 
Portugal, he marched north and defeated a French army in the decisive 
battle of Salamanca, by which he forced Joseph to abandon Madrid. 
With inadequate supplies and equipment he pressed on after the rem- 
nant of the beaten army, to the great peril of his recently acquired 
lines of communication from other French forces south and west. 
Thus endangered, and suffering from lack of food, his troops, becoming 
utterly demoralized, broke loose from all restraints. It required all 
his iron will to restore discipline ; but it proved to be the last crisis he 
had to weather. The Liverpool Ministry, backed by popular senti- 
ment, had come to appreciate his achievements and from now on gave 
him enthusiastic support, while the French, weakened by the loss of 
their best troops and worn down by the incessant attacks of the natives, 
steadily lost ground. 

The Close of the Peninsular Campaign (April, 1814). — He opened the 
campaign of 18 13 with the fixed intention of driving the French out of 
Spain. With his army recruited and supplied in Portugal, he advanced 
northeast, driving the enemy before him, and at Vittoria fought, 21 
June, the greatest battle of the war. The French were nearly surrounded 
and only finally saved themselves by headlong flight. Then Welling- 
ton forced the passage of the Pyrenees, in October, and drove his oppo- 
nent from Bayonne to Bordeaux and thence to Toulouse, which the 
British finally captured in April, 1814, though it cost them more troops 
than the French. Meantime, Napoleon had been overcome and 
compelled to abdicate and the Peninsular War was over. Wellington, 
while he made many mistakes in tactics and strategy, deserves the 
utmost credit for realizing the significance of the liberation of 
Portugal and Spain as a decisive factor in the struggle against 
Napoleon, and for sticking to his work in the teeth of all manner 
of discouragements and hardships, until he brought it to a glorious 
conclusion. 

The Russian Campaign (1812). — Some time before, Napoleon's 
annexations and his rigid enforcement of the Continental System had 
prepared the way for a breach with Russia. In January, 181 1, the 
Tsar asserted himself by opening his ports to neutrals and imposing 
a duty upon French commodities, whereupon Napoleon, for a second 
time disregarding the irresistible power of popular national hostility, 
took the fatal step. Invading Russia, 24 June, 181 2, with a great army 
of over 300,000 men, he marched to certain destruction, through a vast 
barren country, teeming with a sullen hostile population, and driving 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 607 

before him an army ready to turn and pounce upon him when his forces 
were sufficiently exhausted. On 7 September, the bloody but inde- 
cisive battle of Borodino cost the French 30,000 men and the Russians 
40,000. Thence the Russian commander retreated to Moscow, but 
departed with all the military stores and the bulk of the inhabitants 
on the approach of Napoleon. On the 14th, the day the French entered 
the city, a destructive fire broke out which raged for six days. Failing 
to bring Alexander to terms, Napoleon was obliged to evacuate Moscow 
and retrace his steps with the Russians hanging on his rear. Worn 
down by the frequent attacks of his pursuers and by the hardships of 
a terrible winter, a miserable remnant of not more than 60,000 from 
the army of invasion dragged themselves out of the country. The 
Russians were too exhausted to deal a crushing blow, and the other 
Powers did not at once realize the magnitude of the disaster which 
had befallen the hitherto victorious despot. 

The War of Liberation (1813-1814). — Napoleon, with unquench- 
able energy and resource, was able, by a drastic conscription, to gather 
a new army and resume the offensive in the following year. But 
Prussia and Austria had at length roused themselves and combined 
forces with Russia. Although Great Britain sent no troops to Ger- 
many, where the conflict centered, she sent subsidies, which was all 
and more than could be expected of her, since she was bearing the 
burden of the Peninsular campaign and had a war with the United 
States as well. The Russians opened the memorable campaign of 
1813 by resuming their pursuit of the retreating French through north- 
ern Germany. Frederick William, in spite of an alliance which he 
had been forced to conclude with Napoleon on the eve of the Russian 
invasion, had issued stirring appeals to his people to join the War of 
Liberation, and declared war against France, 17 March, 1813. Napo- 
leon's plan was to crush Russia and Prussia, and then to concentrate 
his whole strength on Austria, who clung for a time to a policy of medi- 
ation ; but his plan came to naught. Austria declared war, 12 August, 
and in the " Battle of the Nations " at Leipzig, 17, 18, 19 October, he 
received a crushing defeat. In those three bloody days Prussia showed 
the fruits of a wonderful administrative and military reorganization 
which her patriotic statesmen and generals had been slowly perfecting 
during the recent years of her humiliation, and her Landwehr or na- 
tional levy, aided by Russian and Austrian allies, gloriously revenged 
the past. National risings against the French domination spread 
throughout Europe. Napoleon's troops were forced to abandon every- 
thing beyond the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees, and to take refuge 
behind their own borders. The Allies moved on France with three 



608 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

great armies, and, 31 March, occupied Paris and proclaimed the resto- 
ration of the Bourbon line in the person of Louis XVIII. 1 Napoleon, 
after a vain attempt to recover the capital, was forced to consent to an 
unconditional abdication, 11 April, 1814. The Allies, however, al- 
lowed him the island of Elba as an independent principality, where 
he arrived 4 May. 

The War of 1812 with the United States : Its Causes. — Great Brit- 
ain was now free to devote her energies to the war with the United 
States which had broken out nearly two years before, as a direct result 
of the Continental System. During the first years of the French War 
the United States drove a thriving neutral trade, but all was changed 
when Napoleon and the British Government by Imperial Decrees and 
Orders in Council proclaimed a state of blockade, and, particularly, 
when the two contending Powers, in order to force the United States 
into an alliance, began to seize her ships accused of trading with the 
prohibited ports. President Jefferson and the Republican party 
sought to avoid war, but the Federalists, hoping to secure greater 
commercial privileges from the mistress of the seas, favored Great 
Britain. The British, however, aroused increasing animosity by the 
rigid exercise of the right which they claimed of searching American 
vessels and impressing such of the crews as were British born, 2 the 
friction being accentuated by the British contention that the Americans 
encouraged desertion by offers of higher pay. Following a temporary 
measure, in 1806, forbidding the import of a number of British com- 
modities, Jefferson, in 1807, caused an Embargo Act to be passed pro- 
hibiting all trade with European countries. Owing to the fact that 
this restriction hurt the Americans as much as those against whom it 
was aimed, a Non-intercourse Act was substituted, 1 March, 1809, 
which applied only to Great Britain, France, and their dependencies. 
It expired in May, 18 10, with the provision that if either Power re- 
pealed its Orders or Decrees it might be revived against the other. 
Madison, who became President in 1809, having been led to believe 
that Napoleon had canceled his Decrees, revived the Non-intercourse 
Act against Great Britain in February, 181 1. Directly the Liverpool 

1 He was a younger brother of Louis XVI, whose son, nominally Louis XVII, 
died a prisoner of the Revolutionary Government, 8 June, 1795. There is ap- 
parently little doubt that the little Dauphin died, though many pretenders appeared 
later to impersonate him. 

2 According to the British law no subject could forsake his allegiance without 
the consent of the Government, while, according to the United States, any foreigner 
could become an American citizen after residing in the country for a specified term 
of years, and fulfilling certain legal requirements. The British did not alter 
their law till 1870. 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 609 

Ministry took office, it withdrew the Orders in Council ; but it was 
too late, for the United States declared war, 18 June, 181 2. 

The Course of the War (1812-1814). The Treaty of Ghent (24 
December, 1814). — Neither side was in a position to be very effective. 
While Great Britain was involved in the Peninsular War, the United 
States was ill-prepared with money, supplies, and troops. It was a 
great disappointment to the Americans that the Canadians remained 
loyal ; the Indians, too, were on the British side, and the campaigns on 
the Canadian border proved generally ineffective. The failures in 
that direction, however, were redeemed by a series of brilliant vic- 
tories at sea. Contrary to the prevailing traditions of the past two 
centuries, the fighting consisted of engagements between individual 
ships instead of fleets. The American ships, though fewer in number, 
were superior in every way to those of the enemy ; they were larger 
and better built ; they carried more and heavier guns ; their crews 
were bigger; they included a greater proportion of able seamen and 
more accurate marksmen. While defeats in single engagements were 
far less disastrous than those in which whole squadrons were in- 
volved, they had the effect of seriously lowering the maritime prestige 
which the British had so long enjoyed. The success of Commodore 
Perry on Lake Erie, in 1813, was another asset for the Americans, 
though, as the war progressed, they gained fewer victories at sea. 
Profiting by experience, the British avoided ships likely to outclass 
them and improved their gunnery. Moreover, they maintained a 
more effective blockade in American waters, in consequence of which 
the Americans, while the more destructive of commerce, suffered severely 
from the cutting off of their own trade. After the overthrow of Na- 
poleon, 14,000 British regulars were sent over; but owing to ineffec- 
tive generalship, they accomplished far less than had been expected. 
One force, however, succeeded in capturing Washington, and during 
an occupation of less than a week they burned all the public buildings, 
a regrettable action that has been defended on the ground that the 
Americans had set the example in two small towns on the Canadian 
border. Toward the close of the year, another army of Peninsular 
veterans was dispatched across the Atlantic, which was defeated at 
New Orleans by General Andrew Jackson, 8 January, 1815. It was 
a needless sacrifice of life ; for peace had already been signed at Ghent, 
24 December. The Treaty provided for a mutual restoration of con- 
quests and for the appointment of commissioners to settle outstanding 
differences, notably those relating to boundaries. Strangely enough, 
the issues which led to the conflict were not mentioned : the Orders 
in Council had been withdrawn before the opening of hostilities, and 

2R 



(no SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

with the fall of Napoleon the encroachments on neutral trade ceased. 
Yet, as a result of this otherwise futile war, Great Britain tacitly 
dropped her claim to right of search. 

The First Treaty of Paris (30 May, 1814), and the Opening of the 
Congress of Vienna. — By a treaty, signed at Paris, 30 May, 1814, 
between the new French Monarch and the four allied Powers of Great 
Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia the boundaries of France were 
reduced to those of 1792 and the independence of various States sub- 
jugated by Napoleon was recognized. In order to readjust the dis- 
turbed European situation and to make the necessary arrangements 
for carrying out the terms of the Treaty, a Congress was appointed 
to meet at Vienna, which assembled in September and continued till 
June 181 5. Castlereagh represented Great Britain till February, 
when Wellington came to take his place. The Duke, 1 however, was 
soon called away by the startling news that Napoleon had escaped 
from Elba and had landed at Cannes, 1 March. 

The Return of Napoleon from Elba (1 March, 1815). — Although 
Napoleon's return had not been wholly unexpected, no proper precau- 
tions had been taken to meet it. He came with only four hundred of 
his guards, but thousands nocked to join him as he passed through 
France. The bulk of the soldiers and the lower classes had been sorely 
disappointed by the reactionary measures of the Bourbons, who, it 
is said, had learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Many, too, were 
drawn to his side by the sole magnetism of his presence, and, 20 
March, he was once more in possession of Paris. The brief period of 
his supremacy is known as the " Hundred Days." United by pressing 
danger the Powers, who had been wrangling at Vienna, acted with 
energy, and with all possible speed the allied troops were massed on the 
frontier from the Low Countries to the Upper Rhine. To Wellington 
was assigned the command of the British, Hanoverian and Netherland 
contingents, amounting altogether to about 80,000 men, while the 
forces on the lower Rhine, numbering not far from 120,000, were placed 
under the Prussian Marshal Bliicher. Wellington took up his head- 
quarters at Brussels, while Bliicher posted his main force at Namur 
with a line of defense stretching westward almost to the town of Ligny. 
Napoleon, whose total force amounted to 125,000 men, including 20,000 
of the Imperial Guard, started from Paris, 7 June, planning to make a 
rapid dash into the Netherlands, to push between two forces opposed 
to him, to crush Bliicher, and then to fall upon Wellington before re- 
enforcements could reach him. Partly through his own fault, but more 
especially owing to the mistakes of his Marshals, his plan miscarried. 

1 Wellington had been created a duke at the close of the Peninsular war. 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 6ll 

The Waterloo Campaign, Ligny and Quatre Bras (16 June, 1815). — 

The Waterloo campaign, extending from 16 to 18 June inclusive, con- 
sisted of the double battle of Ligny and Quatre Bras, fought on the 16th, 
of the main battle of Waterloo and a skirmish at Wavre on the 18th. 
Wellington, who had expected Napoleon to advance on Brussels, re- 
mained there until well into the night of the 15th with the bulk of his 
army. He had a smaller force at Quatre Bras, sixteen miles to the 
south. At half-past two on the afternoon of the 16th, Napoleon at- 
tacked Bliicher, who had advanced the main body of his army to meet 
him at Ligny, situated six miles to the southeast of Quatre Bras. In 
a hot fight, which raged till evening, the Prussians were overwhelmed, 
but retreated in good order to Wavre some miles northward. On the 
same day, Marshal Ney was engaged in a furious battle with the Allies 
at Quatre Bras. He made two mistakes which had an important 
effect on the ultimate issue. For one thing, disregarding Napoleon's 
orders to stand merely on the defensive, he failed to furnish a contin- 
gent on which Napoleon counted to block Bliicher's retreat from Ligny, 
a manoeuvre that would have prevented the Prussians from reen- 
forcing Wellington at Waterloo on the 18th. Ney's other mistake 
was in delaying his attack until Wellington had time to hurry suf- 
ficient troops from Brussels to repulse him. With all day before 
him — for the British reinforcements did not arrive till the evening 
of the 1 6th — he lost a golden opportunity of destroying the Prince 
of Orange's inferior force of Dutch and Belgians. Wellington, 
who, after his repulse of Ney, learned of the Prussian retreat 
from Ligny, drew off his own troops towards Brussels. Then 
Napoleon himself was responsible for two costly blunders. He 
should have hastened on the 17th to join Ney and overwhelm Welling- 
ton before Bliicher could recover sufficiently to come to the assistance 
of the British commander. Not only did he fail to do so, but he also 
allowed himself to be deceived as to Bliicher's line of retreat. Cal- 
culating that he would retire to his base of supplies at Namur he sent 
Marshal Grouchy eastward, while the Prussians were hurrying straight 
north. With the comfortable but erroneous hope that he had check- 
mated Bliicher, Napoleon rested a whole day before attacking Welling- 
ton, who had taken a position just to the south of Waterloo. 

The Battle of Waterloo (18 June, 1815). — Having detached a force 
of 17,000 to guard the approach to Brussels, Wellington was left with 
only 67,000, of whom less than 24,000 were British, to face 71,000 
Frenchmen, most of them veterans of the Grand Army. His opponents 
were superior in cavalry and artillery as well, though their advantages 
were offset by the fact that they were scantily supplied with food. 



612 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Nevertheless, in the battle which Napoleon opened on the morning of 
1 8 June, the British troops with magnificent steadfastness withstood 
the furious onslaughts of the French, even a final heroic charge of the 
Imperial Guard, until Bliicher arrived to turn the scale. Grouchy, 
who finally discovered the real line of retreat of the Prussians, 
had reached Wavre too late to intercept any but a remnant. Aided 
by Bliicher's reinforcements, the Allies, charging against the broken 
columns of the French, drove them from the field. The retreat be- 
came a rout, but the troops who had borne the heat and burden of the 
day left the pursuit to the Prussians, who never stopped until they had 
chased the fleeing Frenchmen across the Sambre. With all Europe 
arming against him, the ultimate triumph of Napoleon would doubtless 
have been impossible even had he won at Waterloo ; but he might have 
prolonged the contest for some time longer. His defeat rendered im- 
mediate overthrow certain and was followed by forty years of peace. 
He abdicated for a second time, 22 June, while, in July, the Allies 
once more occupied Paris. Napoleon, after a vain effort to escape, 
surrendered on board the British ship Bellerophon. In agreement 
with the other Allied Powers the British Government sent him to the 
island of St. Helena, where he remained a prisoner till his death in 
1821. 

The British and the Congress of Vienna. The Quadruple Alliance 
(20 November, 1815) . — The work of the Congress of Vienna in settling 
the general European situation was completed in June, though the 
boundaries of France were not definitely defined till the second Treaty 
of Paris, 20 November 1815. 1 Great Britain's territorial gains, though 
they excited the contempt of Napoleon, were considerable. They 
included Malta, Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Trinidad, 
St. Lucia, Tobago, Heligoland, and the protectorate of the Ionian 
Islands. The Tsar got Austria and Prussia to sign, 26 September, a 
so-called Holy Alliance, which was a fantastic scheme for uniting all 
European rulers in bonds of Christian brotherhood and pledging them 
to mutual service for the preservation of the peace. All the Continen- 
tal rulers, except the Pope and the Sultan, either joined or gave their 
approval to this " sonorous nothing," as Metternich, the Austrian 
Minister, described it. Since the leading British statesmen either 
had no sympathy with it 2 or positively distrusted it, Great Britain 
refused to become a party. It has sometimes been held responsible 

1 Reduced by the treaty of 1814 to the boundaries of 1792, they were now still 
further reduced to those of 1 790. France was also forced to pay the Allies an 
indemnity of 700,000,000 francs. 

2 Castlereagh pronounced it a "piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense." 



THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 613 

for the policy of repression which, under the guidance of Metternich, 
stifled all attempts at liberalism and nationalism in Europe for a 
number of years to come. That policy, however, was really due to 
the Quadruple Alliance, signed by Great Britain, Russia, Austria and 
Prussia, 20 November, 181 5, by which they pledged themselves to 
intervene, in case of another revolution or usurpation which might 
threaten the tranquillity of any of the States. They also arranged for 
frequent Congresses which should consider such measures as might 
be necessary " for the maintenance of the peace of Europe." 

ADDITIONAL READING FOR CHAPTERS XLV, XLVI, XLVII 

Narrative. Hunt, Political History, chs. XIV-XX, and Brodrick and 
Fotheringham, Political History of England, 1S01-1837 (1906). Robertson, 
England under the Hanoverians. Sir H. Maxwell, A Century of Empire 
(vol. I, 1909), a conservative history of the nineteenth century; vol. I covers 
the period 1801-1822. Cambridge Modern History, VI. Lecky, Eighteenth 
Century, V, to 1793. Bright, History of England, III. J. H. Rose, William 
Pitt and the. National Revival (191 1) and William Pitt and the Great War 
(191 1), the standard work on the younger Pitt and a notable contribution 
to the general history of the period; very favorable to Pitt. For further 
authorities dealing with the years 1784-18 15, see Hunt, 459-469 ; Brodrick 
and Fotheringham, 443-450; Robertson, 517-532, and Cambridge Modem 
History, VI, 902-912, and VIII, 791 ff., dealing with the French Revolution 
in general, and IX, 773 fL, dealing primarily with the Napoleonic Wars. 

India. Bright, III, 1113-1134, contains a good survey of India from 
1600 to 1784, see also Seeley's Expansion of England, pt. II. A. D. Innes, 
A Short History of the British in India (1902). A. C. Lyall, The Rise and 
Expansion of the British Dominion in India (5th ed., 1910). The best 
apology for Warren Hastings is to be found in G. W. Hastings, Vindication 
of Warren Hastings (1909) and should be contrasted with Macaulay's famous 
essays on Hastings. For further references in India, see Cambridge Modern 
History, VI, 925-932; Robertson, 523, 530; Hunt, 468; Brodrick and 
Fotheringham, 449. See also chs. LVII and LX below. 

Ireland. O'Connor Morris, Ireland, i4Q4-igo5 (2d ed., R. Dunlop, 
1909). Lecky, Ireland, in the Eighteenth Century, I-V. Froude, The English 
in Ireland. T. D. Ingram, Critical Examination of Irish History (2 vols., 
1900) and History of the Irish Union (1887) an attempt to justify the English 
methods. For further references see Cambridge Modem History, VI (913- 
924), VIII (878-882); Hunt, 468, Robertson, 521-22. See Turner and 
Joyce already cited. 

French Revolution. Lecky, VI. J. H. Rose, The Revolutionary and 
Napoleonic Era (1901). H. M. Stephens, European History, 178Q-1815 
(1900). L. H. Holt and A. W. Chilton, A Brief History of Europe, iy8g- 
1815 (1919). For further references see Cambridge Modem History, VIII, 



614 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

791 ft., especially 791-793- For the Napoleonic Era, J. H. Rose, Napoleon 
(2 vols'., 1902, 1 vol. ed., 1907). Lanfrey, History of Napoleon I. (Eng. tr. 
4 vols., '1871-79) incomplete, very hostile to Napoleon. For further refer- 
ences see Cambridge Modern History, IX, 773 ff., especiaUy 773-786. 

Military and Naval. Fortescue, British Army, III-VIII, to 181 2. Sir 
W. Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula (6 vols., 1834-1840). C. 
Oman, History of the Peninsular War (vols. I-IV to 1811, 1902-1911) and 
Wellington's Army, 1809-1814 (191$)- J- C. Ropes, The Campaign of 
Waterloo (1892-3). Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolu- 
tion (2 vols., 1893) ; Life of Nelson (2 vols., 1897) ; and Sea Power in its 
Relation to the War of 18 12 (2 vols., 1905). 

Biographies and Special Works. G. Pellew, Life and Correspondence 
of Lord Sidmoulh (Addington) (3 vols., 1847). Rosebery, William Pitt 
(1891). W. Sichel, Sheridan (2 vols., 1909). R. and S. Wilberforce, Life 
of William Wilberforce (5 vols., 1839). A. G. Stapleton, The Political Life 
of George Canning (3 vols., 183 1) ; George Canning and His Friends (ed. 
J. F. Bagot, 2 vols., 1909) ; good short Lives are those by H. W. V. Temperly 
(1905) and J. A. R. Marriott (1903). Sir H. Maxwell, The Life of Welling- 
ton (2 vols., 1899). W. T. Laprade, England and the French Revolution 
(1909). W. T. Hall, British Radicalism, i-jqi-ijqj (191 2). P. A. Brown, 
The Influence of the French Revolution in English History (19 18).' Fortescue, 
British Statesmen of the Great War, iygj-1814 (191 1) marked by strong 
prejudices. 

Select ions from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 256-259. Robert- 
son, Select Statutes, pt. I, nos. XXXVIII-XLIII ; pt. II, XXII-XXIV. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

FROM THE OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO THE EVE OF THE 
GREAT REFORM BILL. THE LAST YEARS OF GEORGE III AND 
THE REIGN OF GEORGE IV (1815-1830) 

The Period from 181 5 to 1830. — The close of the War was hailed in 
England with general rejoicing. The dominant Tory party nourished 
the comfortable assurance that their aristocratic privileges, which the 
French had threatened to subvert, were now secure. With the cessa- 
tion of the drain of heavy war taxes and the end of the vexatious 
Continental System, the masses hoped for a return of prosperity and 
contentment. Instead, the peace, which only the farmers had 
dreaded, was marked, during its first few years, by discontent, agita- 
tion, violence and repression. Happily this grievous state of affairs 
did not last very long; for economic conditions began to improve, 
manifestations of popular unrest ceased for a time, and far-reaching 
reforms were undertaken which profoundly changed the industrial, 
social, religious, and political system. The Industrial Revolution, 
beginning in the previous century, bad produced a great body of 
wealthy merchants, manufacturers and traders who were bound to 
demand an increasing share in the control of public affairs. Moreover, 
the principle of equality promulgated by the French Revolution acted 
as an inevitable stimulus, so soon as the danger from France had been 
overcome and the unrest in England had been quieted. Yet, while 
the humbler folk gained something by these changes, they represented 
in a large degree a triumph of the middle classes. 

The Political Situation at the Close of the War. — Lord Liverpool, 
Premier from 181 2 until 1827, was only nominal head of the Govern- 
ment, occupied chiefly in trying to induce his Ministers to work in 
harmony. The real directors of the Cabinet policy, during the half 
dozen years following the close of the Great War, were Viscount Castle- 
reagh, Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons, and 
Lord Chancellor Eldon, whose regime was marked by legislative 
stagnation and the repression of all popular demands. The Whig 

615 



616 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Opposition was torn by internal divisions between conservatives and 
the Radicals * and discredited by the hot zeal of the latter. Never- 
theless, divided and discountenanced as they were, they manfully 
raised their voice against the dominant oligarchy and cried for 
" peace, retrenchment and reform." They accused the Government 
of designing to maintain an expensive establishment in order to aid 
Continental Sovereigns in the suppression of popular rights, and of 
reckless extravagance in other respects. The first charge was, to some 
degree, justified by the aims of the Quadruple Alliance to which Great 
Britain was a party ; the second was even more well founded. The 
War bad fostered a spirit of wastefulness which the example of the 
Regent, who regarded himself as the " first gentleman in Europe," 
further encouraged. The public debt had climbed to over £860,000,- 
000, bearing an annual interest of more than £32,000,000, while George 
every year spent more than twice the sum allotted to him in the Civil 
List. 

Industrial Depression and Distress among the People. — The 
thriftlessness of the Government and the upper classes was all the 
more indefensible since, in place of the expected prosperity, the 
country had to face a period of acute distress. During the War 
British manufactures and commerce had thriven, owing to the success- 
ful evasion of trade restrictions, to the effective protection rendered 
by the British navy, and to the enormous demand for clothes, food, 
and munitions of war to support the armies and the fleets. The 
pressure of military necessity and the dangers involved in the traffic 
had forced prices up to dizzy heights. With the advent of peace, 
inflated prices dropped to their normal level. Continental countries, 
so long devastated by war, bought as little as possible and sought to 
build up their own shattered industries. Moreover, the reduction 
of the army and navy to a peace footing flooded the country with men 
seeking employment. Owing to the increasing use of labor-saving 
machinery there was little or no opportunity in the industries, while 
a bad harvest in 1816 threw numbers of agricultural laborers out of 
work. Widespread distress led to alarming outbursts of violence — 
to rick-burning and machine-breaking, while the authorities, who 
attributed all this to revolutionary spirit rather than to misery, 
resorted to coercive legislation and repression instead of seeking 
remedies to alleviate the causes of discontent. The only excuse for 
their attitude was the fact that political agitators were busy inflaming 
the mob in addresses and pamphlets. Radicals were of all grades: 
some were " visionary and sincere," some were " unprincipled and 

1 This group got its name from its advocacy of " radical reform." 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 617 

self-seeking," some were socialists, others looked merely toward politi- 
cal reform. The man who exercised perhaps the greatest influence was 
William Cobbett, through the medium of his Weekly Political Register, 
and he, even though some of his demands were wildly extreme, was 
not in favor of violence at all. Yet hide-bound Tory Ministers lumped 
the Radicals, violent and peaceful, frenzied and sensible, without 
discrimination, as revolutionists. Many, even of the Whigs, sought to 
clear their skirts of contamination by violent denunciation of those 
who held more advanced views than themselves. Pitt had at least 
this justification for repression, that he had to deal with revolutionary 
agitators looking for aid to the men and arms of France. Now there 
was no such danger : " not Jacobin theories, but economic and social 
facts were the real causes of the disturbances " which filled the winter 
of 1816-1817. 

The Disturbances of 1816-1817. The Repressive Policy of the Gov- 
ernment. — Plans were made for a great demonstration, 2 December, 
1 81 6, but the mob, after doing some damage and causing some blood- 
shed, was easily dispersed. In February, 181 7, the Regent's carriage 
was attacked on his return from the opening of Parliament. Fearing 
that a design existed to subvert existing institutions and to distribute 
or destroy all private property, the Government, thereupon, launched 
a series of repressive measures. A new Seditious Meetings Bill was 
passed ; x the Habeas Corpus Act was again suspended, 2 and the 
local magistrates were ordered to seize all persons charged with pub- 
lishing or writing seditious or blasphemous literature. The most 
serious manifestation of discontent was the" Derbyshire Insurrection," 
in which armed rioters, forcing the more peacefully inclined to join 
their ranks, terrorized the neighborhood. The magnitude and danger 
of this and other outbreaks was greatly exaggerated by a Govern- 
ment agent, known as " Oliver the Spy." Doubtless, too, he helped 
to stir up risings for his own purposes, though it is not true, as some 
believed at the time, that the Government encouraged him in this 
sort of thing; nevertheless, the authorities were all too ready to see 
evidences of organized conspiracy in isolated outbreaks. Moreover, 
they went altogether too far, in most instances, in charging the accused 
with treason. The juries were with the people, so that, except in 
the case of Derbyshire rioters, three of whom were sentenced to death 
and several to transportation, no convictions were secured. While 
this tended to bring the authorities into contempt, the manifestations 

1 The measure of 1795 had been limited in duration. 

2 The suspension lasted till 1818. Since that date the suspension has never been 
repeated in England. 



6l8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of 1816-1817 proved very disastrous to the Whig party. Those 
who sided with the repressive policy lost their influence with the 
masses, while those who showed popular sympathy were shunned by 
moderate men as dangerous radicals. 

The "Peterloo," or Manchester Massacre (1819). — Owing to a 
temporary return of better times comparative quiet prevailed in 1818 ; 
but, in 1 819, another bad harvest, together with renewed industrial 
depression, brought fresh trouble. The agitation for parliamentary 
reform reached a fever heat. In Manchester, which did not enjoy 
the privilege of sending regular members to Parliament, an enormous 
meeting was planned for 16 August to choose a " legislative repre- 
sentative." Although the magistrate declined to authorize the pro- 
posed meeting, 50,000 people assembled in St. Peter's Fields bearing 
banners with : " Equal representation or death," and similar inscrip- 
tions. In an attempt to arrest the speaker who was to address the 
meeting, the magistrates, losing their heads, ordered the mounted 
soldiery to charge the crowd. As a result, five or six were killed and 
about fifty wounded. Rumor, however, greatly exaggerated the 
number, and popular sentiment was bitter. The affair is known to 
history as the " Manchester " or " Peterloo Massacre." Parliament, 
directly it met, passed a series of measures, known as the " Six Acts," 
reviving and extending the temporary legislation of 181 7. The first 
two, empowering the magistrates to seize arms and to prevent military 
training for unlawful purposes, as well as the third, designed to secure 
speedy trials, were justifiable. The fourth, providing for the punish- 
ment of publishers of seditious libels and the seizure of their works, 
was not long enforced and was repealed in 1830. The fifth, aimed at 
publications like Cobbett's " two-penny trash," 1 imposed a stamp 
duty on small pamphlets. 2 The sixth act was the most burdensome of 
all. Prohibiting meetings in corporate towns and counties unless 
summoned by the Mayor and the Lord Lieutenant respectively, it fell 
with peculiar heaviness on towns like Manchester, which, since they 
were unrepresented in Parliament, were thus practically deprived 
of their only means of voicing their grievances. Happily the duration 
of the Acts was limited to five years. Once more, economic conditions 
improved, and there was little manifestation of popular discontent for 
some time to come. 

The End of the Regency (1820). The Accession and Character of 
George IV. — George III died, 29 January, 1820, after lingering on 
for a decade as a blind and imbecile wreck. George IV, as his suc- 

1 His Political Register, which sold for 2d. 

2 A similar tax on newspapers had been in force since Queen Anne's time. 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 619 

cessor now came to be called, had reached his fifty-eighth year. His 
manners, when he chose, were gracious and winning; but he never 
acquired any stability of character, he never shook off those vices 
for which he was so notorious in his youth. Moreover, his word could 
never be trusted ; he was mean and treacherous to his father, to his 
wife, to his daughter, and to his subjects. More wicked Kings have 
reigned over England, but none who was more contemptible. One 
service only the country owes him ; just because he was so despicable, 
the growth of the personal power of the Sovereign, which his father 
had done so much to revive, received a decided check. 

Queen Caroline and Her History (1795-1820). — In the first year 
of his reign, George and his Ministers had to face a crisis growing out 
of the King's relations with his unfortunate Queen Caroline. The 
Ministry weathered the storm which threatened its destruction ; but 
the loyalty and respect of the middle classes for the Sovereign and his 
supporters were shaken beyond recovery. Caroline, daughter of the 
Duke of Brunswick, had been forced into this ill-starred marriage 
against her will 8 April, 1795, while the Prince had consented 1 solely 
because it was the only condition on which Parliament would vote 
to pay his debts. Her good qualities he could not appreciate, and her 
frivolity, her indiscretions, and lack of breeding shocked his fastidious 
nature. They separated in 1796, though she continued to live in the 
neighborhood of London until 1814, when she went abroad. Her manner 
of life was at least questionable, and, in 1818, the Regent sent over a 
secret committee to secure evidence for a divorce ; but it was the 
Queen herself who finally forced the issue. Already smarting from 
the humiliation of receiving no official recognition at foreign courts, 
she was stung to fury when her name was omitted from the new Prayer 
Book issued at the accession of her royal Consort. 2 So in June, 1820, 
she started for England to appeal to the people and to plead her cause 
in person. Public chivalry was aroused in the cause of a woman 
who, whatever her faults, had been despitefully treated by one who 
was a notorious evil liver, while the Whig politicians rallied to her 
support as a means of striking both at the party in power and the King 
who had deserted them. 

The Struggle over Her Divorce (1820). — After Caroline had re- 
fused any concession on the two essential points — her formal recogni- 

1 In 1785 he had married secretly Mrs. Fitzherbert, a widow of Roman Catholic 
faith ; but the match was held to be illegal, because contrary to the provisions of 
the Royal Marriage Act. She was ultimately awarded a pension and lived till 

1837. 

2 It is customary to insert a prayer for the King and Queen by name. 



620 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

tion at foreign courts and the insertion of her name in the Prayer Book 
— Lord Liverpool introduced a bill to deprive her of her title and to 
divorce her from King George ; but in the face of a steadily dwindling 
majority, the Prime Minister finally withdrew the measure. The 
news was hailed with tumults of joy, and London was illuminated for 
three nights. Thus encouraged, Caroline continued the fight; yet 
she failed to get her name in the Prayer Book. Further, she failed 
in a frantic effort to have herself crowned with the King, and alienated 
many by committing the fatal blunder of making an undignified 
attempt to force her way into Westminster Abbey on coronation day, 
19 July, 1821. She did not long survive her disappointment ; for she 
died, 7 August, much to the relief of King George. 

The Advent of the Liberal Tories (1822). — While Liverpool's 
Tory Ministry hung on till 1827, its character was profoundly modified 
in 1822. Napoleon, disturber of the peace of Europe, was dead, 
popular outbreaks had ceased, and the middle class, relieved from 
fear of invasion or revolution, were prepared to demand more freedom 
of commerce, a greater voice in public affairs, and, in general, a re- 
sumption of the work of reform in which Pitt had been so rudely 
interrupted. The Queen's cause had served as a means of focusing 
and manifesting their strength, and had made it clear to the tyrannical 
clique who had thus far clung so stoutly to the existing system, that 
at least some degree of concession was necessary. In consequence 
they took the momentous step of admitting into the Cabinet four 
liberal Tories, who forthwith set on foot a series of legislative and 
administrative changes which opened a new era. 

Peel, Canning, and Huskisson. — In January, 1822, Robert Peel 
(1 788-1 850), who was destined for a remarkable future, became 
Home Secretary. On 12 August Castlereagh l committed suicide. 
Contemptuous of popular aspiration and stifler of progress though he 
was, it should not be forgotten that he was largely responsible for the 
effective reorganization of the British army and for the Peninsular 
campaign, that he selected and supported Wellington, that he headed 
the combination of Powers that overcame Napoleon and played a 
leading role in shaping the peace which, though all too regardless of 
liberty and nationality, averted another European conflict for fifty 
years. George Canning (1 770-1827), who succeeded him as Foreign 
Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons, was brilliant, versatile, 
progressive, and doubtless one of the most eloquent orators and one of 
the most skillful debaters and parliamentary managers of the century. 
Many, however, distrusted his sincerity and his judgment. William 
1 He had succeeded his father as Marquis of Londonderry in 182 1. 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 621 

Huskisson (1770— 1830), who became President of the Board of Trade, 
though his abilities were only slowly recognized, was the greatest 
authority of his time in finance, trade, and commerce. Canning, 
burdened with the double weight of the home and foreign policy of his 
country, depended much upon his new colleagues for initial sugges- 
tions and the working out of details in domestic reforms. The re- 
medial legislation which they undertook covered all sorts of fields — 
legal, judicial, social, colonial, commercial, and industrial. While 
great strides were made during the next few years, much remained for 
later generations to perfect and complete. 

The Beginning of Huskisson's Reforms. His Colonial Policy. — 
In 1823 Huskisson substantially modified the operation of the Naviga- 
tion Laws, though they were not actually repealed till 1849. By a 
Reciprocity of Duties Bill, European countries were allowed a share 
in the British Colonial trade, subject to certain restrictions, provided 
they would extend equal privileges to Great Britain. 1 Contrary 
to the prevailing notion that the British Colonial system was a mo- 
nopoly belonging to the Mother Country because of the protection 
and defense which she rendered, Huskisson declared that the trade 
interests of the Colonies deserved consideration and that they were 
inseparably bound up with those of England. The Home trader 
continued to receive a certain preference in tariffs ; but Colonial 
commerce and immigration were systematically fostered. While 
some abuses persisted, Huskisson's wise and generous policy aroused 
a sentiment of loyalty in the Colonies hitherto unequaled. 

His Tariff and Taxation Reforms. — In this same year Great Britain, 
doubtless owing to Huskisson's suggestion, was finally relieved of that 
old incubus the Sinking Fund. Henceforth, it was provided that no 
additions were to be made to the Sinking Fund except from the sur- 
plus for the year. Huskisson proceeded, in 1824, to grapple with the 
whole existing system of tariffs and taxation. Much as Pitt had done 
to unravel the tangle, hosts of anomalies remained. Furthermore, 
many new taxes had been imposed in a more or less random fashion 
to meet the needs of a war revenue. There were bounties to assist 
old and decrepit industries, while those that were young and growing 
received no support. Many productions, propped up by bounties, 
were in turn weighed down by a heavy excise. Furthermore, trade 
and manufactures were hampered by vexatious duties. Huskisson 
was in principle a free trader. Convinced that bounties and pro- 
hibitive restrictions fostered unprofitable industries and discouraged 
invention and progress, he abolished as many as he could, and pro- 

1 The United States had secured similar concessions in 1814 



622 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

vided for the gradual doing away with many more. At the same time, 
he swept away various unproductive taxes, revising others or dis- 
tributing them more equally. In remodeling the tariff he followed 
the plan of leaving a slight duty to protect the manufacturer, as well 
as further to assist him by making raw materials as free as possible. 
The old duties ranged from 1 8 to 40 per cent, those which Huskisson 
substituted, from 15 to 30. The loss of revenue due to reduction in 
taxes was, to a large degree, offset by increase of trade as well as by 
the future suppression of smuggling, which the old duties had en- 
couraged. Much as Huskisson's measures contributed to the strik- 
ing increase in exports and shipping which followed, other causes 
were, to a still greater degree, operative. The Spanish-American 
colonies threw off the yoke of Spain and opened their trade freely to 
the world. The Portuguese possession of Brazil, which became an 
independent empire in 1822, did the like. Moreover, commercial 
relations with the United States steadily improved after the War of 
181 2. And, finally, the recovery of the European Continent from its 
exhaustion affected England as a buyer, as a seller, and as a distrib- 
uting agent. 

His Combination Laws (1824-1825). — Huskisson was also respon- 
sible for various measures regulating and improving the conditions 
of the working classes and their relations with the capitalists. Laws 
forbidding the exportation of machinery and the emigration of laborers, 
which it had always been difficult to enforce, were abolished. In 
1824 he passed an Act allowing peaceful workingmen to meet without 
penalty, and, indeed, legalizing every sort of combination. This 
step, however, had to be partially retraced the following year ; for, 
owing to a temporary return of hard times, a number of disturbances 
and riots broke out. In consequence, a new Act was passed in 1825 
forbidding certain kinds of meetings and empowering the magis- 
trates to deal in a summary fashion with either employers or workmen 
who resorted to threats or intimidation. 

Canning's Ministry (April-August, 1827). — On 17 February, 1827, 
a stroke of paralysis brought Lord Liverpool's long career as Prime 
Minister to a sudden end. For some time his tact alone had held the 
two factions in the Cabinet together, for they had practically nothing 
in common except opposition to parliamentary reform. Now a split 
was inevitable. The progressive section led by Canning, which stood 
for aiding subject nationalities abroad and for Catholic emancipation 
and the extension of free trade at home, had a majority in the Com- 
mons, while the chief strength of the old Eldonian Tories was in the 
House of Lords. Canning was the logical successor as Premier, but 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 623 

he was broken in health and bitterly opposed by the King, partly 
because of his advanced views and partly because he had championed 
the cause of Queen Caroline. Wellington declined the post, and after 
the Government had been six weeks without a head, George finally 
gave in. Canning, during the few months that he survived, had to 
fight against tremendous odds. The chief struggle centered about an 
attempt to substitute for an Act of 181 5, prohibiting the import of 
foreign corn free of duty until the domestic price had reached 80 
shillings the quarter, a measure providing for a sliding scale of duties 
which went down as the price went up. The artisans and the agri- 
cultural laborers — who worked for hire — clamored for cheap food, 
and the manufacturers supported the change, since dear food meant 
high wages. In the teeth of the opposition of the landlords and of the 
farmers — burdened with exorbitant rents and excessive poor rates — 
the measure passed the Commons, but was blocked in the Lords by a 
hostile amendment. 

The Roman Catholic Question. — Canning died, 8 August, 1827, and 
after a transient and futile Ministry, the only one in English history 
which never faced a Parliament, the Duke of Wellington, backed by 
the landed interest and the rigid Protestants, became Premier on the 
understanding that Roman Catholic relief — for which there was 
a growing demand — was not to be made a Cabinet question. The 
Roman Catholic disabilities and penal laws, which only began to be 
mitigated in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, exhibited a 
harshness and an ingenuity of cruelty and oppression which even the 
circumstances that called them forth cannot justify. By the Acts 
of 1562 and 1678 Roman Catholics were excluded from both Houses 
of Parliament, by the Test Act all public offices, civil and military, 
were closed to them, and by an Act of 1696 they were even deprived of 
the right to vote. Such were their political disabilities. In addi- 
tion, they were subject to penal laws which if enforced would have 
rendered their position well-nigh intolerable. It should be said, 
however, that as the danger from papal aggression and Jacobitism 
disappeared and as rationalism and religious indifference began to 
spread, the penal laws ceased to be enforced. These " ferocious 
threats " were mostly effaced from the Statute-book in 1778 and 1791 ; 
but the political disabilities remained. 

The Struggle for Catholic Emancipation. Daniel O' Conn ell. — 
Pitt, as has been seen, failed to secure further measures of Catholic 
relief in fulfillment of the pledges given to carry the Union. Various 
other enlightened statesmen championed the cause in Parliament ; 
but the only fruit of years of struggle was the Military and Naval 



624 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Officers' Oath Bill of 1817, opening all ranks in the service to Roman 
Catholics. At the same time the agitation was being actively carried 
on in Ireland. The old agrarian difficulties — absenteeism, rack- 
renting and tithes — still lay at the root of the discontent of the lesser 
folk ; but their leaders pushed to the front the question of the political 
disabilities — exclusion from office and Parliament. Their most 
skillful organizer and agitator was Daniel O'Connell, a Roman Catholic 
barrister, whose knowledge of his countrymen, coupled with wit, 
eloquence, and fervid enthusiasm, made him a popular idol. Organ- 
ized societies and mass meetings were molded by his masterly hand 
into perfect and responsive instruments, and no one did more than he 
to arouse a truly national feeling. Although often violent in his 
language he always opposed the use of force, declaring on one occasion 
that " no political change is worth a drop of human blood." In 1823 
he founded the Catholic Association for peaceful and public agitation 
of grievances. When the Government in alarm passed a bill aiming to 
declare illegal not only this but all societies for similar objects, the 
resourceful O'Connell forthwith founded a new association which 
evaded the terms of the Act. 

The Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. The Clare Election 
(1828). — In 1828, Lord John Russell, destined to become one of the 
Whig leaders, carried through Parliament a measure for repealing 
the provisions in the Test and Corporation Acts, which required as a 
qualification for office, the taking of the sacrament according to the 
Anglican form. Thus the Protestant Dissenters were admitted to 
privileges which they had enjoyed hitherto only by an ungracious 
indemnity. Catholics were still excluded by the necessity of taking the 
Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, 1 but their victory was not far 
off. During this same year there was a by-election for Parliament 
in the county Clare. O'Connell became a candidate, to the amaze- 
ment of everybody, for, even if elected, he was disqualified from sitting. 
In a five days' contest in which he and the priests took care that the 
proceedings should be absolutely peaceful, he won a complete triumph. 
The outcome of the election convinced Wellington that political 
equality could no longer be withheld from the Roman Catholics ex- 
cept at the risk of civil war. 

The Passage of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill (1829). — 
Any other Prime Minister would have resigned. By remaining in 

1 By the Act of 1828 a new declaration for the protection of the Church of Eng- 
land was required from all holders of any office, employment, or place of trust. 
Since it had to be affirmed "upon the true faith of a Christian," Jews were ex- 
cluded, not only from office but from Parliament. 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 625 

office and bending all his energies to carry the measure he was pledged 
to oppose, the Duke was furiously denounced by the old line Tories 
as' a betrayer of their principles. Although his courage and honesty 
were above question, he failed to understand the English party system. 
His political tactics were those of the general — to hold a position as 
long as possible and then to yield ; moreover, he had a sense of public 
duty that was superior to party allegiance. Convinced that delay 
was fatal he realized that no one in the country was as likely as himself 
to overcome the obstinacy of the King. After notice had already 
been given that the Bill would be introduced, King George sought to 
interpose an obstacle by declaring that he would consent to no alter- 
ation in the Oath of Supremacy. Wellington at once resigned, and, 
finding it impossible to form another Ministry, George was obliged 
to give way. The measure passed the House of Commons, and poor 
old Eldon, though he shed tears and foretold the ruin of the British 
Empire, failed to induce the majority of the Toiy peers to vote against 
it. While the King reluctantly signed the measure he vented his 
spite by treating its supporters with premeditated rudeness and by 
showering favors upon those who had opposed it. 

The Terms of the Act. — The Act conceded full political and civil 
rights to Roman Catholics, with certain specified exceptions and under 
certain conditions devised as safeguards. The Oaths of Allegiance, 
Supremacy, and Abjuration were done away with, as well as the re- 
nunciation of belief in transubstantiation, invocation of saints, and 
the sacrifice of the mass. Instead, members of Parliament and office 
holders had to take a new oath swearing allegiance to the Sovereign, 
renouncing the temporal supremacy of the Pope within the realm, 
and pledging support to the Protestant settlement of Church and 
State. Priests were prohibited from sitting in Parliament 1 and 
Roman Catholics were excluded from the offices of Sovereign, Lord 
Chancellor of England or Ireland, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
These concessions — a tardy measure of justice — did not have the 
hoped-for effect in quieting the Irish discontent ; indeed, Wellington's 
frank admission in the House of Lords that he had only acted from 
dread of civil war, encouraged the use of force in time to come. Two 
further reasons help to explain the dissatisfaction. For one thing, 
because so many had voted so boldly in the recent Clare election, 
the forty-shilling freeholders were disfranchised and the qualification 
for voting raised to ten pounds. Moreover, apparently for the express 

1 Church of England clergymen had been excluded from the House of Commons 
since 1801. A few disabilities still remained ; for example, marriages celebrated by 
Catholic priests were not recognized by law till 1838. 

2S 



626 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

purpose of excluding O'Connell, the Government had unwisely in- 
serted a clause in the Relief Bill that its provisions should not be 
retroactive. O'Connell appeared at the bar of the House prepared to 
take the new oath, but, though he argued his case with moderation 
and skill, was turned away. He was easily reelected ; but the sense- 
less and ungracious trick which had been practiced on him turned 
him into a fiery advocate of the repeal of the Union. 

The Last Months of the Wellington Ministry, and the Death of 
George IV. — The last months of the Wellington Ministry were 
gloomy enough, for the Duke and his supporters never recovered their 
popularity. The Tories regarded them as traitors, the King never for- 
gave them for forcing his hand, while the Canningites were hopelessly 
alienated, and as a matter of fact, most of them went over to the 
Whigs, who were once more becoming strongly organized. Another 
factor which told against Wellington was that parliamentary reform, 
to which he was stoutly opposed, had now become an issue bound to 
prevail. George IV died, 26 June, 1830, unloved and unregretted. 
With the accession of his brother William, who was friendly to 
reform, the Duke's Ministry was doomed. Events abroad, which 
reached a crisis in 1830, gave great impetus to the popular movement 
in England. 

Great Britain and the European Situation at the Close of the Great 
War. — The effect of the French Revolution and of the Napoleonic 
Wars had been, on the one hand, to arouse a spirit of liberty and 
national independence among the peoples of many Continental States, 
on the other, to unite most of the European Sovereigns in a policy 
of reaction and repression. The chief engine for carrying through 
this work was the Quadruple Alliance, which provided for frequent 
Congresses, where all movements which threatened the tranquillity 
of Europe were discussed, and concerted action determined. Prince 
Metternich, the Austrian Minister, was the leading spirit of the 
despotic regime. W 7 hile he was opposed to any intervention which 
might disturb the balance of power, he induced the larger States of 
Germany to combine under Prussian leadership for the purpose of 
aiding the lesser to stifle the least signs of revolution ; he stood ready 
to crush out all evidences of unrest in Italy, where through the posses- 
sion of Lombardy and Venice, Austrian interests were predominant ; and 
he was pledged to maintain the Bourbons of France. Castlereagh, who 
guided British foreign policy, was a far more decided advocate of non- 
intervention, while Alexander of Russia represented the opposite policy. 

A Year of Revolutions (1820). — The year 1820 witnessed a series 
of revolutions. The first occurred in Spain. Though Alexander was 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILE 627 

hot for joint intervention, Castlereagh, backed by Metternich, suc- 
ceeded in frustrating his designs. In the summer, revolts followed in 
Naples, Sicily, and Portugal. Castlereagh was quite willing to allow 
Austria to interfere in Italy, on the ground that her possessions were 
endangered ; but he declared against proposals of joint intervention. 
He was really in sympathy with crushing revolutionary movements, 
and seems to have given the European Powers private assurances of 
support, though he played, to satisfy British public opinion, a double 
game by openly opposing their efforts. The upshot was that Austria 
sent an army to Naples which restored the deposed King and like- 
wise suppressed a revolt which had broken out in Piedmont. Thus, 
with the help of Castlereagh, she carried out a policy of intervention 
when it suited her interests, and defeated the Russian project for joint 
action, which she regarded with disfavor. 

The Spanish Situation (1820-18.23). — The situation in Spain 
was complicated from the fact that the ultra-royalists, who had secured 
control in France, fearing the contagion of the Spanish revolutionary 
principles, insisted upon intervention. Castlereagh, before his death, 
12 August, 1822, had already made up his mind to resist the French 
as he had previously resisted the Russian proposals of intervention, 
and Canning, his successor as Foreign Secretary, adopted the same 
attitude ; where he differed from his predecessor was in his sincere 
belief that each nation should be left free to choose its own form of 
government, and he acted with an energy that was in striking con- 
trast to the half-heartedness of the late Foreign Secretary. In spite 
of the efforts of Wellington, who was sent as plenipotentiary to a 
Congress at Verona, the project of French intervention was adopted, 
and Canning finally agreed not to interfere with the invaders so long 
as they observed certain conditions : they should not destroy the 
independence of Spain; France should not possess herself of any 
Spanish colonies; and the occupation should not be permanent. A 
French army entered Spain in April, 1823. Before the close of the 
year the Revolution was suppressed and absolutism was again trium- 
phant. 

Canning and the Recognition of the South American Republics 
(1823-1825). — In more than one other direction, however, Canning 
contributed to check the reactionaries, notably in the Portuguese 
and Spanish colonies in America, and in Greece. In October, 1822, 
Pedro, son of the King of Portugal, proclaimed the independence 
of Brazil and assumed the title of Emperor, a step which was recog- 
nized by the Portuguese Sovereign, July, 1825, in accordance with the 
recommendations of a conference in London composed of British, 



628 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Austrian, Portuguese, and Brazilian representatives. Already, in 
January, 1825, Great Britain, following the lead of the United States, 
had recognized the independence of Mexico and of two of the republics 
in South America where revolutions against Spain had been going 
on since 18 10. The possibility of European intervention was pre- 
vented by the efforts of Canning and the United States. While the 
American Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, declined the pro- 
posals of the British Foreign Minister for joint action, Monroe, in 
his famous presidential message of December, 1823, declared, in sub- 
stance, that interference on the part of any European Power with 
American Governments, whose independence had been maintained 
and recognized by the United States, would be regarded in the light 
of an unfriendly act. 1 Thus supported, Canning was able to pre- 
vent France from calling in the other Powers to undertake the recon- 
quest of the Spanish colonies. In phrases which have become famous, 
Canning declared in Parliament : " Contemplating Spain such as 
our ancestors had known her, I resolved that if France had Spain, it 
should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the New World in 
existence, to redress the balance of the old." As a matter of fact, he 
called nothing into existence ; he merely recognized States that had 
already accomplished their independence and took the step after the 
United States had led the way. Nevertheless, the significance of 
his achievement must not be forgotten. In the face of a great Euro- 
pean combination and of the opposition of King George, backed by a 
strong party in the Cabinet, he had arrayed his country on the side 
of revolutionary Governments against the forces of reaction. 

Canning and the Greek Revolution (1823-1827). — In eastern 
Europe also, where a different problem had to be faced, Canning 
adopted the cause of an insurgent people. In 1821 the Greeks had 
risen in revolt against the Turks, to whom they had long beemsubject. 
Here, too, Russia was keen for intervention, but this time on the side 
of the oppressed nationality. Popular sentiment in Great Britain was 
naturally inclined to favor the Greeks, while Castlereagh opposed 
the Russian projects on two grounds. He feared the encourage- 
ment it might lend to the revolutionary spirit which was spreading 
through Europe, and he feared, still more, that defeat of the Turks by 
Russian arms would lead to Russian supremacy in the Black Sea 
1 The sentences in which this view was expressed, as well as those aimed against 
the designs of Russia on the northwest coast, which announced that : "the American 
Continents . . . are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future coloniza- 
tion by any European Power," were written by Adams. The doctrine which they 
embody has been rightly called the "Monroe Doctrine," in that Monroe assumed 
the responsibility. It was the enunciation of a principle as old as Washington. 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 629 

and Asia Minor, and to a consequent menace of the British power in the 
Mediterranean and in India. While Canning had no sympathy 
with the first consideration, the question of Russian aggrandizement 
presented a serious problem in his eyes. He did not hesitate to 
recognize the Greeks as belligerents, 25 March, 1823 ; but, for some 
time, he stood out against acknowledging their independence or inter- 
vening with force of arms on their behalf, and sought to secure con- 
cessions from the Turks by mediation. He was only forced to con- 
template intervention by the furious devastation and bloodshed 
of Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, ruler of Egypt, whom the 
Sultan called in to reduce Morea. Popular enthusiasm for the Greek 
cause in England and elsewhere was tremendous. Volunteers flocked 
to the scene of action, and money and supplies were joyfully con- 
tributed. Canning, who continued his policy of cautious restraint, 
signed, 6 July, 1827, just before his final illness, the Treaty of London, 
which aimed to secure autonomy for the Greeks, coupled with the 
payment of tribute to the Sultan. In the event of Turkey's refusal, 
the allied fleets of Great Britain, France and Russia were to combine 
in enforcing the terms. 

Triumph of Greek Independence (1829). — The reply of the Porte 
was to order a fleet from Egypt which took its station in the harbor of 
Navarino under the command of Ibrahim. Thence he landed troops, 
harried the land and massacred the inhabitants at will. This was too 
much for Admiral Codrington, the commander of the allied squadron, 
who entered the harbor, 20 October, 1827, and inflicted a crushing 
defeat upon his adversaries. Canning, who might have supported 
him, was no more, while Wellington, who soon became Premier, was 
disinclined to break with Turkey in the interests of the Greeks. Hence 
Codrington's noble victory was described in the King's speech of 29 
January, 1828, as " a collision wholly unexpected by his Majesty," 
and "an untoward event," which "his Majesty hoped would not be 
followed by further hostilities." This declaration, which raised a 
storm of protest on the part of the friends of Greek freedom, en- 
couraged Turkey to demand satisfaction for the destruction of her 
fleet. When this insolent demand was refused, she proceeded to defy 
all Europe, and Russia in particular, whom she denounced as the 
prime mover in the Greek revolt. Russia, thereupon, declared war and 
moved her troops into the Danubian provinces. In vain she urged 
Great Britain and France to send their fleets through the Dardanelles, 
though at length, the Conference of London, which had resumed its 
sittings, agreed that the French should undertake the expulsion of 
Ibrahim. Meanwhile, Codrington, who had been recalled, sailed to 



630 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Alexandria before the order went to effect, and extorted an agreement 
from Mehemet Ali to withdraw the greater part of the Egyptian 
fleet. This greatly simplified the work of the French in driving the 
invaders from the coast, while the Greeks carried on the war with the 
greatest vigor, and the Russians pressed down over the Balkans. It 
soon became clear, however, that they had got themselves into a 
dangerous position, whereupon the Tsar hastened to make terms. 
Peace was signed, 14 September, 1829, and Turkey consented to sub- 
mit the decision of the Greek question to the Conference of London. 
As a result it was provided that Greece should be erected into an 
hereditary Principality, independent of the Porte. 

The Year of Revolutions (1830). The Three Days' Rising in 
Paris (27-29 July). — The year 1830 was notable for a series 
of revolutionary movements, in which France, for the second 
time, led the way. Louis XIII died in 1824 and was succeeded by 
his brother Charles X who, with his Ministers, developed a policy of 
reaction which aroused intense opposition. The result was a revolt 
which took the form of a three days' street fight in Paris, 27-29 July. 
Charles X was driven from the throne and Louis Philippe — a de- 
scendant of the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV — was pro- 
claimed King. Wellington, convinced of the pacific policy of the new 
" Citizen King," secured his recognition and choked in its inception 
a hostile combination of Austria, Russia, and Prussia. 

The Belgian Revolution (1830). — The effect of the French revolu- 
tionary movement was first manifested in the neighboring Belgium, 
formerly the Austrian Netherlands. The Belgians had sorely chafed 
under the rule of the Dutch King William I, who had been set 
over them by the Congress of Vienna ; they were French in sympathy, 
they were Roman Catholics and chiefly engaged in manufacturing 
pursuits. The Dutch, who were the dominant partners in the united 
Kingdom, were anti-French, stanch Protestants, and mainly com- 
mercial in their interests. Furthermore, they controlled the States 
General and held a large share of the public offices, while, in addition, 
the King alienated his Belgian subjects and roused their resentment 
by a series of encroachments : among other things suspending the 
liberty of the press, and proscribing the use of French in public busi- 
ness. Following the revolt in Paris a popular rising took place in 
Brussels, 25 August, 1830, whence it spread through the provinces. 
At first the insurgents asked only for a separate administration, but 
national sentiment soon came to demand the abolition of the personal 
union. While the Powers, assembled at the London Conference to 
settle the Greek question, went to work discussing boundaries, and 



FROM OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON TO GREAT REFORM BILL 631 

the form of government which the Belgians should adopt, a Belgian 
National Congress had assembled, which proclaimed the independence 
of Belgium, voted for a constitutional Monarchy, and elected as King 
the second son of Louis Philippe. Since the Powers objected to this 
choice, the crown was afterwards tendered to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 
who accepted in January, 1832, though it was not till 1839 that the 
Dutch King finally accepted the terms of the London Conference. 

The Effect of the Revolutionary Movements on England. — From 
France and Belgium the revolutionary movement spread to various 
German States, to Switzerland, Italy, and Poland. The Continental 
uprisings played an important part in precipitating the demand for 
reform in England. The restraint which had governed the July 
revolution in Paris was of particular significance in demonstrating 
to the conservative middle classes that results could be accomplished 
without anarchy and destructive excesses. Accordingly, they led an 
attack on the aristocratic regime, in which they gained a notable 
victory in a peaceful parliamentary way. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Brodrick and Fotheringham ; Bright, III ; Maxwell, 
Century of Empire, I ; and Cambridge Modem History, X. J. A. R. Marriott, 
England since Waterloo (1913). Sir Spencer Walpole, History of England, 
1815-1856 (6 vols., cab. ed., 1907), the most thorough history of the period ; 
moderate Liberal standpoint. Harriet Martineau, History of England 
during the Thirty Years' Peace, 1816-1846 (4 vols., ed. 1877) practically 
a contemporary work. G. Slater, The Making of Modern England (1915), 
an excellent survey ; very liberal. 

Parliament and Parliamentary Reform. See especially, May, Constitu- 
tional History (ed. 1907), I, and E. Porritt, The Unreformed House of Com- 
mons (2 vols., 1902, new ed. 1909). 

Biographies and Special Works. For Wellington, Canning and Sid- 
mouth, see ch. XLVTI below. C. M. Atkinson, Life of Jeremy Bentham 
(1905). E. I. Carlyle, Life of Wm. Cobbett (1904). A. Bain, Life of James 
Mill (1882). G. Wallas, Life of Francis Place (1891). S. Walpole, Life of 
Earl Russell (2 vols., 1898). There are brief .Lives of Peel by Lord Rosebery 
(1899), J. B. Thursfield (1891), Justin McCarthy (1892), F. C. Montague 
(1888) and G. Barnett Smith (1881). The fullest work on Peel is Sir Robert 
Peel, His Life from His Private Correspondence (3 vols., 1891-99, ed. C. S. 
Parker). 

Political Parties. W. Harris, History of the Radical Party in Parliament 
(1885). C. B. R. Kent, The English Radicals (1899). T. E. Kebbel, 
History of Toryism (1886). J. A. Roebuck, History of the Whig Party 
(2 vols., 1852). W. L. Blease, A Short History of English Liberalism (1913)- 



632 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

B Ward The Dawn of the Catholic Revival, 1781-1803 (1909) and The Eve of 
Catholic Emancipation, 1803-1829 (3 vols., 1912). 

Contemporary Brougham, Memoirs of His Own Times (1871), very 
biased C G Greville, Journal of the Reigns of George IV and William IV 
Ted Henry Reeve, 1S88) ; owing to his high family connections and his 
position as clerk of the Privy Council, Greville had exceptional means of 

information. , _ . , , 

Selections from the sources. Adams, and Stephens, nos. 260-261. 
Robertson, Select Statutes, pt. I, XLIV-XLVI; pt. II, XXV-XXVI. 



CHAPTER XLIX 
ENGLAND AT THE EVE OF THE REFORM BILL 

General Features. — The period between the beginning of the In- 
dustrial Revolution and the First Reform Bill was marked by many 
evidences of progress. Manners and morals improved steadily. There 
was a growing humanitarian spirit, and in spite of the prevalence of 
laissez-faire, the legislative stagnation during the French War and the 
greater part of the ensuing decade was followed by measures for better- 
ing the condition of the subject, though little enough to improve the 
lot of the lesser folk who suffered so acutely both from the War and 
from the revolution in agriculture and industry. In literature the 
romantic revolt reached a glorious climax. 

Manufactures. — Some new methods in manufacturing were intro- 
duced ; on the whole, however, this was an age of perfecting existing 
processes, of extending the factory system and organizing labor, rather 
than of new inventions in production. The increased cheapness of 
processes is striking, — for example, in 1815 it cost only eightpence to 
spin a pound of cotton of a much finer quality than had cost forty-two 
shillings in 1775, — while the amazing growth in production is evident 
from the fact that exports had increased from £8,197,788 in 1740 to 
£58,624,550 in 1815. 

British Shipping. — The tonnage of shipping of Great Britain was 
619,000 in 1780 ; with that of Ireland added, it had gone up to 2,201,000 
in 1830. The growing dependence on world markets naturally in- 
creased the instability of trade, accentuated by the American and 
French wars, which increased the uncertainty and risk of business, 
caused violent fluctuations in prices, encouraged speculation and led 
to unsteadiness of employment. The Continental System had the 
particular effect of cutting off some sources of food supply and giving 
an artificial stimulus to English tillage. But Great Britain, thanks 
to her command of the sea, and to her improved processes in textile 
and iron manufacture, was able to increase enormously her carrying 
trade, and to extend her markets. Napoleon himself was compelled 

633 



634 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

very reluctantly to buy her goods ; while, to encourage French and 
Italian agriculture and to drain his rival of gold, he even allowed the 
export of foodstuffs to British ports in 1811. The most serious diffi- 
culties arose from the strained relations with the United States during 
the years preceding and including the War of 181 2, when, for a time, 
an important market for manufactured goods, as well as a source for 
food and raw cotton, was almost wholly cut off. As has been seen, 
the end of the French War did not bring the prosperity which 'had been 
anticipated. Continental nations were too exhausted to buy much, 
and it was some years before the peace markets grew to equal those 
which the artificial demands of the War had created. 

Road Building. — This period marked an epoch in communication 
and transportation. Thomas Telford (1 757-1834) did a notable work 
in road construction, in building canals and bridges, and in improving 
harbors, though much as Telford accomplished, the man with whom 
the modern road system is chiefly associated is John McAdam (1756- 
1836) whose process, adopted throughout the civilized world, is known 
to-day as " macadamizing." The new roads supplemented the canals 
in facilitating transportation and gave a great impetus to traveling. 
The old cumbersome vehicles drawn by strong slow horses were re- 
placed by a lighter type, and an average speed often to twelve miles 
an hour was attained. Remote, isolated towns awoke from their 
torpor and rubbed off their provincialism. Country gentlemen, who 
had hitherto traveled on horseback, commenced to make use of the 
public coaches, and, by mingling with men in other walks of life, began 
to discard their prejudices and self-sufficiency. But the real revolu- 
tion in travel and transportation was wrought by steam. 

The Steamboat and the Railroad. — The idea of steam navigation 
was very old ; but no practical results were obtained until after Watt's 
invention had proved workable. In 1807 Robert Fulton, provided 
with a Watt engine, successfully operated his Clermont on the Hudson. 
Flenry Bell's Comet began to run on the Clyde in 1813, and very soon 
steamboat travel became general. The successful application of 
steam power to rail traction was due to George Stephenson (1781- 
1848), who began life as a herder of cows, turned collier, and rose to be 
engine wright at a colliery. His first locomotive, tried in 1814, ran 
at the rate of three miles an hour. Later he became engineer for the 
first steam railway — the Stockdale and Darlington — opened in 
1825. When he was chosen to undertake the operation of a line from 
Manchester to Liverpool, he nearly wrecked the project by asserting 
that trains might be run at the rate of ten miles an hour. However, 
his Rocket, in competition for a prize which he won, attained a speed 



ENGLAND AT THE EVE OF THE REFORM BILL 635 

of thirly-five. The opening of the road, in 1830, marked the beginning 
of a new era, not only in transportation, but in opportunities for in- 
definitely increasing the employment of labor and capital. 

Agriculture. — The revolution in agriculture, although it owed much 
to the factory system, was still further stimulated by the French wars. 
During the reign of George III between five and six millions of acres 
were enclosed, and more than half the total fell within the years be- 
tween 1800 and 1820. Special Acts and agreements between parties 
were found too slow and cumbersome, so, beginning in 1801, a series 
of general Acts were passed to facilitate the work. While his predeces- 
sors had pointed the way, Arthur Young (1 741-1820) did more than 
any other single man to complete the transformation of agricultural 
methods. In 1767 he began to make tours through Great Britain and 
France, and has left invaluable information in his graphic reports. 
Until 1810 he was constantly active, urging consolidation of holdings, 
reclamation of waste, granting long leases to large tenants and the 
investment of capital in land. He spread the results of the latest 
experiments in tillage and stock breeding, advocated the use of ma- 
chinery for mowing, reaping and threshing, and fostered farmers' clubs 
and agricultural fairs. Aside from the extinction of the small culti- 
vator, the only evil result of the new development was the fact that 
the war prices encouraged many to sink money in unproductive lands 
which could only be farmed at a loss when prices fell to their normal 
level. 

Scientific Progress. — The modern era in science was heralded by 
the researches and discoveries of this period. Much of the notable 
work was done by Continental scholars ; but Englishmen contributed 
their fair share. Henry Cavendish succeeded in converting hydrogen 
and oxygen into water and proved that it was a compound made up of 
these two gases. John Daiton was the first to show that chemical 
elements are composed of atoms or ultimate particles each of definite 
weight. This atomic theory placed the science on a new basis. Sir 
Humphrey Davy, in addition to contributions on the mechanical 
theory of heat and important electrochemical researches, conferred 
a priceless boon by his invention of the safety lamp (1815-1816) for 
miners ; by covering the flame with gauze one of the most dangerous 
causes of explosions was practically eliminated. When Sir Charles 
Lyell (1 797-1875), in his Principles of Geology, showed that " the great 
geological changes of the past are not to be explained by catastrophes, 
followed by successive creations, but as the product of the continuous 
play of forces still at work," a long step was taken toward the evolu- 
tionary theory which was soon to be established by Darwin. Edward 



636 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Jenner made the momentous discovery, first published in 1798, that 
occasional vaccination with the virus of cow-pox rendered human 
beings practically immune from small-pox, and, in cases where it was 
contracted, greatly mitigated the disease, though not till 1853 did 
England take the step, already adopted by many Continental coun- 
tries, of making vaccination compulsory. 

Philosophical and Economic Thinking. — While there was a vigor- 
ous reaction against the doctrine that external objects have no exist- 
ence except in man's ideas of them, in general the period was 
more notable for its political and economic than for its purely philo- 
sophical thinking. The teachings of three men stand out preeminently. 
Adam Smith's free trade principles began to gain increasing currency. 
Jeremy Bentham (1 748-1832) was a pioneer in the aim to secure the 
greatest happiness of the greatest number by scientific legislation. 
Thomas Malthus, in his Essay on Population, 1798, argued that a 
chief source of misery was the natural tendency of population to in- 
crease more rapidly than means of subsistence, and advocated check- 
ing its growth. Yet at the same time, he admitted that disease and 
poverty operated to partially modify his law, nor was he a simply hard- 
hearted theorist ; for he enthusiastically supported the improvement 
of the lot of children by factory legislation. 

Heralds of Romantic Revolt in Poetry. — The decline in poetry 
during the second part of the eighteenth century has been attributed 
to the influence of Pope. A more important factor, however, was 
the essentially prosaic character of the age. Yet, as has been seen, 
there were evidences of tendencies to break away from convention, 
to search back into the romance and mystery of the past, to sound the 
depths of fundamental human problems and to appreciate the beau- 
ties of external nature. William Cowper (1 731-1800) unconsciously re- 
vealed a new attitude in his charming descriptions of rural life, notably 
in The Task. He was a gentle soul in whom occasional fits of gayety 
were darkened by long periods of religious melancholia. John Gil phi's 
Ride, 1783, was a product of one of his rollicking moods. Robert 
Burns (1 759-1 796), a Scotch farmer boy, was a unique apparition in 
lyric poetry. During a stormy life, brought to a premature close 
by his own weakness and folly, he produced a body of verse, ranging 
from pathos to mirth, which touches the deepest springs of human 
experience and which has the spontaneous melody of the songbird. 

The Romantic Revolt. The " Lake School." — The really epoch- 
making event in the romantic reaction was the publication, in 1798, 
of the Lyrical Ballads, a little volume which was the joint work of 
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772- 



ENGLAND AT THE EVE OF THE REFORM BILL 637 

*** 

1834). The collaboration was due to warm personal friendship and a 
common revulsion against the existing literary traditions. Yet the 
two were strikingly unlike, both as poets and men. Coleridge's mind 
was prone to soar away into the regions of the supernatural, of dream- 
land and mystery, though he never went to the lengths of inartistic 
unreality, and he clothed his weird fancies in exquisitely melodious 
verse. His finest achievements, the Ancient Mariner — contributed 
to the Lyrical Ballads — Kubla Khan, and Christabel were all written 
as early as 1801, though Christabel was not published till 1816. In his 
later life he shone chiefly as a talker, as a critic, and as an interpreter 
of German transcendentalist philosophy. Owing to a growing in- 
firmity of will, of which addiction to opium was at once a symptom 
and a cause, his projects, after his early manhood, were greater than 
his achievements. As to Wordsworth, no poet has shown a greater 
love of nature, a more sensitive appreciation of her varied aspects and 
of her subtle influence on those who reverently contemplate her. Nor 
has any other nature poet reproduced with more fidelity what he has 
seen and felt. Yet, lacking in humor and desirous to avoid artificial 
pomp, he sometimes sank to dull and almost ludicrous commonplace. 
The Excursion, his longest, but not his best poem, shows him at his 
best and worst, for it contains long arid stretches relieved by oases of 
lofty beauty. Coleridge and Wordsworth are the leading representa- 
tives of the so-called " Lake School," a term, however, which is very 
misleading ; since it meant no more than a group of writers of widely 
different traits who were drawn by the ties of friendship to take up 
their residence in the Cumberland Lake district. 

Scott and Byron. — Sir Walter Scott (1 771-1832), by his antiqua- 
rain researches into the history and legends of Scotland, as well as by 
his astonishing productivity in romantic prose and poetry, did more 
than any other single man to foster the reviving interest in the past. 
In 1 802-1803 appeared three volumes of Border Minstrelsy, a collection 
of Scotch ballads. Then came his splendid series of poems — the 
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, The Lady of the Lake — between 
1805 and 1 81 5. Owing to the sudden vogue of a new figure in the poetic 
world — Lord Byron (1788-1824) — he turned to prose. Byron was 
destined to prove a tempestuous spirit in life and literature. Scott 
was a Tory by temperament and tradition, while Coleridge and Words- 
worth, though they began as enthusiasts for the French Revolution, 
were driven into the conservative ranks by the excesses which followed. 
Byron, on the other hand, was a persistent revolutionist against exist- 
ing institutions and met his death as a volunteer in the war for Greek 
Independence. He first manifested his fiery temper in English Bards 



638 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and Scotch Reviewers, 1809, a reply to a scathing criticism of his early 
poems. After a journey to Greece and the Orient he published the 
first two cantos of Childe Harold in 181 2. Most of his verse in this 
period was struck off at a white heat, brilliant, but careless, stagey 
and lacking in depth of feeling and sureness of imaginative range. 
His best poetry came a little later — the remaining cantos of Childe 
Harold, and Don Juan, to mention only the long works. Don Juan 
was a sardonic satire on the immorality and cant prevailing in the 
society of the day. Byron was a militant egotist, and taught the dan- 
gerous message of individual lawlessness; but his personal beauty 
and his lameness which gave it a touch of pathos, his picturesque tem- 
perament, his wild irregular career and tragic end, all contributed, to- 
gether with his splendid power of rhetoric and the intensity of his 
passions, to gain for him a popularity which was followed by an equally 
strong reaction. This, in its turn, has been succeeded by a more dis- 
criminating appreciation of his enduring poetic qualities. 

Shelley and Keats. — There are many points of resemblance be- 
tween Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1 792-1822). Both were poets 
of revolt against the religious, social and political institutions of their 
time, and both led short and stormy lives. Shelley was drowned off 
the coast of Italy in the thirtieth year of his age. His earliest long poem, 
Queen Mab, appeared privately in 1 813, a crude harbinger of what was 
to come, — Alastor ; the Revolt of Islam; the Cenci; Prometheus Un- 
bound. These, together with numerous shorter poems and a consider- 
able body of prose, including translations, were all produced within 
ten years. Shelley was a generous and impulsive visionary who had a 
real philosophy of revolution, and who wrote with spiritual fervor 
and matchless melody. No poet ever surpassed him in his finest lyrical 
flights ; but the beauties of his thought and expression are unearthly, 
ethereal in character. John Keats (1795-1821) was a frankly human 
poet with a love of the beauty of the earth and its people, and, unlike 
either Byron or Shelley, he bore no message of revolt to mankind. 
Though dependent upon translations, in the case of Greek, he saturated 
himself with the legends of antiquity, and, with the further aid of Spen- 
ser and some of the seventeenth-century poets, he reproduced the spirit 
of the classic times with wonderful imaginative power. His first 
volume of verses was published in 181 7, Endymion followed in 1818, 
and, in 1820, came a collection of poems which marks the supreme 
fruition of his genius. Keats had to struggle against early disadvan- 
tages, and he succumbed to consumption at the age of twenty-five ; 
but, in his brief interval of activity, he prepared a heritage which has 
permanently enriched the English speech. 



ENGLAND AT THE EVE OF THE REFORM BILL 639 

Novelists. — Novel writing showed a marked development as the 
century advanced. Beginning with realistic pictures of English life, 
chiefly on the external side, the scope of prose fiction gradually widened 
and deepened, as historical study and travel increased the knowledge 
of past times and other lands, and as men began to study more closely 
into the psychology of human conduct. William Godwin, a free- 
thinker and pioneer among political radicals, published Caleb Williams 
in 1794, a protest against the injustice of the aristocracy toward the 
poor. Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849), an Irishwoman, wrote a series 
of novels, of which Castle Rackrent, 1800, is the best, chiefly to depict 
the wrongs which her country 1 had to suffer from absentee landlords 
and other evils, and furnish valuable pictures of contemporary Irish 
life. According to Scott's own modest testimony, her achievements 
in this particular suggested to him the plan of his famous Waverley 
Novels which tell us so much about the seventeenth and eighteenth 
century Scotland. The success they attained encouraged him to 
write his equally famous works relating to the Middle Ages. While 
his facts were not always strictly accurate and while his pictures of 
medieval life do not always correspond to actual historical conditions, 
his work is, nevertheless, remarkable for its high and varied excellence. 
Jane Austen (1 775-181 7) had no moral lessons to expound, and she 
made no effort to deal with life outside the provincial society of south- 
ern England; but she describes the folk in her own restricted circle 
with such penetrating observation, rare humor and artistic fidelity 
as to gain for her a place in the first rank of English artists. Pride 
and Prejudice is her best known, and, all told, her finest book. 

The Essayists. — This period was famous for its essayists, among 
whom De Quincey and Lamb stand the foremost, with Hazlitt and 
Leigh Hunt not far behind. Thomas De Quincey (1 785-1 859) is per- 
haps best known for his Confessions of an English Opium Eater. His 
distinction as a stylist rests upon his " impassioned prose " — an 
attempt to revive the long rhythmical sentences and gorgeous imagery 
of the pre-Restoration period. Charles Lamb (1 775-1834), who, 
jointly with his sister Mary, did the Tales from Shakespeare, produced 
his best work in the Essays of Elia, where he showed an inimitable art 
of transforming with literary grace the commonest incidents of Lon- 
don life and weaving about them the spell of romance. Leigh Hunt 
(1 784-1859) produced charming pieces of critical and miscellaneous 
prose and excellent verses as well. His Abou Ben Adhem is a popular 
classic. William Hazlitt (1778-1830) has been described as " the 

1 Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies voice beautifully in verse the spirit of his native 
land. 



640 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

most accomplished dramatic critic England has produced." His best 
essays owe their engaging quality to the personal touches he has in- 
troduced. 

Periodical Literature. — One of the most notable features of the 
early nineteenth century was the appearance of two periodicals which 
contributed much to organize criticism as a distinct branch of English 
letters, assumed the position of literary dictators, and became potent 
influences in politics as well. The Edinburgh Review was projected, 
in 1802, by Francis Jeffrey, Brougham and Sidney Smith. Under 
the able editorship of Jeffrey it dominated the field until 1809, when 
Scott, an occasional contributor, becoming alienated by its Whig bias, 
joined Canning in founding the Quarterly Review, which, although it 
attracted many gifted writers, never attained quite the brilliancy of 
its older rival. The growing importance of periodicals and the rise 
of women authors, which began with Fanny Burney, are among the 
most distinctive facts of modern English letters. 1 

Painting. — While portrait painters of reputation flourished during 
this period, none of them rank with their three famous predecessors, 
and the significant feature in the history of painting is the slow but 
steady development of the landscape art to the triumphant achieve- 
ments of Turner and Constable. Worthy of mention as they are, 
the intervening names must be passed by. Joseph Mallord William 
Turner (1775-1851) was the son of a London hairdresser, but* never- 
theless had a long and thorough training in his art. Up to 1820 he 
was mainly occupied in imitating the old masters. Then he struck 
out for himself, and, for about fifteen years, his chief aim was to pro- 
duce ideal, poetic creations rather than actual reproductions from na- 
ture. The choicest fruit of this period was Ulysses Deriding Poly- 
phemus (1829), generally regarded as his masterpiece. In the third 
phase of his artistic career he devoted himself to depicting what he 
actually saw, though, even then, his gorgeous colorings, particularly 
his glowing sunsets, mark him as a romantic poet with the brush. 
This is evident in his famous Fighting Temeraire (1839). John Con- 
stable (1776-1837) was the great master of English landscape painting, 
of the prose as distinguished from the poetic type. It was he who 
completed the emancipation from all convention, and founded a 
school with the guiding aim of reproducing natural scenery with the 
utmost fidelity. While his own countrymen were slow in appreciating 

1 The Times, the greatest newspaper in the world, took its rise about the time 
that the daily press was beginning really to count as a factor in politics. It was 
founded by John Walter in 1785; but did not assume its present name till three 
years later. 



ENGLAND AT THE EVE OF THE REFORM BILL 641 

his art, the French welcomed it with promptness and enthusiasm, and 
he exercised a potent influence on Corot, Millet and the other members 
of the famous coterie of Barbizon. 

Social Effects of the French Revolution. — The social effects of the 
French Revolution were as striking as the political. Cut off from 
making the Grand Tour by reasons of safety and economy alike, 
people of fashion confined their holiday to trips to English watering 
places. Also Fox and his set, who had hitherto set the fashion in 
dandified dress, began to affect republican simplicity. Poverty as 
well as caprice induced many to follow his example, even to the extent 
of appearing in Parliament in greatcoats and top-boots, instead of 
the customary Court dress and sword. Various causes contributed to 
transform radically the prevailing style of costume. Improved pro- 
cesses of woolen and cotton manufacture resulted in a steadily de- 
creasing use of silks, satins and velvets by both sexes. In consequence 
of the tax on powder, women ceased to powder their hair. Wigs, ex- 
cept in the case of judges, professional men and clergy, had been gen- 
erally discarded early in the reign of George III, and now those of the 
extremer sort began to wear their hair short. In the last decade of 
the century, buckled knee breeches began to give way to pantaloons 
and Hessian boots, sparrow-tail coats became the fashion, and the 
cocked hat yielded to the top or " sugar-loaf " hat. These innova- 
tions, however, were taken up at first only by the upper classes. The 
ordinary citizen and the countryman still clung to knee breeches and 
wide-skirted coats. 

The French Revolution was also not without effect on morals. So- 
cial dissipation and extravagance gave place to greater simplicity and 
earnestness. One evidence was a strong reaction against excessive 
gambling. In 1796, the Chief Justice threatened certain ladies of rank 
with the pillory for keeping faro banks in their houses, and, during 
the next year, three were actually fined. More important than re- 
pression was the fact that stress of events offered food for conversa- 
tion, and opened avenues of activity in military and political life more 
engrossing than idle frivolity. New societies were founded for the 
reformation of manners and the better observance of the Sabbath, 
while the philanthropic spirit aroused by the evangelical revival was 
stimulated by the misery engendered by the War and the introduction 
of machinery. Heavy drinking was a still prevalent vice. Men were 
not ashamed to appear drunk, even in Parliament, and, unhappily, 
had a sorry example in the otherwise austere Pitt. However, except 
in the case of the Prince of Wales and his boon companions, a marked 
improvement was noticeable among the political leaders during the 



642 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

first two decades of the nineteenth century. Dueling was common, 
and generally approved by society throughout this period. Owing, 
however, to increasing protests, earnest efforts were later made to 
stamp out the practice. In 1830 two judges declared the survivor 
in a duel guilty of murder, in 1844 the amended Articles of War pro- 
vided that officers should give and accept apologies and should be 
cashiered if they fought, and, in 1845, a Radical member brought a 
challenge before the House as a breach of privilege. These measures, 
backed by a gradual change in public opinion, proved effective. 

The Game Laws. — While the country gentry were increasing their 
rent rolls, the merchants and manufacturers were steadily encroach- 
ing upon their old social and political exclusiveness. The change in 
the game laws was one indication of the breaking down of the old 
aristocratic privileges. Since the seventeenth century no man had 
been allowed to kill game, even on his own land, unless he possessed a 
freehold estate worth £100 a year, or a £150 leasehold. The sale of 
game was altogether prohibited. The laws were evaded in ingenious 
ways. Landowners provided shooting for their younger sons or 
brothers by making them gamekeepers, while, in spite of heavy pen- 
alties, poaching and selling game were very common. The injustice 
of the existing system was somewhat mitigated by a bill, in 1832, pro- 
viding that the killing and selling of game be allowed to anyone ob- 
taining a license from the inland revenue department. 

Laws Against Cruelty to Animals. — An increasing humanitarian 
spirit was seen in measures against cruelty to animals. Richard 
Martin (1754-1834), a wealthy Irish landowner, was a pioneer in this 
work, which earned him the name of " Humanity Martin." In 1823 
he carried a bill to prevent the ill-treatment of horses and cattle ; but 
he was not even allowed to introduce a measure to prohibit bull-baiting 
and dog-fighting, on the ground that it would interfere with the sports 
of the poor. Undaunted by this setback he founded, in 1824, the 
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the fruit 
of his efforts was a law, passed ten years later, which did away with 
bull-baiting, ox-driving, and cock-fighting. 

The Reform of the Criminal Law. — This period marks the first 
steps in the reform of the barbarous and unreasonable criminal code, 
which, at the beginning of the century, included nearly two hundred 
offenses involving capital punishment. For instance, picking a 
pocket to the value of twelvepence, robbing a shop to the amount of 
five shillings or a house to the amount of forty, were punishable by 
death. What with misery, excessive drinking and an ineffective 
police system, crime increased with startling rapidity. But signs 



ENGLAND AT THE EVE OF THE REFORM BILL 643 

of improvement were already evident. In 1815 the pillory was 
done away with for every offense except perjury, and twenty years 
later it was abolished for that offense as well. The flogging of 
women was declared illegal in 181 7. Brougham did much to sim- 
plify procedure, while Peel, who prepared the way for a better en- 
forcement of the laws by the establishment of the metropolitan 
police system in 1829, greatly improved the criminal code, and, before 
he left office, he had reduced the capital penalties to about a score, 
including murder, arson, highway robbery, house-breaking, cattle- 
stealing, counterfeiting, and forgery. While he deserves much credit, 
his work would have been impossible but for a change in public opinion 
to which the persistent efforts of Sir Samuel Romilly largely contrib- 
uted. 1 All together, while the great epoch of reform came after 1832, 
not a little was done in the previous decade to break down old exclu- 
sive privileges, and to legislate with a view to promoting the greatest 
happiness of the greatest number. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

General Conditions. Traill, Social England, VI. S. Walpole, History of 
England, I, chs. I— III. Brodrick and Fotheringham, ch. XX. 

Social and Industrial. J. Ashton, Social Life under the Regency (1890). 
Cambridge Modern History, X, ch. XXIII (bibliography 883-889) . Cunning- 
ham, English Industry and Commerce. Porter, Progress of the Nation. 
Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages and Agriculture and Prices. Wm. 
Cobbett, Rural Rides (new ed., 1886) and Tour in the Northern Counties 
(1833). R. M. Gamier, History of the English Landed Gentry (1893) and 
Annals of the British Peasantry (1895). Hammond, The Town Labourer 
and The Village Labourer. Prothero, English Farming. Webb, Trades Union- 
ism. Usher, Industrial History. H. R. Hodge, Economic Conditions, 1815- 
1914 (1917). 

Literature and Scholarship. Cambridge Modern History, X, chs. XXII- 
XXIV (bibliographies 879-882, 890-892). Moody and Lovett. Taine, 
III. Saintsbury, Nineteenth Century Literature (1896). O. Elton, A Survey 
of English Literature, 1780-18 '30 (2 vols., 19 13). G. M. C. Brandes, Main 

1 By successive Acts, passed at intervals during the next generation, capital 
penalties were steadily reduced, and, since 1861, the only offenses punishable by 
death are four, i.e. treason, murder, piracy with violence, and setting fire to arsenals 
and dock-yards. It is commonly said that the excessive death penalties furnished 
the most fruitful encouragement to crime, since juries shrank from convicting. As 
a matter of fact, the percentage of convictions was fairly high, though the utmost 
rigor of the law, in the case of first offenders, was usually evaded by a merciful dis- 
regard of the facts. For example, when a culprit had robbed a house of clearly 
more than 405. he was found guilty of stealing 395. iod., and not let off, but sen- 
tenced to some lighter punishment, such as transportation. 



644 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature (Eng. tr. V, 1905). L. Stephen 
Hours in a Library (3 vols., 1892). H. A. Beers, English Romanticism in 
the Nineteenth Century (1899). E. Dowden, The French Revolution and 
English Literature (1897). W. J. Courthope, A History of English Poetry, 
(1905). W. V. Raleigh, The English Novel (1894). W. L. Davidson^ 
Political Thought in England: the Utilitarians from Bentham to J. S. Mill 
(1915). 






CHAPTER L 
THE EPOCH OF REFORM. WILLIAM IV (1830-1837) 

William IV. — William, Duke of Clarence, the third son of George 
III, had nearly completed his sixty-fifth year when he came to the 
throne. While naturally kind-hearted, he was full of prejudices, liable 
to sudden fits of passion, and prone to make long rambling and absurd 
speeches on the most inappropriate occasions. At his accession, how- 
ever, these peculiarities were not generally known, and he proved so 
good-natured, frank and simple that he was received with popular en- 
thusiasm almost unheard of. In spite of his shortcomings and follies 
he had right instincts, and a rough common sense, which proved a great 
help to his Ministers in the first great crisis of his reign. 

The Causes of the Reform Movement. — Catholic Emancipation 
had been carried in Parliament against the popular will, while parlia- 
mentary reform, which was now coming to be the burning issue, owed 
its passage to the demands of a majority of the English people. The 
revolution in public opinion which had recently begun to manifest 
itself was due to a combination of four causes. The first was the 
transference of the balance of wealth from the landed aristocracy to 
the great merchants and manufacturers. The second was the shift- 
ing of the centers of population from the south and east to the midlands 
and the north, which made the unequal distribution of representation 
between the two sections a crying grievance. The third was the fact 
that the horrors of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic aggres- 
sion, and, indeed, of the domestic unrest which followed the Great 
War, were fading from the memory of Englishmen, while the recent 
course of events in Paris was such as to stimulate rather than to retard 
their ardor. The fourth, and perhaps the most significant cause of 
all, was the influence of the advanced thinkers and the zeal of the prac- 
tical statesmen who labored to prepare the way during the long and 
discouraging years of reaction. 

Jeremy Bentham and His Influence. — Foremost in influence was 
the pioneer of the Utilitarians, Jeremy Bentham (1748-183 2), of whom 
it is perhaps not too much to say " progressive and practical reformers 

645 



646 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

throughout the world owe more . . . than to any other single man." 
When he was twenty years of age he adopted as his maxim " the great- 
est happiness of the greatest number," and the means which he adopted 
for realizing his end was scientific legislation. Beginning as an advo- 
cate of moderate and gradual reform, the refusal of the statesmen in 
power to listen to him was responsible for turning him into a radical, 
though his conversion was somewhat delayed by his fear of the French 
Revolution. His Catechism of Parliamentary Reform, in which he 
outlined his political views, was written in 1809, but was not published 
till 181 7. Assuming that the aim of all government is utility — the 
good of the governed — he argued that the existing system was hope- 
lessly at fault, since it was the instrument of the aristocratic minority 
for the promotion of class interests. Curiously enough, he had a low 
opinion of mankind, believing that the governing motive of the in- 
dividual was the furtherance of his own ends. For that very reason, 
however, he advocated the extension of popular government, on the 
ground that the control of the majority would make for the good of 
the greatest number. He failed to realize that, even if all men were 
selfish, their individual interests were bound to conflict, and that the 
sum total would not be harmony, but discord ; nevertheless, his argu- 
ments for increased parliamentary representation had great force and 
wide-reaching effect. Owing, however, to the diffuseness and obscur- 
ity of his style, his views were spread more through his disciples 
than by his own writings. Philosophical radicals, popular agitators, 
and practical statesmen all contributed to carry his teachings into 
effect. 

Movement for Parliamentary Reform. — While parliamentary 
reform did not become an issue in practical politics till the beginning 
of the reign of William IV, the subject had been discussed at intervals 
for nearly a century. Best known among its early and unsuccessful 
advocates were Chatham, Wilkes, and Pitt. In 1792, the Society of 
the Friends of the People was formed for promoting the movement ; 
but sober folk very generally coupled it with Revolutionary designs. 
The cause was still further prejudiced when the Radicals took it up 
and proceeded to demand also universal suffrage, annual parliaments, 
equal electoral districts and vote by ballot. In 1819, however, Lord 
John Russell, by introducing a motion for moderate reform, once more 
identified the question with the Whig party. Though he gained an 
increasing body of supporters, he fought an uphill fight for thirteen 
years. 

The Eve of Triumph. Whig Gains in the Election of 1830. — For 
a time even the liberal remnant of the Canningites persisted in re- 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 647 

garding the existing parliamentary system as the only breakwater 
against the rising tide of democracy, but the temperate attitude of 
the Whig leaders had won the confidence of the conservative middle 
classes. They contended that, while universal suffrage was wild and 
dangerous, the enfranchisement of householders and the transfer of 
votes from small decayed boroughs to populous towns was not only 
safe and reasonable but an imperative recognition of the growing 
importance of the commercial and industrial classes. Parliament 
was dissolved during the summer of 1830, and in the general election 
which followed, the Whigs made such decisive gains that the doom of 
the old Tory party was sounded. 

Advent of Grey's Reform Ministry (November, 1830). — Neverthe- 
less, the King's speech at the opening of Parliament contained no 
reference on the subject of reform. The disappointment of the re- 
formers was turned to fury when Wellington, in the Lords, declared 
that the existing representative system " possessed the full and entire 
confidence of the country." Insisting further that " no better system 
could be devised by the wit of man," he announced that not only 
would he never introduce a Reform Bill himself, but that " he should 
always feel it his duty to resist such measures when proposed by others." 
The effect of the speech was to overthrow his Government. Appar- 
ently the Duke spoke on his own authority ; but the Cabinet stood 
by him and resigned in November, on an adverse vote on the Civil 
List, without waiting to face the inevitable question. Thereupon, 
Earl Grey (1 764-1 845) consented to form a Ministry, on condition 
that parliamentary reform should be made a Cabinet question. He 
had grown old in the service of the Whig party during the period of 
its adversity. Fear of radicalism had caused him for a time to hold 
aloof. from reform, of which he had been an early pioneer ; but he had 
again taken up the work, and it was fitting that the surviving Nestor 
of the cause should be chosen Premier on the return of the Whigs to 
office. The Ministers whom he selected were almost exclusively peers 
©r men of titled connections; however, it was a remarkable group, 
four of whom subsequently became Prime Ministers. The task con- 
fronting the new Ministry was a tremendous and complicated one. 

The Unreformed House of Commons. Inequalities of Represen- 
tation. — The existing representative system was both inadequate 
and corrupt. The franchise was restricted to a few, and was unequally 
distributed. The area embraced by the ten southern counties of 
England had almost the same number of representatives as that of 
the thirty midland and northern counties where there were nearly 
three times as many inhabitants. Lancashire and Cornwall offered 



648 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the most glaring contrast ; the former had 1,000,000 inhabitants and 
19 members, while the latter with about a quarter of this population 
had 44. It is easy to explain how these inequalities arose. The evil 
was manifest chiefly in the cities and boroughs. Originally such had 
been selected as would be most likely to vote supplies to the Crown. 
The burgesses and citizens, who looked upon representation as a bur- 
den so long as they had little share in legislation, usually, in the Middle 
Ages, sought to evade their obligations. In consequence, the Sovereigns 
and sheriffs were accustomed to add to the list or omit from it at will. 
Gradually, however, it came to be recognized that a town which had 
once sent members was entitled to do so ever after. Then, in the reign 
of Charles II, it was decided that no new boroughs could be created. 

The Abuses of the Existing Borough System. — While these latter 
provisions were some protection against despotic Sovereigns, they were 
responsible for the fact that small decayed places continued to send 
representatives, while new and flourishing centers of industry got none. 
Old Sarum, for instance, was no longer anything but a green mound, 
while Dunwich was gradually being covered by the North Sea, so that 
it was suggested that the voters would soon have to go out in boats 
to exercise their electoral privileges. Malmesbury contained thirteen 
electors none of whom could write. Such deserted or half -deserted 
constituencies fell an easy prey to territorial magnates, to the agents 
of the Crown, or to rich speculators who gained control in one way or 
another, sometimes by buying the borough outright, sometimes by 
bribing the scanty body of electors. As a result, it is probably safe 
to say that, by 1830, not more than a third of the House was freely 
chosen and then only by a very limited body of electors. 

Types of Boroughs. Qualifications for Voting. — There were four 
types of boroughs. (1) There were nomination or pocket boroughs where 
the patron or proprietor had the absolute right of returning the can- 
didates. (2) Next there were the rotten boroughs where the electors 
were controlled by bribery and influence. (3) In still another type 
of borough the body of electors was numerous but restricted. (4) 
Finally there were a very few where the right of voting rested on a 
democratic basis. The qualifications for voting in boroughs were 
varied and curious. They, again, may be divided into four main 
groups. The first were based on tenure. In a few towns which had 
been made counties by charter, the county qualification of ownership 
of a forty-shilling freehold prevailed. More common was the burgage 
holding, an ancient form of freehold tenement, very limited in number, 
in towns. Secondly, there were a number of residence qualifications. 
In some cases the " inhabitant householders " could vote. In others, 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 649 

it wa,s those liable to scot and lot — certain old local taxes, together 
with local duties such as serving in municipal offices. In still other 
cases those who had a single room where they could cook their own 
food could vote. This class was known as potwallers or potwallopers 
— corruptions of the original term potboiler. In the third class of 
boroughs the franchise was confined to the freemen of the municipal 
corporation. This right could be acquired by inheritance from the 
original freemen, by marriage to the heiress of a freeman, by admission 
to a trading company or gild, or by purchase. Finally, there were 
the close boroughs where the right to vote was confined to the govern- 
ing body of the municipality — the mayor, aldermen, and councilors. 
Most of the charters of the Tudors and Stuarts limited the electorate 
in this fashion. Even in boroughs where a democratic qualification 
existed, the number of electors was usually so small that they could 
be easily bribed. 

Bribery and Corruption in Elections. — Bribery first began to be 
systematic under Charles II, and increased with the growing influence 
of the House of Commons. It reached its height in the reign of George 
III, when two causes especially fostered its growth. One was the firm 
determination of the King to reestablish the waning royal ascendancy. 
The other was the appearance of a class of men, known as nabobs, 
who having made fortunes in the East and West Indies, spent their 
money lavishly to secure parliamentary seats ; their competition and 
that of the steadily increasing class of opulent merchants and manu- 
facturers in England sent the prices soaring. 1 Bribery was an offense 
at Common Lav/ ; an occasional Act was passed to remedy the evil, 
and a few of the more corrupt cases were exposed ; but it was all to 
little purpose, particularly so long as George III actively promoted 
the system. Moreover, the penalties were light : disfranchisement of 
the guilty or the merging of the constituency into one slightly larger. 
Not only were individual electors bribed, but nomination and rotten 
boroughs were sold outright; indeed, seats were advertised openly 
and shamelessly. In 1809 an Act imposing the penalties of fine and 
forfeiture of seat achieved little more at first than to make the practice 
less open. 

The County Franchise. — In the counties, although conditions were 
better, the system was not free from anomalies and abuses. The 
forty-shilling freehold qualification, created in 1430, insured a fairly 
wide constituency. On the other hand, copyholders and men who 
rented broad lands on lease were excluded, while, owing to the immense 

1 The average price for a borough went up from £2500 to £5000. One sold for 
£9000. 



650 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

change in money values, forty shillings had shrunk to a very small sum. 
Many freeholders were merely poor dependents of their great neigh- 
bors, and, thanks to the custom of open polling, they were peculiarly 
subject to corruption and intimidation. The evils were accentuated 
in county and borough alike, by the long period allowed for voting 
and the drunkenness and turmoil which prevailed during the elections. 
These county elections were often the arena where the political rivalry 
of the landed magnates, many of whom wielded tremendous influence, 
was displayed. 1 Each county was represented by two members, 
which meant an even distribution throughout the country; but it 
put tiny shires like Rutland on the same basis as large and populous 
ones like Lancashire. 

Scotland and Ireland. — In Scotland conditions were even worse 
than in England. In a population of over 2,000,000 there were not 
more than 4000 voters. The borough franchise was vested in town 
councilors, while the right to vote in the counties was a peculiar 
privilege that depended neither upon property nor residence. Argyle- 
shire, with 100,000 inhabitants, had 115 electors, of whom only 31 
owned any land in the county. Naturally votes were put up for sale ; 
moreover, the great landowners who secured control, instead of fight- 
ing on party lines, commonly agreed to support the Government in 
return for patronage and other rewards. In Ireland the system of 
borough franchise was bad enough; but that in the counties was, 
until 1829, worse. By Irish law, forty- shilling freeholders could be 
created without grant of property. The landed potentates availed 
themselves eagerly of the opportunity — especially after the Union 
— until Daniel O'Connell and the priests managed to tear from 
their control these lesser folk whom they had -regarded as their 
creatures. 

Bribery and Corruption in Parliament. — A natural result of the 
faulty and corrupt electoral system was the venality and self-seeking 
of those who secured seats, since most of the members or their patrons 
expected to be compensated for their outlays to electors or borough- 
mongers. Inducements were offered to suit all tastes. The rich 
and ambitious were tempted with peerages, titles of honor, patronage 
and favor ; the poor and mercenary by places, pensions, and bribes. 
The Act of 1705 had done something to diminish the number of place- 
men, and, though the incapacity was later extended to pensioners, 
grants were continued in secret. The Rockingham Act of 1782 put 
an effective check on secret pensions ; moreover, by virtue of this and 

1 Yet the voters when aroused could act with independence, as is proved from 
the fact that, in 1830, out of 82 county members only 20 Tories were returned. 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 651 

other Acts, the number of placemen in the Commons was further 
reduced during the period from George I to George IV. Meantime, 
however, the practice of directly bribing members grew steadily 
from the Restoration to the American Revolution. Though Pitt 
discontinued the practice, he created more peers than any Minister 
before or since. Another and more wasteful means employed by 
George III to secure supporters in the years of his personal supremacy 
was through loans and lotteries, in which the King's friends were 
accorded the preference in the distribution of shares and tickets. 
Pitt was also responsible for removing this type of abuse. 1 

Counteracting Tendencies. — Nevertheless, England progressed in 
many directions and achieved much in the eighteenth century, while 
her people were freer and her institutions far better than those of any 
other European country. Many reasons explain why this was so. 
In the first place, politics attracted the ablest and some of the best 
men of the age, who, while they advanced their own interests, labored 
to make their country the leading Power in the world. At crises, 
too, they deferred to public opinion, an opinion in which the sound 
traditions of the previous century survived, and which was being fed 
by the new and enlightened ideas of the growing commercial and in- 
dustrial classes. Moreover, after the Tories again became a factor 
in politics at the accession of George III, party rivalry played an 
important role in checking the evils which had developed during the 
Whig ascendancy. The Whigs soon fell into eclipse for a time ; but 
their leaders were active and courageous in denouncing the short- 
comings of their political rivals. The press, too, became more and 
more a means of ventilating abuses and corruption. While many 
evils had been checked or done away with when the Grey Ministry 
came to power, the cumbersome, inadequate method of representation 
which did so much to foster them still remained. Partly for that 
reason and partly because of the exclusion of many persons and many 
communities who demanded a voice in public affairs, reform was 
necessary and inevitable. 

The First Reform Bill and Its Defeat (19 April, 1831). — The two 
general objects in the work which the Grey Ministry now undertook 
were to redistribute parliamentary seats on a more equal basis, and 
to extend the right of voting. Lord John Russell, who had labored 
so persistently in the cause, was chosen to introduce the measure and 
to explain its terms. Outside Parliament, the people showed intense 
enthusiasm in public meetings, in political unions, and in floods of 

1 The Rockingham Act had already excluded contractors from the House of 
Commons in 1782. 



652 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

petitions. Also, the borough interests, who had so much at stake, 
roused themselves and were backed by two thirds of the Peers, by 
a strong minority in the Commons, and by the Tory sentiment through- 
out the country. The second reading 1 was carried by a majority of 
one, amidst scenes of wildest joy on the part of the Whigs, yet the 
Bill was defeated in the committee stage, 19 April, 1 831, by an amend- 
ment against a provision for reducing the membership of the Commons. 
Its Second Defeat and Its Final Passage (1832). — The Government 
thereupon persuaded King William to appeal to the people in another 
general election, one of the most momentous in English history. 
The cry throughout the country was : " The Bill, the whole Bill, and 
nothing but the Bill." The reformers triumphed, and the second 
Bill passed the new House of Commons, 21 September, by a majority 
of 109 ; nevertheless, the Lords proved stubborn and threw out the 
measure on the second reading. The leading newspapers appeared 
in mourning, and the Times declared that it turned from " the appalling 
sight of a wounded nation to the means already in action for recovery." 
Since the reverse was not unexpected, the Ministry, sustained by a 
vote of confidence in the Commons, merely prorogued Parliament and 
prepared the third Bill. Among other changes the clause reducing 
the membership was dropped. The agitation outside, which, even 
though intense, had hitherto been peaceful, now became violent. 
Riots broke out in London and other cities, the most serious of which 
occurred in Bristol, in the last days of October, when the mob 
reigned supreme for two days. The political unions, too, became so 
active and aggressive that a proclamation was issued suppressing 
certain of them by name. When Parliament met again, the Commons 
sent the new Bill to the Upper House with an increased majority. 
Fearful of continuing to defy public opinion openly, the Lords voted 
for the second reading, by a majority of nine, but in the committee 
stage they insisted upon amendments which the Ministry could not 
accept. Popular excitement became furious in its intensity, a clamor 
arose that the Peers be forced into line, and many political associa- 
tions refused to pay taxes. With the country trembling on the verge 
of a revolution, Grey was persuaded by his colleagues to advise the 
King to create a sufficient number of new Peers to carry the Bill. 
Upon William's refusal the Cabinet resigned. Wellington undertook 
to form a Ministry ; but finding the task as hopeless as it was danger- 
ous, he counseled the King to recall Earl Grey. William even went 

1 A Bill before its passage has to be read three times in each House. The first 
reading is usually a mere formality. Between the second and third readings there 
is a careful consideration by a committee of the whole. 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 653 

so far as to consent to the creation of new Peers, on condition that he 
might confine himself to the heirs of existing noblemen; but, by 
using his influence with the Tory Lords, he managed in the end to 
avoid this extreme step. A hundred Peers, led by Wellington, with- 
drew from the Upper House during the final voting. With the Tory 
opposition thus weakened, the Bill passed through the committee 
stage and the third reading, and received the royal assent, 7 July, 
1832. 

The Terms of the Reform Act of 1832. — The Act in its final form 
disfranchised fifty-six nomination and rotten boroughs, each of which 
had less than 2000 inhabitants and which together returned in 
members. Thirty boroughs where the population was less than 
4000 were deprived of a single member each, while one double borough 
lost two of its four. There were thus 143 seats for redistribution. 
Twenty- two large towns received two, and twenty-one a single mem- 
ber each. Furthermore, the county membership was increased from 
94 to 159. The remaining thirteen representatives were left for Scot- 
land and Ireland. In addition to redistribution of seats, the Bill 
undertook a moderate extension and equalization of the franchise. 
In the boroughs the various, queer, and antiquated franchises were 
abolished, with one exception, 1 and the vote was given to all house- 
holders paying a rental of £10 a year. In the counties, the forty- 
shilling freehold qualification was retained in the case of the voter 
who occupied his estate, or who had acquired it by inheritance, mar- 
riage or other specified ways. In other cases, a £10 qualification was 
established for freeholders, copyholders and leaseholders for terms of 
sixty years. A qualification of £50 was fixed for leaseholders for 
shorter terms and for tenants-at-will. 

Scotland and Ireland. — Scotland and Ireland were dealt with in 
two separate bills. The Scotch representatives were increased from 
45 to 53, and, in the redistribution, 30 went to the counties and 23 to 
the cities and boroughs. In the former, all owners of property worth 
£10 a year and certain classes of leaseholders were given the right to 
vote, in the latter, the £10 householders, while, at the same time, the 
old qualifications were abolished. Ireland was given five more rep- 
resentatives. 2 At the time of the Union a number of nomination 
and rotten boroughs had been swept away. While the remainder were 

1 Resident freemen, created before March, 1831, were allowed to retain their 
vote. The qualification was designed to get rid of hosts of freemen who had been 
created to vote against the Reform Bill. 

2 Making a total of 105. Two seats were afterwards taken away because of 
corruption, leaving 103, the present number. 



654 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

left undisturbed by the Act of 1832, the right to return members of 
Parliament was taken from the municipal corporations and conferred 
upon the £10 householders. 1 

The Results of the Reform Bill. — The Revolution of 1688 had 
transferred the chief power from the Sovereign to the landed aristoc- 
racy ; the Reform Bill shifted the balance to the commercial and in- 
dustrial middle class. Consequently the system of Cabinet and party 
government now became more of a reality ; for the Ministers hence- 
forth represented a popular majority in the House of Commons, and 
not one depending upon the manipulation of the Sovereign, the Minis- 
ters and the landowning magnates. The passage of the measure had 
demonstrated, too, that, at a crisis, the House of Lords could not defy 
the popular will. Furthermore, the triumph was an indication that 
the principle of change which had been struggling for expression dur- 
ing the past decade was going to prevail. On the other hand, the 
Reform Bill did not accomplish all that its advocates had predicted. 
It did not put an end, for instance, to bribery and corruption, though 
the widening of the electorate tended further to lessen these evils. 
Moreover, while it took a long step in the direction of equality of repre- 
sentation, it left the bulk of the working classes — the majority of the 
population — without the vote. Among this element there was wide- 
spread discontent, which, while it was to some extent stirred up by 
disappointed hopes, was due to real suffering. 

The First Reformed Parliament and the Remedial Legislation of 
1833. — While, on the whole, the class of members elected to the first 
reformed House of Commons was not strikingly different from that 
of the Parliaments immediately preceding, the Whigs and the other 
anti-Tory elements were in an overwhelming majority, though they 
were far from being united. The Tory minority was also divided, 
though not so markedly : there was a considerable group of moderate 
men led by Peel who had discarded the old party name and who 
adopted that of " Conservatives." Indeed, it was not long before 
the terms Whig and Tory were completely superseded by those of 
Liberal and Conservative respectively. The distinguishing feature 
of the new Parliament was its zeal for legislation. Among the long 
list of remedial measures were : the Irish Church Temporalities Bill ; 
the abolition of slavery in the British Colonies ; and an epoch-making 
Factory Act. The leading measures of the memorable session of 
1833 deserve to be treated in detail. 

The Irish Tithe War (1 831 -1833). — The achievements of the year 
are all the more remarkable in view of the attention demanded by 
1 In 1850 the borough qualification was reduced to £8. 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 655 

the troubled situation in Ireland, where a great " tithe war " had 
broken out in 183 1. In a population of nearly 8,000,000 souls, less 
than 900,000 belonged to the Established Episcopal Church, and 
some 600,000 were Presbyterians, while the remainder, more than 
6,000,000, were Roman Catholics. Largely agriculturists, whose 
tiny holdings yielded barely enough to keep them from starvation, 
to say nothing of supporting their own priests, the latter resented the 
payment of tithes to the hated representatives of an alien faith. 
Moreover, the method of assessment and collection was irritating and 
unfair. Grassland was exempt, and the chief burden fell on the lesser 
folk who could ill spare their pigs and their poultry. 1 Yet, pitiable 
as was the situation of the Irish peasantry, the ferocity with which 
they tortured and murdered the tithe-proctors and abused and intimi- 
dated those who obeyed the law is the most deplorable. After the 
Government had safely carried the Reform Bill it attempted, though 
with no great success, to relieve the situation. Early in 1832 the Lord 
Lieutenant was authorized to advance money to the clergy who were 
suffering from failure to collect the chief source of their income. 
The Government officials then undertook, with the aid of the military, 
to collect the arrears ; but their efforts proved as futile as they were 
expensive, so the attempt was given up, a much larger sum was ad- 
vanced to the clergy, and a new project was set on foot, only carried 
out five years later — to substitute for the tithes a money land 
tax. 

The Coercion Bill and the Irish Church Temporalities Bill (1833). 
— Meantime, the use of military force had only aggravated the 
passions of the Irish. Murders, assaults, and destruction of property 
increased with alarming rapidity. Secret organizations multiplied, 
while the courts were hampered by the intimidation of jurors and 
witnesses. To meet the situation, Stanley, the Irish Secretary, intro- 
duced two measures : a Church Temporalities Bill and a Peace Preser- 
vation Bill. The former imposed a graduated tax on clerical incomes 
to relieve the Irish ratepayers from the burden of parish expenses, 
and provided for the reduction of the Irish Episcopate by abolishing 
two of the four archbishoprics and eight of the eighteen bishoprics, 
as vacancies should occur. An " appropriation clause," empowering 
Parliament to apply the money thus saved to such secular purposes 
as it saw fit, had to be sacrificed, owing to the opposition in the House 

1 Tithes should be distinguished from church rates. The former were paid in 
kind for the support of the bishops and clergy. The latter were voted by the parish 
for the upkeep of the church fabric, and, in modern times at least, were paid in 
money. 



656 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of Lords. The Bill, thus shorn of its most popular feature, became 
law. Once more, Parliament had thrown away the chance of granting 
a freehanded concession. The bitterness of O'Connell and his fol- 
lowers was accentuated by the drastic character of the accompanying 
Coercion Bill. It gave the Lord Lieutenant unlimited power of sup- 
pressing public meetings and of declaring any county in a state of dis- 
turbance; in such districts inhabitants were forbidden to be out of 
doors between sunset and sunrise, trial by martial law was introduced, 
and the Habeas Corpus Act suspended. 

The Abolition of Slavery in the Colonies (1833). — Stanley, in 
view of the hostility which he had excited in Ireland, was transferred 
to the office of Colonial Secretary. In his new position he carried a 
measure for which the abolitionists had been struggling ever since 
the slave trade had been done away with in 1807. Although the lot 
of those in bondage had been somewhat improved, the planters who 
were badly off — partly owing to the fall in prices after the French 
War, and partly owing to their own extravagance and wasteful methods 
— had hitherto been able to exert an influence strong enough to with- 
stand the pressure of a growing popular sentiment. The new Bill, 
passed 30 August, 1833, provided for a scheme of gradual emancipa- 
tion. All children under six years of age, and all born henceforth 
were declared free. Others were to serve an apprenticeship, giving 
three fourths of their time to their masters for seven years. An 
attempt was made to placate the planters by a grant of £20,000,000, 
considerably less than their estimated value of their human property. 
Four years of trial proved the apprentice system unworkable, so it 
was done away with altogether. 

The Factory Act of 1833. — In this session a notable act was passed 
to improve the grievous lot of children employed in factories. Atten- 
tion had first been called to the question in 1784, by Dr. Percival 
of Manchester, and subsequent investigations disclosed frightful 
conditions. Children as young as six years of age were worked for 
thirteen or fourteen hours a day in unhealthy, overheated rooms. 
Exhausted by long and exacting labor and without opportunities for 
play, sunshine, or education, they grew old before their time, but re- 
mained stunted in body and mind. Two measures were passed, slightly 
improving their lot, before they gained a valiant champion in Lord 
Ashley, later Earl of Shaftesbury. He was bitterly opposed by 
the bulk of manufacturers, who were, in general, supported by both 
parties. The Tories were averse to change, and the Whigs were 
advocates of the laissez-faire policy which aimed to minimize the inter- 
ference of the State in individual concerns. Nevertheless, he was able 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 657 

to carry, in a slightly modified form, a measure which he introduced 
in 1833. It prohibited the employment of children under nine years 
of age ; it restricted the labor of children between nine and thirteen 
to forty-eight hours in a week and to nine in a single day, that of 
young persons — between thirteen and eighteen — to sixty-nine 
hours a week and to twelve in a single day. Also it provided for a 
system of inspection to enforce the provision of the Act, and enacted 
that children under thirteen should attend school for two hours a day. 
The regulations of 1833 applied only to the textile industries in 
factories, and left much to be desired in other respects ; but they were 
the happy forerunner of later remedial legislation relating to con- 
ditions of labor. 

The " New Poor Law " (1834). — In the following year, Parliament 
carried another measure of supreme importance — the Poor Law 
Amendment Act, popularly known as the " New Poor Law." The 
chief fault of the Elizabethan laws was that they imposed the care of 
the poor on the parish — a unit too small to bear the burden in dis- 
tricts where there was an excess of paupers. Another, and the wisest, 
perhaps, of the Elizabethan provisions — namely, that the able- 
bodied should be made to work in houses of correction, if necessary, 
and that the sick and helpless should be provided for in almshouses 
— had broken down. In 1795 certain local magistrates began the 
practice of supplementing inadequate wages by money allowances. 
This practice of " outdoor relief," which soon became general and 
was sanctioned by Parliament in 1796, tended to foster pauperism 
in more ways than one. It discouraged thrift, because many who 
would never have gone to the poorhouse were quite willing to receive 
aid in this way. It kept down wages, for it tempted employers to 
spare their own pockets at the expense of the rates. Furthermore, 
it fostered immorality, since women might be given an allowance 
for every one of their children whether legitimate or not. To make 
matters worse, iniquitous " laws of settlement," beginning with an 
Act of 1662, prohibited paupers from leaving the parishes where work 
was scarce for those where there was an abundance. The burden of 
the rates became crushing, causing farmers to leave their farms ; in 
one parish there were one hundred and four paupers out of one hun- 
dred and thirty-nine inhabitants. At length, a seventh of the popu- 
lation came to be dependent upon the rates, which reached an annual 
total of £8,500,000, a situation so intolerable that a commission of 
investigation was appointed. Its report, February, 1834, contained 
five recommendations. 1. All outdoor relief, except medical aid, 
should be abolished. 2. Women should support their illegitimate 



658 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

children. 3. The Law of Settlement should be modified in order that 
the poor might be free to go wherever work was plentiful. 4. Par- 
ishes should be grouped into unions, so that the prosperous might help 
the poorer. 5. A central poor-law board of three commissioners 
should be created for the supervision and control of the whole local 
system. In spite of the bitter opposition of the Radicals, a Bill, based 
on those recommendations, became law in August, 1834. The imme- 
diate result was no little suffering and intense discontent, leading 
even to riots; but the measure, in the long run, proved to be 
very highly beneficial, even though outdoor relief was never wholly 
discontinued. 

The Split in the Liberal Ranks, and the First Peel Ministry (Novem- 
ber, 1834-April, 1835). — Meantime, Earl Grey had resigned. For 
some time his Government had been declining in popularity. It 
had offended various special interests by its reform measures, while 
it had not gone far enough to content the Radicals. Its growing 
weakness had been brought to a head by a hopeless split in the Cabinet 
over the Irish question, particularly over a revival of the " Appro- 
priation Clause " and a suspension of the Coercion Act. Grey was 
succeeded by Lord Melbourne (1 779-1848) whose Government 
carried the New Poor Law. He was an old-fashioned Liberal of the 
laissez-faire school who was opposed to the restless innovating spirit 
of the Radicals ; indeed, his favorite remark was : " Why can't you 
let it alone ? " From these political convictions, as well as from his 
languid, indolent bearing — largely a pose — he got a reputation 
for aimlessness and lack of firmness that was hardly deserved. Con- 
trary to the King's hopes, Melbourne and Peel would not form a 
coalition, so the Whig Ministry, somewhat reconstituted, was con- 
tinued. Very soon, however, personal animosities developed in the 
Cabinet, whereupon the King accepted the resignation of Melbourne, 
and chose Peel as Prime Minister. Announcing his acceptance of 
the Reform Act as " a final and irrevocable settlement of a great 
constitutional question," Peel declared that, with due regard for old 
constitutional principles, he was prepared to proceed with the removal 
of abuses and the initiation of " judicious reforms. " He proceeded to 
introduce a number, of a type which drew upon him the charge of 
purloining the measures of his adversaries, and which, as a matter 
of fact, were carried by the next Liberal Ministry. He appointed 
an ecclesiastical commission to inquire into abuses and inequalities 
existing in the Established Church; he introduced a bill to re- 
lieve Dissenters from the disabilities of the marriage laws then in 
force, and another to commute the English tithes into money 



THE EPOCH OF REFORM 659 

payments. In April, 1835, after an uphill fight, he was over- 
thrown, yet, during his brief tenure, he had established his reputa- 
tion at home and abroad as a man of capacity, bound in time to 
return to power. 

The Second Melbourne Ministry (1835-1841), and the Municipal 
Reform Act (1835). — Since Grey refused to assume office the King 
was forced to turn again to Melbourne. The most notable achieve- 
ment of the new Ministry was the reform of the municipal corpora- 
tions. In 1833 a commission had been appointed to inquire into the 
state of the municipalities. Its report, presented early in 1835, 
revealed a situation crying for amendment. The Reform Bill had 
swept away many of the small rotten boroughs, and had improved 
the condition of parliamentary representation and qualifications for 
voting in those that remained. Its scope, however, did not extend 
to internal organization and administration, and town government was 
very generally in the hands of councils, self-elected, irresponsible and 
corrupt. The number of freemen, who in some cases formed the 
corporation, was usually limited ; in Portsmouth, for instance, there 
were only 102 out of 46,000 inhabitants; in Cambridge 118 out of 
20,000. Moreover, these freemen, usually descendants of the original 
ratepayers, together with others arbitrarily added for political pur- 
poses, were often poor creatures — paupers, indeed, who shared in old 
charitable endowments and enjoyed exemptions from tolls, as well as 
other burdens. The Municipal Corporations Bill, framed on the 
basis of the report of 1835, became law in September. It provided 
for drastic changes. All boroughs and cities, with the exception of 
London — ■ as well as sixty-seven others omitted because of their small 
size — were to adopt a uniform plan of government. This was to 
be vested in a town council, consisting of a mayor, aldermen and 
councilors. The councilors were to be elected by the ratepaying occu- 
piers, together with the freemen who had survived the Reform Bill, 
and were to hold office for three years, while the mayor was to be 
chosen annually and the aldermen every six years by the councilors. 
Each borough, too, might, if it chose, have a recorder, nominated 
by the Crown, for the conduct of its judicial work. Exclusive 
trading privileges were broken up, and measures were devised to 
prevent jobbery and thieving. For example, much business, formerly 
in the hands of small committees, was transferred to the whole council, 
whose meetings were to be public and whose accounts were to be 
audited annually. 

The Closing Years of William's Reign (1836-1837). — In the fol- 
lowing year a few other reforms were carried. Chief among them was 



660 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

an Act converting English tithes in kind into an annual rent charge. 1 
Another was a measure authorizing Dissenters to celebrate marriages 
in their own chapels, with a system of registration in place of banns. 
Civil marriages were also allowed ; but the Church of England re- 
tained the practice of marrying members with banns or license. The 
Ecclesiastical Commission did away with many abuses, such as non- 
residence and pluralities, and performed a notable work in reducing 
the gross inequalities of episcopal and clerical incomes. Another 
step in advance was to allow to prisoners on trial for felony the 
full benefit of counsel. What with the difficulties in Ireland, the 
active obstructionist tactics of the Conservatives and the claims of 
the Radicals for more progressive measures — for the ballot and 
household suffrage, the repeal of the Septennial Act, the abolition of 
the property qualification for the House of Commons, and the reform 
of the House of Lords — the Ministry had stormy sailing. Such was 
the situation when William IV died, 20 June, 1837. He had come to 
the throne late in life, defective in education and with abilities far 
from great. Yet while he was erratic and opinionated and grew more 
and more timid of innovation, he was honest, well-meaning and loyal 
in the support of his Ministers. However much or little he con- 
tributed to the result, his reign was marked by a series of reforms un- 
surpassed for number and importance during any period of equal 
length in English history. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Bright, III ; Brodrick and Fotheringham ; Martineau ; 
Marriott ; Maxwell ; Walpole ; Cambridge Modern History, X, as above. 

For Parliamentary Reform see above, ch. XL VIII. Also G. L. Dickinson, 
The Development of Parliament in the Nineteenth Century (1895). J. R. M. 
Butler, The Passing of the Great Reform Bill (1914). Charles Seymour, 
Electoral Reform in England and Wales, 1832-1885 (191 5), valuable. Veitch, 
Genesis of Parliamentary Reform (1913). 

Biographies and Special Works. E. Ashley, Life of Lord P aimer ston 
(1879), I. S. J. Reid, Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham (2 vols., 
1906), rather over favorable. C. Buxton, Memoirs of Sir Thomas Powell 
Buxton (1898). Torrens, Memoirs of Lord Melbourne (2 vols., 1878). Sir 
G. O. Trevelyan, Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay (2 vols., 1876), a delight- 
ful book. E. Hodder, Life of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury (1887). B. L. 
Hutchins, History of Factory Legislation (1903). Sir G. Nicholls and T. 
Mackay, History of the English Poor Law (3 vols., 1904). W. Bagehot, 
Biographical Studies (1880). 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 263-5. Robert- 
son, pt. I, nos. XLVII-XLVIII ; pt. II, XXVI, appendix, 430-438. 

1 Compulsory church rates were abolished in 1868, though voluntary payments 
still continue. 



CHAPTER LI 

THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN AND THE TRIUMPH 
OF FREE TRADE (1837-1846) 

The Victorian Age. — When Victoria began her reign of sixty-four 
years, nineteenth-century England had already witnessed a goodly 
number of reforms. The political and legal disabilities of the Prot- 
estant Dissenters and the Roman Catholics had been almost entirely 
removed ; the most glaring defects and inequalities of the representa- 
tive system had been swept away ; the exclusive power of the aris- 
tocracy had been broken and the middle classes had been admitted to 
power ; and a new humanitarian spirit had manifested itself in meas- 
ures for the betterment of the lot not only of men, but of dumb ani- 
mals. The prosperity of the Colonies had been fostered and the 
British Empire had begun to extend in a new direction. Rusty 
shackles which hampered the growth of trade and industry had been 
struck off, and new inventions and processes were in operation which 
were to prove revolutionary in their results. There was still much 
misery and suffering among the lower classes; but, before the new 
reign was half over, they began to share in an amazing advance in 
material prosperity. This was due largely to the adjustment of the 
masses to the new conditions of industry; to the removal of the 
restrictive duties which had still clung to raw materials and food- 
stuffs ; to enlightened sanitary and labor regulations ; and to the 
wonders achieved by steam and electricity. While the late eighteenth 
and early nineteenth century marked an era in production, the Vic- 
torian age marked another, even more notable, in methods of trans- 
portation and distribution. 

As the Government, by the extension of the franchise to the wage 
earner, came to voice more nearly the popular will, it became decidedly 
paternal in character — utilitarian still, but socialistic instead of 
individualistic. While distinctions of rank and wealth continue to 
exist, the State has come to intervene for the interest of the masses 
in all sorts of activities from which it formerly held aloof ; in popular 

661 



662 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

education; postal savings banks; recognition of the trade unions; 
purchase of lands for the tillers of the soil ; regulation of various 
relations between the employer and the employed ; old age pensions 
and workingmen's insurance. 

Victoria. Her Early Life and Accession. — Alexandrina Victoria 
— for such was her full name — was born 24 May, 181 9, a year before 
the death of her father, the Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III. 
While her mother — a princess of Saxe-Coburg — wisely resolved to 
educate the little Victoria in England, she surrounded her with Ger- 
man influences, seeking constant counsel from her brother Leopold, 
who became King of the Belgians in 1832. In the gray dawn of a 
June morning in 1837, Victoria was awakened from her slumbers to 
learn that she was Queen of England ; at eleven o'clock the same morn- 
ing she appeared before the Privy Council and read in a sweet, strong 
voice the speech which Melbourne had prepared for her. Though 
not five feet tall and in no sense a beauty, her dignity and gracious- 
ness made a profound impression on all those present. Hanover, 
where the Salic law of succession prevailed, went to her uncle the Duke 
of Cumberland, a separation which contributed to some degree in 
detaching Great Britain from Continental complications. 

The Opening of the New Reign. — The Whigs, who were in power, 
looked to the young Queen to extend them the support which William 
in his later years had withdrawn. This naturally dampened whatever 
enthusiasm Victoria's youthful charm had evoked from the Tories. 
Melbourne appointed himself Victoria's political instructor. To a 
man of the world, verging on sixty, immersed in public business, and 
fond of devoting his scant leisure to scholarly pursuits, the task must 
have been far from congenial. On the whole, he performed his duties 
cheerfully, and was rewarded with the devotion of the young Queen, 
though, on occasion, she showed startling evidences of imperiousness 
and self-will. Indeed, while she later acquired more self-control, she 
never, to the end of her life, hesitated to express her views fully and 
frankly, — however, usually, as became a constitutional Sovereign, 
leaving her Ministers to follow their own choice. In spite of stren- 
uous opposition on the part of the Radicals, Melbourne managed to 
secure for the Queen a Civil List of £385,000 annually, which was 
£10,000 more than her predecessor had received, 1 though the old 

1 This was over and above the hereditary revenues from Lancaster and the 
Duchy of Cornwall, the latter of which went to the Duke of Cornwall when there 
was one. In addition, the Duchess of Kent received £30,000 a year, and, subse- 
quently, more than £200,000 annually was granted to the Prince Consort and the 
royal children. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 663 

pension and secret service funds amounting to £75,000 and £10,000 
were done away with. 1 

Ministerial Crisis (1839). — From the very beginning of the reign 
the Ministry was exposed to storms from many quarters. A rebellion 
broke out in Canada ; Ireland was very unquiet ; and powerful party 
opposition developed at home. In the House of Commons, Peel was 
growing in strength and was persistent in attack, while, at the other ex- 
treme, the Radicals, in addition to demanding more political power for 
the masses, were contending for free trade, compulsory education, dis- 
establishment of the Irish Church and many other reforms. Outside, 
the middle classes, disquieted by the prevailing evidences of unrest and 
by the violent speeches of agitators, were inclining toward the Conserv- 
ative ranks, though the Whigs made no corresponding converts among 
the laboring classes. Weakened by the trend of events, the Cabinet 
was in no condition to resist a West Indian crisis which centered in 
Jamaica, where the planters, hard hit by the emancipation of their 
slaves, and by the abolition of the apprenticeship system four years 
later, overworked and underfed the freedmen — many of whom were 
idle and unruly, no doubt — and had the recalcitrant cruelly flogged 
in the houses of correction. This started a new wave of sentiment in 
favor of the blacks, and the Government was forced to frame measures 
for the regulation of the prison conditions. The result was to pro- 
duce such manifestations of disaffection among the planters that a 
bill was introduced into Parliament, 9 April, 1839, to suspend the 
Jamaica Constitution for five years, a bill, which, in spite of the prov- 
ocation which prompted it, was so drastic and so fraught with dan- 
gerous possibilities that it only carried in the Commons by a majority 
of five. Melbourne, realizing that his situation was hopeless, re- 
signed early in May, 1839. 

The Bed-Chamber Question (1839). — He was brought back to 
office again by a curious episode known as the Bed-Chamber Question ; 
for which the Queen, Melbourne, and Peel must all share the blame. 
Victoria, bitterly grieved at the loss of her beloved counselor, sent 
first for Wellington ; but, upon his refusal to form a Ministry, she 
turned to Peel. Since most of her lady attendants were representa- 
tives of the Whig families, he felt the necessity of substituting a few 
associated with his own party. He had no intention of making a clean 
sweep, but merely desired to remove the Mistress of the Robes and 
two or three of the ladies-in-waiting ; yet unfortunately — and here 

1 However, the Queen was allowed £1200 a year to reward contributions to art 
and literature and other non-political public services, as well as to assist meritorious 
persons in need of help. 



664 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

was his blunder — he did not make this clear. Victoria became en- 
raged and refused to make any changes, declaring that such a step 
was " contrary to usage " and " repugnant to her feelings." Peel 
replied that there must be some misunderstanding and stubbornly 
declined to form a Ministry. The Queen was much elated, and 
turned again to Melbourne, who seems to have supported her in her 
uncompromising attitude ; moreover, he was induced with some diffi- 
culty to resume office. Whether he was moved by weak good nature 
or by chivalrous devotion, he made a mistake. The Queen herself 
afterwards confessed that she had acted hastily. Peel was quite 
right in not forming an Administration so long as the wives and other 
relatives of his political opponents had the ear of an inexperienced 
ruler, but his lack of tact and exaggerated suspicions alienated many. 
The Bed-Chamber Question never occurred again. It became the 
settled practice for the Mistress of the Robes to be changed with each 
new Government ; the other places were no longer considered political, 
though the ladies of the household ceased to be drawn from one 
party. 

The Queen's Marriage (10 February, 1840). — Early in 1840 Vic- 
toria contracted a marriage with a Prince whose wise and sober 
counsels contributed greatly to curb her masterful and impetuous 
temper. Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was her first cousin. Their 
Uncle Leopold looked forward to the match from their earliest youth ; 
but the final choice was really made by the Queen from a list of possible 
suitors. And the pair felt a devotion for one another almost un- 
exampled in alliances of State. The marriage announcement, hailed 
with joy by many, was condemned by the Tory party leaders. Albert's 
German birth gave them a handle, and the Queen intensified the oppo- 
sition by the demands which she made on his behalf. In the first 
place she was so insistent that he be created King- Consort that Mel- 
bourne was finally driven to declare : " For God's sake, Madam, let's 
have no more of this ! " * Another cause of friction developed when 
he assumed the office of royal private secretary. Prejudice against 
foreigners and fear of his influence over the Queen enabled his op- 
ponents, for some time, to limit his activity. Gradually, however, 
as his prudence and capacity came to be appreciated, he gained an 
increasing share in public business, he assumed most of the responsi- 
bilities properly belonging to the Queen, and in fact, if not in name, 
became with her the joint ruler of the nation. Yet it is questionable 
whether Albert became really popular. He had many admirable 
qualities : he was highly educated and accomplished ; he was public- 
1 He was subsequently created Prince Consort by royal letters patent in 1857. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 665 

spirited and charitable; but he had no fondness for English sports 
or for ordinary society, and was self-absorbed, cold and formal. 

Stockdale vs. Hansard (1839-1840). — Meantime, an important 
constitutional issue was being worked out. In 1835 reports- and other 
papers published by Parliament were for the first time placed on sale 
for the public. In the following year, the inspectors of the prisons 
in their first report referred to a book which they found in circulation 
at Newgate, as disgusting and indecent. Stockdale, the publisher, 
proceeded to bring a suit against Hansard, the printer of the report. 
Hansard pleaded, first, that the publication, being authorized by 
the House of Commons, was privileged, and, second, that the libel was 
true. The jury found for the defendant on the second issue ; but the 
Lord Chief Justice declared, in his charge, that an order of the House 
of Commons was not sufficient justification " for any bookseller who 
published a parliamentary report containing a libel against any man." 
The Commons at once took up the matter and passed a resolution 
challenging this decision as a breach of parliamentary privilege. A 
sharp quarrel developed which was only settled when the Ministry, 
in April, 1840, carried a bill providing that such actions as that of 
Stockdale vs. Hansard should be stayed on the production of a certifi- 
cate that the matter complained of was printed by order of either 
House of Parliament. While the judges did not feel themselves 
bound by the resolutions of the Lower House, they had to yield to 
a Statute. 

Penny Postage (1839-1840). — The declining years of the second 
Melbourne Administration were notable for the introduction of the 
adhesive stamp and of a uniform penny postage for letters, under 
half an ounce in weight, sent to any point in the United Kingdom. 
This reform, which, going into effect in January, 1840, revolution- 
ized communication, was due to Rowland Hill, who published a 
pamphlet on Post Office Reform in 1837. Hitherto, rates had not 
only been exorbitant, but had varied according to the size, weight and 
shape of the letter. It cost a shilling from London to Aberdeen or 
Belfast, and the average price was sixpence. To evade the extreme 
charges an extensive system of smuggling developed, and it is said 
that five sixths of the letters between London and Manchester were 
conveyed illicitly. 1 Rowland Hill, when he set about investigating 

1 One device noted by the poet Coleridge was very ingenious. He saw a post- 
man deliver a letter to a woman at a poor cottage. After looking at it, she declared 
she could not pay the shilling charged. Much against her will, Coleridge paid for 
it. When the postman had gone, she explained that, by an arrangement between 
her brother and herself, he sent her a blank sheet every three months to inform her 
that he was well. 



666 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the subject, came to the conclusion that the cost of sending mail was 
trifling, that the distance made little difference, and the profit increased 
with the number of letters sent. One of the chief advantages of this 
system was the immense amount of labor saved in measuring every 
letter and calculating the distance it had come. In spite of its merits 
it had to encounter a storm of opposition, though Rowland Hill is now 
recognized as one of the great practical reformers of the nineteenth 
century. 

Popular Discontent. — The working classes, who had hoped much 
from the Reform Bill and the legislation which followed, were griev- 
ously disappointed when they realized that the chief result had been 
merely to shift the balance of power from the landed aristocracy to 
the merchant and manufacturing capitalist. Many causes contrib- 
uted to accentuate their misery and discontent. X A series of bad 
harvests,. beginning in 1837, brought intense suffering, while the high 
protective tariff prevented any relief from- the importation of food- 
stuffs. Moreover, the lesser folk had not yet adjusted themeslves 
to the vast industrial changes following the introduction of machinery 
during the last half century. People flocked from the country to the 
towns, which grew too fast to absorb them. Poverty, overcrowding, 
and horrible sanitary conditions prevailed. Families were. huddled 
together in narrow filthy streets, often in dark and ill-smelling cellars. 
No provision was made for drainage or ventilation. Men, women, 
and children worked long hours for the scantiest wages. 1 The laissez- 
faire doctrines, which dominated political and economic philosophy, 
preached unrestricted competition, and stoutly opposed State inter- 
vention for regulating conditions of industry and helping the laborer. 
Private charity had neither the organization nor the will to render 
much aid, and the New Poor Law caused much immediate hardship, 
leaving to the destitute no alternative between starvation and the 
workhouse, where the inmates were subjected to injustice, depriva- 
tion and cruelty, of which Dickens' Oliver Twist presents a stirring 
picture. Conditions were in making which were to lead to better 
things, but as yet none of them were realities. 

The Beginnings of the Socialistic Movement. — The revolt against 
the existing situation was manifested in three distinct movements — 
Socialism and Trade-Unionism ; Chartism ; and Anti-Corn-Law agita- 
tion. The pioneer of the socialists was Robert Owen (17 71-1858) who 
from a shop assistant rose to be a rich cotton manufacturer. He es- 
tablished schools for the poor, he labored for improved factory condi- 

1 Graphic pictures may be found in Disraeli's Sybil, and Mrs. Gaskell's Mary 
Barton. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 667 

tions, and advocated cooperative production, and, about 1834, the part 
of his program which aimed at the control of production by the 
workingmen began to be enthusiastically agitated. The chief agencies 
for carrying on the propaganda were the Trade-Unions, 1 which begin- 
ning to come into being in 1829, aimed to limit the hours of work and 
to raise wages, mainly by means of " strikes." The Grand National 
Consolidated Trades Union, which was started in 1834 and soon 
numbered half a million members, undertook to group together the 
various local societies and was even extended to the agriculturalists ; 
but owing to the energetic action of the employers who dismissed 
their men belonging to the Union, and to the hostile attitude of the 
Government who sentenced half a dozen of the members to trans- 
portation, the movement collapsed. It was years before Trades- 
Unionism became an effective force. 

Chartism. The First Phase, to 1839. - Chartism and Socialism 
have sometimes been confused, but their methods were essentially 
different; they had nothing in common except a desire to improve 
the condition of the laboring classes. The Chartist movement may 
be traced to a Workingman's Association founded in London in 1836, 
which developed into an organization for extending the political 
powers of the people. This was totally at variance with the aims of 
Owen and his adherents, who did not believe in political remedies. 
In 1837 the Association embodied its demands in a petition containing 
six points: (1) manhood suffrage; (2) vote by ballot; (3) abolition 
of the property qualification for membership in Parliament ; (4) pay- 
ment of members ; (5) equal electoral districts ; and (6) annual 
parliaments. The movement got its name from this " Charter," 
as Daniel O'Connell called it. Most of the reforms it contained had 
been urged by the Radicals since the beginning of the century, and, 
with the exception of the last in the list, all of them have since been 
conceded. The Chartist agitation as such, however, after an inter- 
mittent and stormy history, collapsed, though for a time it was very 
active and soon reached a violent stage. The Charter was published 
in May, 1838, organizations were formed in various parts of the country 
and huge meetings were held to further the work. Unfortunately 
the movement passed beyond the control of the Workingman's Asso- 
ciation who had framed the original program. The moderates with- 
drew and the violent or physical force party became supreme. So 
when Parliament rejected the Chartist petition and when the police 
sought to suppress their meetings, riots resulted, and three of their 
leaders were convicted and sentenced to transportation for life. This, 

1 While Owen was socialistic, Trade-Unionism is by no means necessarily so. 



668 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and the lack of any controlling mind, put an end to the Chartist agita- 
tion for some years. Perhaps even more decisive was the fact that 
the leading Chartists opposed the Anti-Corn-Law movement, which 
was in the hands of sober, earnest men of the middle classes. The 
majority preferred cheap bread to the vague possibilities of a poli- 
tical millennium promised by extremists and visionaries. 

The Anti-Corn-Law Movement (1838-1841). — The center of the 
agitation for free trade was the manufacturing district in and about 
Manchester. The Manchester School of politicians saw that it was 
for their advantage to have not only cheap raw materials but also 
cheap food for those whom they employed. A period of stagnation 
resulting in scarcity of work and reduction of wages gave the impetus, 
and, in 1833, the Anti-Corn-Law League was organized. Large amounts 
of money were subscribed, hundreds of thousands of pamphlets were 
issued, and lecturers were sent all over the country to bring the ques- 
tion before the people. The leaders of the movement were Richard 
Cobden (1804-1865) and John Bright (1811-1889). Both were manu- 
facturers, from middle class stock. The older man by his gift of 
persuasive reasonableness, and the younger by his powers of oratory, 
unequaled in his generation, formed a combination that proved 
irresistible on the platform and in the House of Commons. But 
they had a long up-hill struggle against vested interests and ingrained 
prejudice. 

The Second Ministry of Peel (1841-1846). — In 1841 the decrepit 
Melbourne Ministry, which since 1839 had been staggering along 
against a growing Tory opposition and with a steadily swelling deficit, 
was finally overthrown. Thereupon Peel once more assumed the 
reins as Prime Minister. The deficit was the most pressing problem 
that confronted him, and he proceeded to deal with it in 1842. For 
one thing, out of 1200 dutiable articles he reduced the tariff on 750, 
which were grouped in three classes: raw materials, which were to 
pay 5 per cent; partly manufactured goods, 12 per cent; and com- 
pleted products, 20 per centra Then, in order to provide against 
possible loss of revenue and to meet the deficit, he revived the Income 
Tax, 1 abolished at the close of the French War. In 1843 the import 
and export duties on wool were swept away entirely. Peel had been 
put into office pledged to protection, and while he had not yet aban- 
doned protectionist principles, he had taken such a long step in the 
direction of free trade that his followers began to ask : " Whither will 
he lead us? " 

1 id. was imposed in every £100 on all incomes over £150. At varying rates the 
Income Tax has proved a main source of British revenue ever since. 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 669 

The Bank Charter Act of 1844. — Peel's Bank Charter Act of 1844, 
though it has not escaped criticism, was a notable achievement, 
designed to meet a real danger. Sanctioned by an Act of 1833, joint- 
stock banks had, during the two following years, increased from fifty- 
five to a hundred, and went on growing, though less rapidly, as well as 
putting forth many branches. While they were issuing great quanti- 
ties of paper money, vast amounts of gold were being shipped to the 
United States to meet the demands of an abnormal growth of business 
and speculation. Meantime, a financial reaction had set in, and by 
the close of 1836 England was on the verge of a crisis. She passed it 
safely; but at the expense of a shrinkage in business which led to 
misery and discontent, manifesting itself in riots, Chartism, and Anti- 
Corn-Law agitation. Peel undertook a banking reform for two reasons. 
As a politician he was opposed to a policy which led to commercial 
depression and popular unrest, as a financier he disapproved of a 
system which permitted an indefinite increase of paper money that 
did not rest on adequate basis of bullion. By the Act of 1844 he pro- 
vided for a separation of the department of the Bank of England 
which issued notes from that conducting ordinary banking business. 
Henceforth, too, the issues of the Bank were to be covered by bullion, 
three fourths in gold, except for £14,000,000 covered by Government 
securities. 1 

The Second Free Trade Budget (1845). — By retaining the Income 
Tax Peel was able, in 1845, to abolish more duties and further to re- 
duce others. Export duties were done away with altogether, likewise 
the duty on cotton, and the excise on glass. The protectionist con- 
tingent found a champion in Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). He 
came of a Jewish family who had embraced the Christian faith, and 
he had first come into prominence as a dandy and a writer of novels. 
Entering Parliament as a radical Tory, his first speech, while in a way 
a failure, marked him to the discerning as an unusual man. Gradually 
he gathered about him a group known as the Young England party, 
which did not long survive. Its guiding aim was a union of the 
Sovereign and the nobility with the masses against the middle class 
capitalists. He soon began to dazzle the Commons by his brilliancy ; 
but it required persistent effort before he could win their confidence. 
When Peel formed his Ministry he asked him for office, a fact which 
he afterwards unscrupulously denied. However, he refrained from 
attacking his leader until the latter began to depart from protectionist 

1 Peel wished also to prohibit the note issues of the country banks, but went no 
further than prohibiting the new ones from issuing notes, limiting the old ones to 
the existing amounts and requiring weekly reports. 



670 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

principles. Then he turned on him all his marvelous powers of 
ready and biting invective. He denounced the Conservative Govern- 
ment as an " organized hypocrisy." The Prime Minister, he declared, 
had caught the Whigs bathing and had run away with their clothes. 
The analogy was more clever than correct. It was the liberal Tories, 
Huskisson and Canning, who had made the first move in the direction 
of free trade, while the Whigs as a party had not as yet shown any 
enthusiasm for the policy. Meantime, the Anti-Corn-Law League 
had become a great fact. Subscriptions which had begun at £5000 in 
1839 had increased in 1844 to nearly £90,000. The victory of free 
trade was not far off. 

Regulation of Labor in Mines and Factories (1843-1844). — Mean- 
time, laudable steps were taken to improve conditions of labor in 
mines and factories. The leader in this movement was Lord Ashley, 
who had carried the Factory Act of 1833. His efforts met determined 
resistance from many quarters, for the laissez-faire politicians and 
economists were opposed to any interference with free competition, 
employers wanted long hours and cheap labor,' while parents, failing 
to realize that employment of women and children kept down the 
level of wages, were desirous to have every possible member of the 
family at work. Peel expressed the opinion that further labor re- 
strictions would drive capitalists out of England; the Manchester 
School, sad to say, took the same attitude. Nevertheless the growing 
humanitarian sentiment prevailed, and Ashley secured the appointment 
of a commission to inquire into conditions in mines and factories. Its 
report, published in 1842, was an " awful document " which called 
forth a feeling of " shame, terror and indignation." In some places 
children of four years were found at work, the mines were often stifling 
and dripping with wet, women and children had to crawl on their 
hands and knees along passages from two to three feet high, dragging 
heavy carts by chains passing between their legs and fastened by 
girdles around their waists. Frequently they were forced to toil on 
alternate days from sixteen to twenty hours out of the twenty-four. 
The moral effect of such degrading labor without education or recrea- 
tion can only be imagined. Ashley managed to carry a bill, in 1842, 
excluding women from the mines altogether. He proposed to ex- 
clude boys under thirteen as well, but had to submit to an amend- 
ment of the House of Lords admitting those over ten for three 
days a week. He then returned to the factory question, and 
with the help of Peel a bill was passed, in 1844, which limited 
the hours of women to twelve. The hours of children under thirteen 
were reduced from nine to six and a half. Peel, who had come 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 671 

to see the light, only secured the passage of the measure by threat- 
ening to resign. 1 

The Potato Famine and Peel's Conversion to Free Trade (1845). — 
In the autumn of the year 1845 the failure of the potato crop brought 
about a crisis in English history. A disease, first noticed in the Isle 
of Wight, spread rapidly over England and Ireland. The Irish crop 
was ruined, and since potatoes constituted almost the sole food of 
the population, famine impended unless prompt measures were taken 
for their relief. Peel, who was already inclining to the view of Cob- 
den and Bright, was convinced by the necessity of supplying the Irish 
sufferers with cheap bread from abroad, that the time had come for 
removing the duty on foreign corn. He had already gone so far as 
to admit the principle of free trade. Conceding that prices should 
be low for the sake of the consumer rather than high for the 
sake of the producer, he had clung to a moderate duty on corn 
in order to encourage its production that Great Britain might be 
self-sufficing in time of war. Moreover, he was the Prime Minis- 
ter of a party pledged to protect the agricultural interests. But his 
reduction of duties in 1842 had resulted in increased prosperity, and 
he had made up his mind that free trade was " in the interest of the 
country and politically inevitable." The only question was whether 
he should undertake the task or leave it to the Whigs, for their leader 
Russell had also reached the point of discarding the principles of 
protection. Peel discussed the question with his Cabinet in a series 
of meetings during October and November; but only three of his 
colleagues would support his views, hence, a proposal which he made to 
suspend temporarily the restriction on the import of corn and to call 
a Parliament to consider the whole subject of repeal, was rejected. 
While the Cabinet was thus at odds, Russell, 22 November, threw a 
bombshell by publishing a famous document, known to history as the 
" Edinburgh Letter," in which he declared for free trade. " Let us 
unite," he wrote, " to put an end to a system which has been proved 
to be the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture, the source of 
bitter divisions among classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality 
and crime among the people." Bright assured the Whig leader that 
his letter had made " the total and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws 
inevitable." Peel, spurred on by Russell's pronouncement, strove 
to induce his Cabinet to forestall the Whigs by framing a repeal meas- 
ure and summoning Parliament to vote upon it. Meeting another 

1 The ten-hour day for women and young persons was not secured till 1850. Va- 
rious other regulations and extensions followed, which were consolidated into the 
existing labor code in 190 1. 



672 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

refusal, he resigned, 5 December. Russell was called upon to form a 
Government. Finding difficulties in the distribution of offices he soon 
gave up the task, apparently not overanxious to fish in the troubled 
waters which he had stirred up. Accordingly Peel came back, 20 
December. 

The Repeal of the Corn Laws (June, 1846). — Parliament met 
22 January, 1846. Peel began the fight by proposing a further reduc- 
tion of the duties — provided for in 1842 and 1845 — to 10 per cent 
on manufactured goods, to 5 per cent on those partly manufactured, 
and for the total removal of all imposts on raw materials. This he 
followed by a proposal for materially lowering the sliding scale of 
duties on corn — adopted in 1828 — during a period of three years 
with the stipulation that on 1 February, 1849, tne sca le was to be 
abolished, leaving only a nominal duty of one shilling a quarter. Im- 
mediately, a large section of the Conservatives arose in revolt. Their 
real leader was Disraeli. Realizing, however, the magic of a noble 
name and powerful family connections in managing the Tory aristoc- 
racy, he chose as nominal chief Lord George Bentinck, a son of the 
Duke of Portland. Disraeli delighted his supporters and confounded 
his opponents by his sarcasm, his brilliant rhetoric, and his audacious 
party tactics. He denounced Peel "asa man who never originates 
an idea; a man who takes his observations, and when he finds the 
wind in a particular quarter trims his sails to suit it," as " a trader on 
other people's intelligence ; a political burglar of other men's ideas." 
He led in the furious outcry that the Prime Minister had betrayed 
the Conservative party, and sought to obstruct his measures at every 
stage of their progress. The Protectionists were willing to accept a 
temporary suspension of the corn duties which Peel had framed as a 
special measure for meeting the Irish distress, but they contended 
that there was no reason for a drastic free trade policy at the same 
time. Naturally, there was hostility, on the part of special interests, 
to the proposals relating to raw materials and manufactures ; but 
Peel was able to show that every decrease of the duty had been fol- 
lowed by increase of business and employment. To the landed gentry, 
who were fighting so desperately against the repeal of the Corn Laws, 
his argument was that the welfare of the country and the very exist- 
ence of the poor demanded cheap food and steady prices. After two 
months of struggle, both the Corn Bill and the Customs Bill passed 
the Commons, 15 May. Thanks to Wellington, who again showed his 
common sense in foreseeing the inevitable, the Lords yielded, 25 June. 

The Fall of Peel. — On the very same day " the Ministry who had 
carried to success the greatest piece of legislation. . . since Lord Grey's 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 673 

Reform Bill," was overthrown. The distress in Ireland had so accen- 
tuated the unrest that a new Coercion bill — the eighteenth since the 
Union — was introduced into the House of Lords in March. It passed 
the Upper House, but Disraeli, with the help of the Irish and Radical 
members, succeeded in defeating it in the Commons. 

Estimate of His Work. — The extension of the free trade policy 
was fortunate in coming in on a wave of great material prosperity for 
England, and protection was soon abandoned as a political issue. A 
marvelous development followed. Many causes were operative, in 
addition to the recent legislation, such as the final adjustment of the 
laborer to the factory system, wonderful improvements in machinery, 
and the phenomenal development of railway and steam traffic and 
the introduction of electricity. However much Peel's measures may 
have contributed to the new era, he certainly understood and repre- 
sented the commercial interests of the country better than any other 
Englishman of the century. He never came back to office ; but during 
the rest of his life headed an opposition band consisting of a few de- 
voted followers known as the " Peelites." He died 2 July, 1850, as 
the result of a fall from his horse a few days before. For forty years 
he had been a member of the House of Commons, and for half that 
period he had led his party in office and in opposition. His power 
in the Cabinet and in Parliament was due to his mastery of detail 
and the weight of his reasoning rather than to any fervor of oratory. 
His public policy, though it exposed him at times to the charge of in- 
consistency, had a fundamental unity ; namely, to preserve the exist- 
ing Constitution so far as possible, yet at the same time to improve 
the condition of the country by progressive legislation. Bound by 
conservative tradition and lacking in imaginative foresight, he was 
open to new ideas which on occasion led him to depart abruptly from 
his party allegiance, and resulted finally in producing a split in the 
Conservative ranks. Always ready to sacrifice himself and his party 
to the public good, his monument endures in the revival of the specie 
payments ; the reform of the criminal code ; Roman Catholic eman- 
cipation ; the improvement of the banking system ; the reduction of 
the tariff and the repeal of the Corn Laws. Judged both by his work 
and his character he ranks as the foremost statesman of his generation. 

Foreign Affairs. The Opium War (1 840-1 842). — Under Grey 
and Melbourne the control of foreign affairs was in the hands of Lord 
Palmerston, whose policy was marked by an aggressive sympathy with 
liberal and national movements against despotism. The more con- 
ciliatory Aberdeen, who succeeded to the Foreign Office under Peel, 
inherited wars with Afghanistan and China, disputes with the United 

2X 



674 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

States, and strained relations with France. The war with China is 
one of the most discreditable in British history; for, however great 
the provocation which led Great Britain to assume the offensive, the 
trouble really had its root in her attempt to force the opium trade 
upon the Chinese against the protestations of their Government and 
of such public opinion as there was in the Empire. Palmerston tried 
to obscure the moral issue by insisting that the question was one of pro- 
tecting the native-grown poppy and of preventing the export of bullion. 
Whatever their motives, the Chinese had absolutely prohibited the 
importation of the drug. Their general policy at this time was to 
exclude all foreign commerce so far as possible. Certain foreign mer- 
chants, however, from their headquarters in the island of Hong-Kong 
had been allowed to engage in a very restricted business with the 
neighboring city of Canton. In addition to this licensed trade, con- 
siderable smuggling in opium had sprung up. Up to 1834 the monop- 
oly of the China trade had been in the hands of the East India Com- 
pany, who had kept both the recognized and the illicit traffic under 
reasonable control. With the cessation of the Company's exclusive 
privileges, conditions got so bad that the British Government appointed 
officials to supervise the licensed commerce and to check the smuggling. 
But the Chinese refused to recognize these superintendents and treated 
them in a very high-handed fashion. This discord gave the smugglers 
increased opportunities, from which they were not slow to profit. The 
Chinese, taking matters into their own hands, seized and destroyed 
some 20,000 chests of opium in the Canton River. Other causes of 
friction followed, and a British fleet was sent to the scene of action in 
1840. The Chinese were finally brought to terms. By the treaty of 
Nankin, 26 August, 1842 : (1) Five ports, including Canton and 
Shanghai, were opened to British trade ; (2) Hong-Kong was ceded 
outright ; (3) and 2 1 ,000,000 dollars was paid for the opium destroyed, 
for debts due to British merchants, and for a war indemnity. The 
Chinese, however, still refused to legalize the opium trade. Unhap- 
pily, owing to the fact that the growth and sale of the drug formed a 
chief source of the Indian revenue, the British Government would 
take no steps to stop the traffic, which went on for years unchecked. 
In other respects the commercial results of the treaty proved an ad- 
vantage for both sides. 

Boundary Disputes with the United States Adjusted(i 842 and 1846). 
— - Chief among the outstanding disputes with the United States were 
those relating to the northeast and northwest boundaries. Lord Ash- 
burton, sent on a special mission, was unable to settle the Oregon bound- 
ary, but managed to adjust the limits of northern Maine, which had 



THE EARLY YEARS OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 675 

been a subject of controversy since 1783. By the Ashburton Treaty 
a compromise was arranged. The United States accepted a line in 
northern Maine south of that which they had originally claimed ; but 
they received a clear title to Rouse's Point on Lake Champlain, where 
they had built a fort on the supposition that it was within the limits 
of the United States, though a later and more accurate survey had 
shown that it is really in British territory. The question of the 
boundary west of the Rockies was not settled till 1846. Each country 
had conflicting claims based on discovery, exploration and settlement. 
In 1 81 8 they agreed to occupy the disputed territory jointly and the 
northern boundary of the United States was fixed at 49 between 
the Lake of the Woods and the Stony (Rocky) Mountains. 1 By the 
Florida Treaty of 1819 the United States acquired such claims as the 
Spanish had north of 42 . In 1824 Russia gave up all claims south 
of 54 40'. The Anglo-American joint occupancy proved unsatis- 
factory, and by the Oregon Treaty, as finally concluded, the boundary 
of 49 was extended from the Rockies as far as Vancouver Sound, and 
thence along the middle of the channel to the sea. The British thus 
secured the whole of Vancouver Island. The navigation of the Colum- 
bia River was to be free to both countries. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

See Chapter LII below. 

1 The boundary to the Mississippi had been fixed by the treaty of 1783. In the 
interval between that date and 181 8 the United States had acquired Louisiana. 



CHAPTER LII 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE AND THE BEGINNING 
OF A NEW PERIOD OF WAR (1846-1856). THE PALMERSTONIAN 
REGIME AND THE END OF AN EPOCH (1857-1865) 

The First Russell Ministry (1846-1852). Temporary Measures 
for Irish Relief. — Lord John Russell, who succeeded Peel, was con- 
fronted first with the pressing problem of relieving the destitution 
and dealing with the disturbances in Ireland, where the misery was 
accentuated by a second potato blight in 1846. Father Mathew records 
that, on a journey from Dublin to Cork early in August, he " beheld 
with sorrow one wild waste of putrefying vegetation. Stupor and 
despair fell upon the people. In many places the wretched men were 
seated on the fences of their decaying gardens wringing their hands, 
and wailing bitterly at the destruction which had left them foodless." 
Peel had hurried a supply of Indian corn to the stricken country and 
had advanced, on the part of the Government, a considerable sum for 
employing the people on public works. The debt was to be assumed 
partly by the State and partly by the localities, but the terms of the 
loan proved so easy that the landlords took advantage of them to 
improve their estates and Peel's plan was soon abandoned. Russell 
started a new system of public works providing that the money should 
be repaid by the localities within ten years at 3 J per cent. His system, 
too, proved ineffective and extravagant. The employment selected 
was usually the building of roads which led nowhere ; light work and 
certain wages attracted men from necessary employments, and the 
numbers swelling from 100,000 in October, 1846, to 734,000 in March, 
1847, became unmanageable, so that his system also had to be given 
up. Furthermore, in accordance with the prevailing laissez-faire 
policy, the Government food depots were not opened while food could 
be sold at a reasonable price, consequently speculators throve and the 
people starved. After something had been done by volunteer com- 
mittees, Russell, early in 1847, provided a system for the free dispen- 

676 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 677 

sation of food, supplied partly from Government funds and partly from 
local rates, a more effective system which was continued till the har- 
vest season of 1847. I n addition the Corn Laws and the Navigation 
Laws were temporarily suspended during 1846 and 1847. 1 

Permanent Measures. — Since these devices, necessary as they 
seemed, tended to pauperize the Irish, the Government undertook to 
frame more permanent measures for stimulating enterprise and 
developing the country, as well as assisting the needy. Unfor- 
tunately, the evils resulting from unrestricted competition in 
rents, tenure at will, and arbitrary evictions were left untouched, 
while a proposal for reclaiming waste lands and selling them in 
small lots was defeated. Considerable sums, however, were ad- 
vanced for draining and improving estates. One measure, the En- 
cumbered Estates Act of 1848, very well meant, was exceedingly 
unfortunate in its results. The object was to enable impoverished 
landlords to sell out to those who were financially able to work the 
estates, yet, as a rule, the tenants suffered from the change ; since 
most of the new proprietors were greedy capitalists seeking to wring 
the utmost farthing from their investment. While the progress of 
starvation was gradually checked, the effects of the famine ran their 
course. The mortality due to fever and suffering was dreadful. Mur- 
der and violence increased so alarmingly that the Liberals, who in 
opposition had helped to defeat Peel's Coercion Bill, were reduced 
to passing one of their own, December, 1847. Conditions were ripe 
for revolt when a series of revolutions on the Continent precipitated 
an abortive Irish rising. 

The Young Ireland Rising (1848). — As in 1789 and in 1830 the 
movement started in Paris, resulting in the expulsion of Louis Philippe 
from the throne and the establishment of a short-lived republic. Some 
years before, Daniel O'Connell had lost his influence with the bolder 
spirits of his party because he was unwilling to resort to force to gain 
his cherished end — repeal of the Union. He died at Genoa in 1847, 
a broken old man. Meantime, the leadership passed to the Young 
Ireland party, which began with a group of youthful journalists, who 
founded the Nation newspaper, in 1842, where they published prose 
and poetry breathing all the fervor of the patriots of antiquity. The 
French example and the hope of French assistance converted the young 
Ireland party into a body of rebellious conspirators. They had chosen 

1 Apparently a wiser method of dealing with the whole problem would have been 
to suspend the collection of rents and the export of cereals by which the tenantry 
secured the money to pay them, for sufficient foodstuffs were sent out of the country 
in 1845 to feed the whole population for six months. 



678 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

as their leader William Smith O'Brien, a Protestant of wealth and an- 
cient lineage, -who originally supported O'Connell's policy of peaceful 
agitation. He was honest, courageous and patriotic, but lacked the 
decision and the personal magnetism necessary to head a successful 
revolt. After he had failed in a mission to Paris, where he sought aid, 
he planned a rising which was scattered by the police, 29 July, before 
he could completely organize his forces, and, together with a few of the 
ringleaders in the attempted rising, was sentenced to death for high 
treason, a sentence subsequently commuted to exile. Danger of 
revolution ceased for the time being ; but the misery and discontent 
which had fomented it remained. 

The Collapse of the Chartists (1848). — Aside from the abortive 
Irish rising, the only other effect of the rebellions of 1848 which the 
British Government had to face was a revival of Chartism, and that 
was to some extent due to a threatened financial crisis which drove 
many out of employment. Early in 1848, meetings began to be held 
in the large towns, and a petition was circulated which received thou- 
sands of signatures. On 4 April a convention was opened in London, 
and a plan was adopted to assemble on the 10th, to march in proces- 
sion to Parliament, and present the monster petition. The Duke of 
Wellington, commissioned by the Government to guard against in- 
surrection, caused 170,000 constables to be sworn in and held the 
regular troops in readiness. In view of these preparations, their 
leader, Fergus O'Connor, losing his courage, gave up the procession 
and urged his followers to disperse. The petition was sent in three 
cabs, purporting to contain 5,000,000 names ; less than half that num- 
ber were found by actual count, and many of them were fictitious. 
Led by visionaries, distracted by conflicting aims, discredited by the 
violence of the extremists and rendered ridiculous by a final futile 
demonstration, the Chartist movement, as such, collapsed. Never- 
theless, it was fostered by real distress, it was joined by many honest 
workmen, and most of its demands have since become the law of the 
land. 

The " Papal Aggression " (1850). — Two years later, popular ap- 
prehension was stirred to a fever heat from a totally different cause — 
the so-called " Papal Aggression." Impressed by the fact that a few 
men of note had recently gone over to Rome, the Pope and the Vatican 
had hopes that the time was ripe for the conversion of England. To 
that end, a papal bull was issued, in 1850, setting up a hierarchy of 
bishops in England, who should derive their titles from English sees 
created by the bull. Hitherto, Roman Catholic bishops sent to that 
country had been known as bishops in partibus infidelium. Deriving 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 679 

their titles from extinct dioceses in Asia Minor, they had been regarded 
as missionaries dwelling in a land of unbelievers. While to many it 
was a matter of indifference whether the new prelates had English or 
Asiatic titles, numbers of good people, who had viewed with concern 
the Romeward tendency of the High Anglican party, were convinced 
that Pius IX was seizing the opportunity to attempt to extend the 
spiritual arm of the Church of Rome over the whole of Great Britain. 
Russell added fuel to the flames by a famous letter to the Bishop of 
Durham denouncing the Pope's assumption of authority as " incon- 
sistent with the Queen's supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and 
clergy, and with the spiritual independence of the nation as asserted 
even in the Roman Catholic times." The day after the letter appeared 
was Guy Fawkes' Day, which furnished the occasion for parading effi- 
gies, particularly of the Pope, for bonfires and other wild demonstra- 
tions in London and elsewhere. Resolutions from tumultuous* meet- 
ings, and floods of petitions addressed to the Queen and the Ministers 
called for urgent action. 

The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill (1851). — Curiously enough, the Prime 
Minister who had done so much to stir the popular prejudice was 
one of the leading advocates in his generation of religious freedom. 
After all, neither he nor his colleagues, having called attention to 
the threatened danger, wanted to undertake decisive legislation. In 
order, however, to allay the excitement and possibly to discourage 
further papal activity in England, Russell, early in 1851, introduced 
the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. The measure, which only passed after 
long and acrimonious discussion, forbade, under penalty, the assump- 
tion by Roman Catholics of titles taken from any territory or place 
within the United Kingdom, and declared void anything done under 
such titles. As a matter of fact, it remained a dead letter and was 
quietly repealed in 1871. 

The Great Exhibition (1851). — During the year 1851, attention 
was drawn from politics toward a remarkable undertaking for which 
Prince Albert was chiefly responsible. This was an exhibition of the 
industries of all nations — the first of a long series to follow which have 
done so much to bring peoples of different nations together, to widen 
their horizon by travel and mutual acquaintance, and to further in- 
dustrial and artistic progress. The Great Exhibition, held in Hyde 
Park from 1 May to 15 October, was, in one of its results, most disap- 
pointing. Although it was predicted confidently that it would mark 
an era in the cause of international peace, the first Continental war 
in forty years soon broke out, and was followed by a long and frequent 
series of European conflicts. 



680 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Palmerstonian Policy and the Don Pacifico Case. — The irre- 
sponsible Palmerston had a remarkable gift for sensing and voicing 
English public opinion in the field of his Secretaryship — foreign 
affairs ; but by his jaunty aggressiveness, his habit of scolding other 
Governments and meddling in their affairs, and by his tendency to 
follow his own bent, he was constantly stirring up trouble abroad and 
embarrassing the Queen and the Cabinet. The Prince Consort and 
the Queen, though they accepted the constitutional system in England 
and would not have objected to seeing it adopted voluntarily by Eu- 
ropean Sovereigns, were firm supporters of the existing dynasties — 
particularly that of Germany, with which they had close family con- 
nections — and shuddered at violent attacks on them. Palmerston's 
attitude was hopelessly at variance with theirs ; he was a strenuous 
advocate of liberal and national movements abroad, and went to the 
point o'f encouraging or at least condoning revolution. Not only his 
policy but his manner of proceeding was intolerable to his Sovereign 
and her Consort. Albert's views he treated with undisguised contempt 
when he did not ignore them altogether. A notion of his methods may 
be gained from the fact that in 1848, without consulting even the Queen, 
he sent a mandate to the Spanish Government to liberalize its insti- 
tutions, a proceeding which led to the recall of the British ambassador. 
More than once he brought Great Britain to the verge of war with 
France, and by his procedure in the Don Pacifico case even ran the risk 
of provoking a general European conflict. Don Pacifico, a Jew who 
had moved to Athens from Gibraltar where he had lived as a British 
subject, claimed the protection of the British Government when, in an 
Easter demonstration in 1847, ms house was sacked by an Athenian 
mob. Palmerston, without consulting France or Russia — who were 
joined by treaty for safeguarding the interest of Greece — and re- 
gardless of the efforts of the French and British ambassadors who 
were adjusting the matter in London, sent a fleet to the Piraeus 
and put pressure on the Greeks. Impelled partly by a feeling that 
the French and Russians were in a league, through their ambassadors 
in Athens, against Great Britain, his chief defense, in a remarkable 
speech in the House of Commons, was that he had acted on the prin- 
ciple that anyone who bore the name of Englishman was entitled to 
protection. Working up to a passionate climax, he left the House to 
decide " whether, as the Roman in days of old held himself free from 
indignity when he could say cms Romanus sum, so also a British sub- 
ject, in whatever land he may be, shall feel confident that the watch- 
ful eye and strong arm of England will protect him against injustice 
and wrong." It was a telling appeal to British pride. It mattered 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 681 

little that Don Pacifico claimed damages that were ridiculously exorbi- 
tant. He did not get all he asked, though he recovered probably 
more than he had lost. 

The Queen's Memorandum to Palmerston (12 August, 1850). — 
Another source of friction in the British foreign relations was due to 
the fact that many Continental Sovereigns, thinking that the Queen 
was all-powerful, addressed their correspondence directly to her. While 
she conscientiously referred such communications as were of importance 
to Palmerston, she usually received advice so inconsiderate and un- 
conciliatory as to cause her pain. When Russell remonstrated with 
him for this and for his tendency to act without consultation, he tossed 
it off with the remark that the Queen showed " groundless uneasi- 
ness." After some delay and hesitation, Victoria, 12 August, 1850, 
sent the Foreign Secretary a memorial which should govern his conduct 
in the future. " She expects," so it ran, " to be kept informed of what 
passes between him and the Foreign Ministers before important de- 
cisions are taken," and required in addition : " First, that the Foreign 
Secretary will distinctly state what he proposes in a given case, in order 
that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given her royal 
sanction. Second, having once given her sanction to a measure, that 
it be not arbitrarily altered or modified by the Minister," under pen- 
alty of dismissal. The buoyant Palmerston expressed seeming sur- 
prise that he had offended, made assuring promises for the future, but 
went on in his old way. It was not long before he gave the Queen an 
opportunity to dismiss him. 

His Resignation (19 December, 1851). — On the 2d December, 
185 1, Louis Napoleon, the President of the French Republic, by a 
celebrated coup d'etat overthrew his opponents and made himself 
absolute head of the State. Although Palmerston was in general 
opposed to despotism, and even distrusted Louis Napoleon, he feared 
still more a restoration of the hated Orleanist dynasty. So, again 
without consulting the Queen or even his colleagues, he first expressed, 
in a private conversation with the Frencri Ambassador in London, his 
approval of what had been done and, 16 December, repeated his 
approval in a letter to the British Ambassador at Paris. Russell, on 
the other hand, announced a policy of neutrality and asked for Palmer- 
ston's resignation. The joy of Victoria and Albert proved as prema- 
ture as it was unbounded. Russell practically killed his Ministry by 
the dismissal of Palmerston ; for the public believed with the latter 
that it was a " weak truckling to the hostile intrigues of the Orleanist 
family " and its supporters on the Continent. Indeed, unbearable 
as Palmerston's conduct had been, it is at least an open question 



682 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

whether the demands of the Queen were not an encroachment on the 
recognized doctrine of ministerial responsibility. Within two months 
the deposed Minister succeeded in overthrowing the Government on 
the details of a militia bill. 

The Aberdeen or Coalition Ministry (1852-1855). — After a brief 
Conservative administration under the Earl of Derby, 1 from February 
to December, 1852, when Disraeli came to the front as Leader of the 
House of Commons and, in view of the prosperous condition of the 
country, shrewdly abandoned the defunct issue of protection, a com- 
bination of Whigs and Peelites was patched together under the 
leadership of Lord Aberdeen. Although the Peelites commanded 
only thirty votes in the Commons, the ability and rank of their leaders 
secured for them a majority of the important places in the Cabinet. 
Chief among the Whigs were Palmerston, Home Secretary, and Russell, 
Foreign Secretary 2 and Leader of the House of Commons. Disraeli on 
the eve of his resignation had declared that : " England does not love 
coalitions." He proved a true prophet, but before the crisis came, the 
Aberdeen Ministry carried several good measures. Among them was 
the provision, in 1853, that, except in cases where the sentence was four- 
teen years and over, penal servitude should be substituted for transpor- 
tation. 3 Also first steps were taken toward the opening of the civil 
service to public competition. More important, still, Gladstone, as 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, introduced the first of a series of marvel- 
ous budgets which established his reputation as perhaps the ablest 
financier of the century. Before many months, however, Great Brit- 
ain was plunged into a European war which ruined all his calculations. 

The Causes of the Crimean War. — The Crimean War, which broke 
out in the spring of 1854, may be traced to three main causes : (1) the 
ambition of Louis Napoleon, who had assumed the title of Emperor 
in December, 1852, and who aimed to unite the French people in some 
great foreign enterprise ; (2) the designs of Nicholas I, who wanted to 
extend the Russian protectorate over the Greek Christians in the Otto- 
man Empire, and to secure the outlet from the Black Sea to the 
Mediterranean, which was under Turkish control ; and (3) the neces- 
sity felt by Great Britain to maintain the integrity of Turkey as a 

1 Formerly Lord Stanley. 

2 He was soon succeeded in this office by Lord Clarendon. 

3 The practice had begun in 171 7 and came to be regarded as a great grievance 
by the American Colonies. In 1787 criminals were first shipped to Botany Bay in 
New South Wales; afterwards many other parts of Australia and other islands in 
the South Pacific were also employed as penal settlements. They too protested, 
and an inquiry into the system proved that it was bad from almost everv point of 
view. It was finally done away with entirely. 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 683 

means of checking the Russian advance toward India. The trouble 
began with a quarrel over the question as to whether the Greek or 
the Latin churches should control the Holy Places in Palestine. By 
a treaty made with the Porte in 1740 France had obtained for the Latin 
Church possession of all that were then in Turkish hands, but owing 
to subsequent negligence, the Greek Christians, who were assiduous 
in pilgrimages and in the maintenance of the sacred shrines, gradually 
usurped the protectorate and secured their position by special permits 
from the Ottoman Government. The religious revival of the nine- 
teenth century, which followed the indifference and skepticism of the 
eighteenth, resulted in a desire on the part of many Frenchmen to re- 
cover what they had lost, and Louis Napoleon, in order to secure the 
support of this class, composed mostly of his political opponents, took 
up their cause. The Sultan, -in his desire to satisfy France without 
estranging Russia, who stood back of the Greek Christians, pro- 
ceeded to define the powers of the two Churches in a different 
way to each of the States involved. Such was the situation when 
Nicholas began to unveil his views about the future of Turkey. 
Already in June, 1844, he had, in a conversation with Aberdeen, 
referred to the Porte as a dying man, and suggested that, in 
case of a break-up, Great Britain and Russia should be in agree- 
ment as to what policy to pursue. Now in January, 1853, he renewed 
the subject with the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg; but 
received no encouragement whatsoever. 

Great Britain Drawn into the War. — Thus far Great Britain had 
not become involved in the quarrel, and Aberdeen was anxious to 
preserve peace. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, British representative 
to Constantinople and a stout opponent of Russian ambition, was 
chiefly responsible for dragging his country into the war as a principal. 
Prince Menshikov, Nicholas' agent in the Turkish negotiations, was 
a rough soldier, equally uncompromising, who not only required a 
satisfactory settlement of the question of the custody of the Holy 
Places, but demanded also that Russia should have a protectorate 
over all the Greek Christians in the Turkish dominions. Lord 
Stratford succeeded in separating the two questions, and the first, 
which was the original point at issue, was quickly and successfully 
adjusted. The second demand Menshikov finally presented in the 
form of an ultimatum. In a sense it was very natural and reasonable ; 
the difficulty arose from the fact that since the Greek Christians num- 
bered fourteen millions, or a majority of the Sultan's subjects, the 
Emperor as their protector might easily become the dominant factor 
in Ottoman affairs. For that reason Turkey, acting under the advice 



684 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of Lord Stratford, rejected the demand. Nicholas thereupon withdrew 
his Ambassador, and though he did not at once declare war, he sent 
his troops to occupy the Danubian Provinces. Aberdeen was still 
bent on conciliating Russia, though a powerful element in his Cabinet, 
headed by Russell and Palmerston, were in favor of forcing concessions, 
even by war if necessary. At length, 24 October, 1853, after attempts 
at mediation had proved unavailing, the Turkish commander on the 
Danube threatened the Russians with war unless they evacuated the 
Principalities within fifteen days. Receiving an unsatisfactory reply, 
the Turks crossed the river and fighting began. On 30 November, 
the Russian fleet from Sebastopol attacked and destroyed a Turkish 
fleet at Sinope. Although hostilities had already opened, this so- 
called " massacre of Sinope " aroused great indignation among the 
majority of Englishmen. Events moved rapidly. The French and 
British fleets entered the Black Sea. An alliance was signed between 
Great Britain and France, 12 March, 1854, followed by a declaration 
of war on the 28th, — and a generation ignorant of the horrors of war 
began, with rejoicing, a combat which a pacific Prime Minister had 
striven to avert. 

The Opening of the Conflict, the Siege of Sebastopol. — At sea 
the Allies met with humiliating disappointments, for fleets dispatched 
both in 1854 and 1855 failed to capture their objectives. On the 
other hand, in August, 1854, Russia, owing to the effective resistance 
of the Turks and to the fact that Austria had moved a large force to 
the frontier, was obliged to withdraw her troops from the Principal- 
ities. It was an earlier refusal to do this which had brought on the 
war. Attention was soon focused on Sebastopol, the chief naval 
station and arsenal of the Russians, which was regarded as a dangerous 
menace to Turkey. The suggestion to attack it with a joint Anglo- 
French force may have come from Louis Napoleon, but it was enthusi- 
astically welcomed by the British. Approved by the Cabinet, 28 
June, 1854, the invading army which had been supporting the Turks 
on the northern frontier since May, did not land in Crimea till 14 
September. Already weakened by cholera, they were sent against a 
strong fortress at the verge of the winter season without adequate 
supplies and with an insufficient siege train. Landing north of Sebas- 
topol and proceeding southward, they succeeded in brushing aside 
a strong Russian force drawn up across their line of march ; but in- 
stead of pressing directly on Sebastopol, they made the mistake of 
veering off toward the southeast. Thus the defenders had time to 
block the harbor with sunken men-of-war and to strengthen the town 
with new earthworks. The British established their base at Bala- 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 685 

clava Bay, while the French took a position not far off. The siege 
opened 17 October ; on the 25th, Menshikov was defeated in an attempt 
to secure control of the Bay, 1 and again, 5 November, the Russians 
were defeated in an attack on Mount Inkerman. 

The Sufferings in the Crimea and the Fall of Aberdeen (1854-1855). 
— The British commander, Lord Raglan, decided to winter in the 
Crimea. Unhappily, a heavy storm, 14 November, wrecked the trans- 
ports which were bringing medicine, clothing, and food for the men, 
with hay for the horses as well ; the roads from the Bay to the camp 
were rendered impassable by snow and mud, the horses died from 
starvation and transportation became impossible. Owing to these 
adverse conditions and to the clumsy and short-sighted policy of the 
British Administration, the troops dragged through a winter of misery 
and suffering. It was no new thing for armies to be subjected to 
such privations ; but, for the first time in history, the horrible condi- 
tions were promptly reported to a sympathizing and indignant pub- 
lic at home by Sir William Howard Russell of the London Times, the 
first of the special correspondents who have come to play such a part 
in modern warfare. Also, the conditions of the hospitals at Scutari, 
opposite Constantinople, were deplorable. There the dawn of happier 
times began with the arrival of Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) as 
*a hospital nurse ; she was soon put in full charge of affairs^ and, although 
handicapped for sortie time by delays in transporting medicine and 
supplies, brought about notable reforms. In March, 1855, the estab- 
lishment of a new Sanitary Commission did wonders ; for the death 
rate between then and June fell from 31 to 2 per cent. 2 Meantime, 
on the opening of Parliament, in January, the Aberdeen Ministry was 
sharply attacked, and a motion was carried for the appointment of a 
committee : " to inquire into the condition of our army before Sebas- 
topol, and into the conduct of those departments of the Government 
whose duty it has been to minister to the wants of that army." This 
led first to the retirement of Russell, and, very shortly, to that of the 
whole Cabinet. 

The Advent of Palmerston as Prime Minister (February, 1855), 
and the Fall of Sebastopol (October, 1855). — After trying all other 
possibilities in vain, the Queen was at. length obliged to turn to her 
old enemy Palmerston. While the findings of the Commission of 
Inquiry proved to be a very guarded indictment against the late 

1 The Battle of Balaclava has been immortalized in Tennyson's " Charge of 
the Light Brigade." 

2 Another notable later advance was the foundation of the Red Cross Society to 
carry out the ideals of the Geneva Convention of 1864. 



686 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Administration, it was decided that the existing system was too 
cumbersome : in consequence, the civil and military administration 
for the conduct of war was concentrated in the Secretary for War l 
and the Commander-in-Chief respectively. In January, the Franco- 
British alliance was strengthened by the adhesion of Piedmont, 
while the vigor of the Russian resistance was greatly weakened by 
the death of Nicholas I, 2 March, 1855. Operations before Sebastopol 
were pushed with energy, but for a time with no great success. The 
British, in an attack on the fortress known as the Redan, were thrown 
back, June, 1855. After investing Sebastopol all summer, the Allies 
made a supreme effort 8 September ; in an assault that was preceded 
by a three days' cannonade the British captured the Redan only to 
lose it again, but the French were successful in securing the Mala- 
koff Tower which commanded all the surrounding works. Realiz- 
ing that further resistance was hopeless, the Russian commander 
destroyed the remaining fortifications and retreated by a bridge 
which he had constructed across the harbor. Sebastopol had 
held out for nearly a year. In spite of the draining of their re- 
sources and the loss of their chief arsenal, the Russians were still able 
to maintain armies in the field, while they even gained a slight com- 
pensating advantage when the fortress of Kars in Asia Minor surren- 
dered to their arms after a sustained and heroic defense. Moreover," 
Napoleon III, realizing that his subjects were* regarding with growing 
disfavor a war waged in alliance with the British, lent a willing ear 
to Austria, who was anxious to arrange terms of peace. Although the 
British public were anxious to continue fighting in the hope of gaining 
a signal victory that would wipe out the memory of the bungling and 
reverses of their troops, the Government agreed to participate in a 
peace congress which met at Paris in February, 1856. 

The Peace of Paris (30 March, 1856).— Lord Clarendon, Great 
Britain's leading representative, was disgusted with Napoleon's pliant 
attitude ; nevertheless he struggled hard, and, backed by Austria, 
secured better terms for the Allies than Napoleon would have stood 
out for. On 30 March, 1856, the Treaty was signed by France, 
Russia, Great Britain, Turkey, Piedmont, Austria, and Prussia, the 
latter power having been admitted to the Conference after it was 
already under way. Among the chief terms were: (1) Russia and 
Turkey agreed to a mutual restoration of territories. (2) -The inde- 
pendence and integrity of Turkey was guaranteed, together with her 
recognized place among European powers. (3) A charter recently 

1 At this time separated from the Colonial Office with which it had been combined 
since 1801. 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 687 

issued by the Sultan providing for the protection of his Christian 
subjects, with the proviso that European nations should not inter- 
fere, was confirmed. (4) The Black Sea and the Dardanelles were 
neutralized and closed to ships of war, while both Russia and Turkey 
were prohibited from maintaining arsenals along the coast. The 
Conference also subscribed to the " Declaration of Paris " — an epoch 
in the progress of international law, — which provided that : (1) Pri- 
vateering should be abolished ; (2) a neutral flag should cover an 
enemy's goods except contraband of war ; (3) neutral goods, except 
contraband of war, even under an enemy's flag, should be exempt 
from capture ; (4) blockades to be binding must be effective. 1 As to 
the Peace itself there was, according to one of the French negotiators, 
" nothing to show which was the conqueror and which the conquered." 
Many have asserted, too, that Great Britain got very little for the 
sacrifices of lives and money which her intervention involved, but the 
designs of Russians on the integrity of Turkey were checked for years 
to come ; moreover various Balkan States — Rumania, Serbia, Monte- 
negro, and Bulgaria — which subsequently wrested their independence 
from the effete Ottoman Empire, might, had Russia been allowed to 
go on unobstructed, have been absorbed as subjects of the Tsar. 

A Troubled Situation. — The Peace of Paris was followed by dif- 
ficulties with the United States over the enlistment of American 
citizens in the British army during the Crimean War, though timely 
concessions prevented a rupture. Also, Great Britain had to face a 
Persian advance against Afghanistan, a movement regarded as a part 
of Russian intrigue — with India as the ultimate goal — which was 
successfully repulsed in the year 1857, while a war with China, begin- 
ning in the same year, was not concluded till i860, largely owing to 
mutiny in India, which threatened for a time the very existence of 
the British Indian Empire. 

The Fall of Palmerston (February, 1858). — Early in February, 
1858, in the midst of these complications, Palmerston was overthrown, 
strangely enough on the ground of truckling to the demands of a 
foreign Power. On 14 January a band of conspirators led by an 
Italian, Orsini, had attempted to assassinate the French Emperor 
and Empress in Paris, and while the intended victims escaped, ten 
persons were killed and one hundred fifty wounded by the bombs 
thrown at the Imperial carriage. Orsini was tried and put to death. 
In the course of the investigation it came out that the plot had been 

1 While the United States did not come into this agreement, refusing to abolish 
privateering unless all private property other than contraband of war should be 
free from capture, she subsequently came to adopt it in practice. 



688 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

hatched in London and that the bombs had been manufactured in 
Birmingham. The indignation of the French army officers passed 
all bounds ; indeed they even demanded to be led against the country 
which they were pleased to term a " den of assassins." The French 
Minister of Foreign Affairs showed wise restraint, but went so far 
as to state that France had a right to expect "from an ally" some 
effectual guarantee against the repetition of such outrages. When 
Palmerston, in order to prevent a possible rupture, framed a Conspira- 
cies to Murder Bill which made the crime — hitherto a misdemeanor 
— a felony punishable with penal servitude for life, his action created 
a furious outcry, his bill was defeated and he resigned. 

The Second Derby Ministry and Jewish Relief (1858). — Lord 
Derby came in for another brief Ministry from February, 1858, to 
June, 1859. The French difficulty was speedily smoothed over by 
skillful diplomacy on both sides, though popular rancor did not sub- 
side so readily. With only a minority in the Commons, Derby's 
greatest achievement was to secure a measure of justice for the Jews 
who had been excluded from Parliament by the clause in the repeal of 
the Test Act (1828), requiring them to take an oath on the true faith 
of a Christian — a restriction against which they had protested for 
years. In 1858, the Lords, after they had rejected a bill which Russell 
had carried through the Commons to do away with the disabling oath, 
agreed to a compromise allowing each House to frame its own test. 
Thereupon, the Commons drew up an oath which Jews could take and 
perpetuated it by a standing order. Eight years later, in 1866, a 
Statute was passed that made it possible for them to sit in either House. 
The year 1858 was also notable for the abolition of the property quali- 
fication of members of the Commons, a restriction which had long 
been evaded by transparent fictions. 

The Franco-Austrian War (1859), and the Achievement of 
Italian Unity (1861-1870). — The Derby Ministry was defeated in 
June, 1859, on account of its alleged friendliness to Austria in a war 
which had just arisen over the situation in northern Italy. The 
men condemned in the Orsini conspiracy had begged Napoleon III to 
undertake the task of liberating Italy from Austrian control. Either 
because they had succeeded in arousing ideals which had long slum- 
bered in his bosom, or because he feared that a refusal might lead to 
new attempts upon his life, he set to work. Cavour, the far-sighted 
and intrepid statesman, who years before had begun to shape plans 
to secure Italian independence and unity, who had brought Piedmont 
into the Crimean war, and who had accordingly been allowed to 
raise the Italian question at the recent Congress of Paris, was just the 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 689 

man to lead him along the road on which he had once started. On the 
invitation of Napoleon, the two held a momentous interview in which, 
much beyond Cavour's hopes, the French Emperor agreed to assist the 
Kingdom of Sardinia in the expulsion of Austria from Lombardy and 
Venetia if a just cause for war could be found ; Cavour, in his turn, 
promising to hand over Savoy and Nice to France. In a manner worthy 
of his famous uncle, the Emperor very abruptly, at his New Year's re- 
ception in 1859, expressed his regret to the Austrian Ambassador that 
the relations between the two countries were not so good as they had 
once been. Austria, foreseeing the approach of a crisis, sent an ultima- 
tum to Sardinia, ordering her to disarm, and meeting with a refusal, the 
war began. Queen Victoria and the Derby Ministry, who favored 
the Austrians, made a vain attempt to mediate. When the time came 
to take a decisive step, Napoleon hesitated ; but finding events had 
gone beyond his control, he finally led a French army in. person to 
the aid of the Sardinian King, Victor Emmanuel. 1 In June the Aus- 
trians were successively defeated in two decisive battles, and 11 July, 
Francis Joseph, their Emperor, accepted the preliminaries of a peace, 
concluded in November, by which he ceded Lombardy to Napoleon 
III, who was to hand it over to Victor Emmanuel. Tuscany, Modena, 
and the other States who had expelled their absolutist rulers were to 
reinstate them; but, since their people willed otherwise, they were 
united to the Sardinian Monarchy. During the spring and summer of 
i860 Garibaldi in a dashing campaign secured Sicily and Naples. 
With the help of the royal Sardinian army other conquests followed, 
and, 17 March, 1861, Victor Emmanuel was crowned King of a united 
Italy, which included the whole of the peninsula, except Venice and 
Rome — incorporated in 1866 and 1870 respectively. 

The Second Palmerston Ministry (June, 1859). — Meantime, at the 
very opening of the Franco-Austrian War, Palmerston, whose sympa- 
thies were altogether with the Italians, had again come to power. So 
far as Home politics were concerned, he was far from being a Liberal. 
Many vital measures of reform had to await his death before they were 
taken up by the Government; nevertheless, while the chief interest of 
his Ministry centers in foreign politics, the period was not absolutely 
barren of progress in domestic affairs, though such steps in advance 
were usually carried in spite of him rather than by his aid. Indeed, 
the whole financial policy of Gladstone, once more Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, was far more liberal than that of his chief. He proposed, 
in his budget of i860, to reduce the number of articles on the tariff 
from 419 to 48, and, what aroused the stoutest opposition, to repeal 

1 The House of Savoy ruled both Piedmont and Sardinia. 



690 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the paper duty. This meant cheaper newspapers, and was in line 
with the policy by which the stamp duties had been abolished in 1855. 
Palmerston, who shared in the view that the result would be the spread 
of popular and social discontent, stood out against the measure in the 
Cabinet, after which he wrote the Queen that if the House of Lords 
should be encouraged by his attitude to assert itself, it would " per- 
form a good public service." Never, since the beginning of Cabinets, 
had there been such a breach of the principle of Ministerial solidarity, 
and all that can be satid for the Prime Minister is that he made no 
attempt to conceal his action. The Lords rejected the bill in which 
the proposed repeal was embodied. While it was well recognized 
that they could not amend a money bill, 1 their right of rejection, 
though not often exercised, could not be questioned. Gladstone and 
the Commons carried their point, in 186 1, by making the Paper Duty 
Repeal Bill a part of the budget. Confronted with the two possi- 
bilities of passing or rejecting all the appropriations for the year, the 
Lords chose the former. 

The Outbreak of Civil War in the United States (1861). — The 
Civil War in the United States, which broke out in the spring of 1861, 
brought Great Britain face to face with serious problems, both foreign 
and domestic. There was a twofold issue involved, the question of 
the extension of slavery and that of secession, a situation which 
contributed to confuse the attitude of British public sentiment. While 
the nation as a whole was opposed to the institution of slavery, the 
general tendency was to minimize that issue and to look for the chief 
cause of the war in the attempt of the North to hold the South in the 
Union against her will. Differences of opinion in England were based 
on social rather than on party lines. The upper classes supported the 
landowning gentry of the South as against the merchants, traders, 
and small farmers of the North. Furthermore, many of them argued 
that the slaves were kindly treated, and that there were not enough 
abuses in the system to justify interference with vested property 
interests and " sovereign rights of States." The middle and lower 
classes in the Midlands stood by the North, which was much to their 
credit, since the mills which furnished, directly or indirectly, the live- 
lihood of vast numbers of them, depended on the cotton supplies of 
the Southern States. The leading Ministers of the Liberal party, 
then in power, Palmerston, Russell, and Gladstone, were at one with 
the Conservative aristocracy as against those who furnished their main 
constituency. Gladstone went so far as to declare in a public speech : 
Jefferson Davis " had made an army, had made a navy, and, what is 

1 See above p. 370. 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 691 

more, had made a nation." Yet in spite of its manifest sympathies, 
the Government decided to assume a position of strict neutrality. 
On 14 May, 1861, a proclamation to that effect was issued. English- 
men were prohibited from enlisting, from supplying privateers, from 
lending anv other form of aid to either party. Great Britain thus 
went to the point of recognizing the South as a belligerent, though "she 
never acknowledged the independence of the Confederacy. Relations, 
however, were strained during the whole period of the war. The 
South was aggrieved that the British would not espouse their cause 
more actively, while the North resented the unfriendly attitude of 
the Government and the fact that the policy of neutrality was not 
better enforced. 

The Trent Affair (1861). — Almost at the start, an unfortunate 
incident brought Great Britain and the United States to the brink 
of war. In November, 1861, Mason and Slidell, two commissioners 
of the Confederacy, embarked at Havana in the British mail steamer 
Trent to seek aid from Great Britain and France. The vessel was 
boarded on the high seas by Captain Wilkes, of the United States ship 
San Jacinto, and Mason and Slidell were taken off as prisoners. 1 The 
news aroused a storm of indignation in England, while Palmerston 
and Russell started to handle the question in their customary precipi- 
tate and arrogant manner. Fortunately, the Queen, acting under the 
sage advice of the Prince Consort, was able to find a way out of the 
difficulty. In place of the apology at first demanded, the British 
Government expressed itself satisfied with the release of the prisoners 
and the assurance that Captain Wilkes had acted without instructions. 
This was the last important work of Prince Albert, who died of typhoid 
fever, 14 December. It was a blow from which Victoria never re- 
covered ; while she devoted herself with increasing conscientiousness 
to business of state, she practically withdrew from all social activities 
for twenty years. 

Blockade Runners and Privateers. — While the sealing up of the 
Southern ports crippled the cotton industry in Lancashire to an 
alarming extent, the operatives did not waver in their allegiance to . 
the Unionist cause, and the Government insisted in recognizing the 
efficacy of the blockade. Nevertheless, British speculators made 
enormous profits from blockade running. Much as the United States 
resented this, its chief grievance was the active share which British 
ship-builders took in fitting out privateers for the Confederacy to 

1 American opposition to such peremptory exercise of the right of search on the 
part of the British had been one of the causes of the War of 181 2. The only proper 
procedure would have been to send the Trent to port for trial. 



692 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

prey on neutral commerce. Of the seven cruisers which were really 
formidable, five were British built. The Alabama was the most notori- 
ous and destructive : she was constructed at Liverpool, and, although 
the attention of the British Government was repeatedly called to the 
purpose for which she was designed, no steps were taken to detain her 
until it was too late, and for two years she continued her dreaded 
course until she was sunk 19 June, 1864. 

The Cotton Famine in Great Britain. — The final surrender of the 
Confederacy in April, 1865, put an end to a situation which was grow- 
ing steadily more embarrassing for Great Britain. Unhappily, the 
cotton shortage was accentuated by the greed of some of the Lancashire 
owners who sold their reserve stocks for high prices abroad. The 
distress became so acute that the Government had to devise special 
measures of poor relief. Great assistance was rendered by voluntary 
subscriptions of food, clothing and money, to which the Colonies 
generously contributed. Those who could get any sort of work 
proudly refused charity, while many who- had savings bank accounts 
exhausted them before they would seek aid. Conditions were at 
their worst during the autumn and winter of 1862 ; then they began to 
improve, owing to the increasing supply of cotton from the East, 
to the absorption of the unemployed in other industries, and to 
emigration. 

The Mexican Schemes of Napoleon III. — Far more serioys to the 
United States than the unfriendly attitude of Great Britain were the 
designs of Napoleon III. In 1862 he suggested to Russell that the 
British combine with Russia and France in a joint attempt at media- 
tion, a proposal which the Foreign Minister rejected forthwith. Then 
he had another really wild scheme from which Great Britain also held 
aloof. In the autumn of i860 she had joined with France and Spain 
in sending an expedition to Mexico, also plunged in civil war. When 
the original object — to protect European subjects and to enforce 
payment on loans advanced to the Mexicans — was attained, Great 
Britain and Spain withdrew their forces, refusing to support Napoleon 
in a vast plan, which he unfolded, of occupying the Mexican capital 
and setting up a new Empire in the Latin-American world. 1 

Schleswig-Holstein Question (1 863-1 864). — The temperate counsels 
of the Prince Consort were missed sorely enough in the troubled Anglo- 
American relations from 1 861 to 1865, but even more in the complicated 

1 In May, 1862, he succeeded in inducing Maximilian, brother of Francis Joseph 
of Austria, to accept the Imperial title. After considerable fighting, the Mexicans 
again restored a stable republic, and the unfortunate Maximilian was court-mar- 
tialed and shot, 20 June, 1867. 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 693 

Schleswig-Holstein question in which' Great Britain became involved 
in 1863. Indeed, as Palmers ton once remarked, Prince Albert was 
one of the three men who had ever understood it, another was a 
Danish statesman who had lost his mind, and he himself, who was the 
third, had forgotten it. Certainly it was a question complicated 
enough for anyone to lose his mind over if he did not forget it. In 
the fifteenth century the Kingdom of Denmark and the Duchies of 
Schleswig and Holstein, which lie at the base of the Danish peninsula, 
came under one ruler, on condition that the Duchies should never be 
incorporated. Moreover, the line of succession was different; the 
Danish allowed transmission through females, while, in the Duchies, 
the Salic law prevailed. In 1848 Frederick VII came to the throne. 
Frederick, who was the last of his immediate line, chose as his successor 
a remote connection — Prince Christian of Gliicksburg. The Duke 
of Augustenburg, a claimant to the succession in Schleswig-Holstein, 
was bought off, in 1852, for a substantial sum of money. Holstein was 
preponderatingly German and belonged to the German Confedera- 
tion, while in Schleswig there was a strong Danish element attached to 
Denmark. Contrary to the ancient stipulation and contrary to 
assurances which he had given, a Danish Parliament, in the last year 
of Frederick's reign, adopted a new Constitution incorporating Schles- 
wig into his Kingdom, and granting, at the same time, autonomy to 
Holstein. On his death in 1863 the question was brought to an issue. 
Under the energetic direction of Bismarck, who had recently became 
President of the Prussian Ministry and who was determined to weld 
Germany together by a policy of " blood and iron," Prussia entered 
into an agreement with Austria to drive the Danes out of these Duchies 
and to hold them jointly. As it subsequently developed, his two aims 
were to secure both Schleswig and Holstein — which separated the 
main part of Prussia from her territories along the Rhine 1 — and to 
pick a quarrel with Austria, the chief obstacle to Prussia's leadership 
in German unification. On the other hand, the smaller German 
States, supported by a liberal minority in Prussia, aimed to make the 
Duchies an independent member of the German Confederation; 
for they feared the growing power of Prussia. So they backed the 
Duke of Augustenburg, who, regardless of the fact that he had been 
bought off, revived his claim for his son. Bismarck, however, bore 
all before him. Backed by Austria he sent an ultimatum to Christian 
IX demanding that the recent Constitution be reversed within forty- 
eight hours, a condition manifestly impossible, since the late Parlia- 

1 Moreover, he wished to acquire Kiel, now the chief naval station in the Baltic 
and the eastern terminal of the Kiel canal, built in 1895. 



6Q4 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ment had been dissolved and a new one had not been elected. When 
the demand was not complied with, Prussia and Austria proceeded to 
make war. 

Aside from the possible effect on the European balance of power, 
the British were interested on dynastic grounds. Alexandra, the 
daughter of Christian IX, had just married the Prince of Wales, while 
Victoria, the Queen's eldest daughter, had, in 1858, become the wife 
of Frederick, heir to the throne of Prussia. The sympathies of the 
British Queen were with the Germans as against the Danes, and with 
the Prussians as against the Augustenburg party ; not only did she 
feel that Great Britain was bound by the treaty of 1852 in which the 
Augustenburg claim had been annulled, but she wanted to see Prussia 
grow strong in Germany. Her Cabinet and her people, on the con- 
trary, were strong for the Danes. This was due partly to the popu- 
larity of Princess Alexandra and partly to the feeling that Denmark 
was a weak State oppressed by a strong and bullying combination. 
Palmerston and Russell talked loudly of intervention in the Danish 
behalf. While Queen Victoria took no pains to conceal her strong 
German sympathies, she strove, though in vain, to avert a war. After 
the Danes had been defeated by the joint forces of the Prussians and 
Austrians, she arranged, in 1864, a Conference at London, which, 
however, came to nothing. When Palmerston and Russell continued 
to talk of intervention in behalf of the Danes, she insisted upon neu- 
trality, and even threatened to dissolve Parliament and appeal to the 
people if the Ministers continued their belligerent course. She had her 
way, and Great Britain kept her hands off when Prussia and Austria, 
after the failure of the Conference, proceeded to secure their hold on 
the Duchies. Palmerson had led on the Danes in their futile resistance 
by holding out hopes which he could not realize, and he and the Foreign 
Secretary had made themselves ridiculous in Europe by what Derby 
very effectively termed their policy of " meddle and muddle." Yet 
it was not their fault that they had to back down. It was due partly 
to the Queen and partly to the French Emperor on whose support they 
had counted. Napoleon III, however, owing to the fact that Great 
Britain had refused to give him anything more than moral support, 
had recently been forced to submit to a contemptuous rebuff from the 
Russians when he had ventured to remonstrate with them for their 
treatment of the Poles, who had been driven to rebellion in January, 
1863. Consequently, he declined to take any decided step unless the 
British Government bound itself to go to war if necessary. 

The Death of Palmerston and the End of an Epoch (1865). — The 
death of Palmerston, 18 October, 1865, when he was within two days 



REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN EUROPE 695 

of eighty-one, ended an epoch. In domestic politics he was an old- 
fashioned Whig who with his tremendous prestige succeeded, so long 
as he lived, in blocking grave problems of social and political reform 
that were pressing for solution. He would hear of no further exten- 
sion of the franchise, and his attitude toward the suffering peasantry 
in Ireland may be summed up in his famous phrase : " Tenant right 
is landlord's wrong." Conservative as he was in Home politics he 
was hated by European Governments as a " patron of revolution " 
and a " disturber of the relations between subjects and their sove- 
reigns." In his handling of foreign questions he had often embarrassed 
the Queen, he had made many blunders, and he was too prone to con- 
sider more the " honor of Great Britain than the merits of the question 
involved," his political integrity was not always beyond reproach, he 
was wanting in the qualities of constructive statesmanship, he was 
irrepressible, overbearing, and flippant. Nevertheless, he was the 
friend of national liberal aspiration, he was courageous, industrious, 
witty and good-natured, and very popular because he was the em- 
bodiment of ideals which the average Englishman could understand. 
The country, however, was now ready for new men and new measures. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Narrative. Marriott ; Bright, IV ; Maxwell, II ; Martineau (to 1846) ; 
Cambridge Modern History, X, XI ; Walpole, The History of Twenty-five 
Years (1904), I, and England, IV-VI, to 1856. J. McCarthy, History of 
Our Own Times (vols. I-III, 1880) is a "popular" work and a very read- 
able account. Herbert Paul, History of Modem England (5 vols., 1904- 
6) I, II, journalistic and partisan, Liberal standpoint. 

Biography. S. Lee, Queen Victoria (1902), an excellent brief sketch. 
Sir T. Martin, Life of the Prince Consort (5 vols., 1875-1880). J. Morley, 
The Life of W. E. Gladstone (3 vols., 1903), the standard life of Gladstone. 
Monypenny and Buclde, Life of Disraeli (vols. I and II, go to 1846), the 
most complete and best biography. T. P. O'Connor, Lord Beaconsfield 
(6th ed., 1884), hostile estimate. T. E. Kebble, Lord Beaconsfield and other 
Tory Memoirs (1907). G. B. Hill, Life of Rowland Hill (2 vols., 1880). 
J. Morley, Richard Cobden (2 vols., 1881). J. A. Hobson, Richard Cobdcn, 
the International Man (1919), a sketch emphasizing Cobden's pacifist ac- 
tivities. G. M. Trevelyan, John Bright (1913). W. M. Torrens, Memoirs 
of Lord Melbourne (2 vols., 1878). G. Saintsburv, Life of the Earl of Derby 
(1892). S. J. Reid, Life of Lord John Russell (1886). J. B. Atlay, Vic- 
torian Chancellors (2 vols., 1908). For Russell, Peel, and Palmerston, see 
above, chs. XLVIII-L. 

Special Works. T. Carlyle, Chartism (1839). R. G. Gammage, History 
of Chartism (1854, revised in expanded form, 1894). W. Lovett and J. 



696 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Collins, Chartism (1840). P. W. Slosson, The Decline of the Chartist Move- 
ment in England (1916) ; F. F. Rosenblatt, The Chartist Movement in its 
Social and Economic Aspects (pt. 1, 1916) ; and H. W. Falkner, Chartism and 
the Churches (1916) ; three useful studies. Mark Hovell, The Chartist 
Movement (1918) ; excellent. B. Holland, The Fall of Protection, 1840- 
1850 (1913), traces effect on Empire, Protectionist in sympathy. The 
authority on the Crimean War is A. W. Kinglake, The Invasion of the Crimea 
(8 vols., 1863-1887). M. Bernard, A Historical Account of the Neutrality 
of Great Britain during the American Civil War (1870). 

Contemporary. The Grcville Memoirs. B. Disraeli, Bentinck, a Po- 
litical Biography (1852). Papers of Lord Melbourne (ed. L. C. Sanders, 
1889). Baron Stockmar, Memoirs (tr. M. Miiller, 2 vols., 1872). Queen 
Victoria, Letters (eds. A. C. Benson and Viscount Esher, 3 vols., 1907), to 
1861 ; throw a flood of light on early Victorian statesmen and politics. 
Esher, The Girlhood of Queen Victoria, 1836-40 (191 2), selections from her 
diary, abbreviated in The Training of a Sovereign (19 14). John, Earl 
Russell, Recollections and Suggestions (1875). 

Selections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 266-267. Robert- 
son, pt. II, nos. XXVII-XXVIII, app. p. 438. 



CHAPTER LIII 

A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY. THE POLITICAL RIVALRY OF 
GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI (1865-1880) 

The Second Russell Ministry (1865-1866) and the State of the Fran- 
chise. — While the death of Palmers ton removed the chief obstacle 
to progress in domestic legislation, some years were yet to elapse be- 
fore either of the two men, Gladstone and Disraeli, who were to domi- 
nate the political situation for the next generation, came to head a Cabi- 
net; for Lord John Russell (created Earl Russell in 1861) succeeded 
Palmerston, with whom, except for occasional intervals of rivalry, he 
had worked for more than thirty years. The Russell Administration 
was confronted with many acute problems — on the Continent a war 
involving tremendous issues, at Home parliamentary reform, again 
a burning question. Since the passage of the celebrated Act of 1832, 
numerous Reform bills had been introduced ; but none of them had 
even succeeded in passing the Commons. The right of voting was 
still greatly restricted and the representation unevenly distributed. 
In 1865, out of 5,300,000 adult males, there were only 900,000 voters. 
Thus only one man in six was entitled to vote and the working classes 
were practically excluded. Many anomalies in the representation, 
left untouched in 1832, had been much accentuated by the amazing 
growth of the industrial population during the past thirty-five years. 
The borough of Totnes with 4000 inhabitants returned as many mem- 
bers as Liverpool with a population of 443,000, and the thinly populated 
county of Cornwall had a larger representation than the populous 
Middlesex. 

The Awakening of Democracy. Russell's Reform Bill of 1866 and 
Its Defeat. — While the majority of both Houses was still opposed to 
change and the public seemed indifferent, such inequalities could not 
go on forever. Moreover, the country was on the eve of a great demo- 
cratic awakening. The people were going to insist more and more 
that it was the proper function of the State to educate them, to pro- 
vide for the public health, and to regulate their relations with their 
employers. Yet if the powers of the Government were to be thus en- 

697 



698 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

larged, it followed that those whose interests were at stake should 
have a larger voice in public affairs. This progress toward democracy 
was greatly stimulated by the outcome of the American Civil War. 
The victory of the North was a triumph for democracy over an aristo- 
cratic oligarchy. It added greatly to the prestige of Midland opera- 
tives that they had been wiser than the Conservative upper classes in 
foreseeing the outcome, while the patience with which they had suf- 
fered for their principles gained for them not only sympathy but great 
respect throughout the country. Thus strength was given to an argu- 
ment which began to be advanced that they could not be denied the 
vote which was to be conceded to the negroes in the United States. 
Nevertheless, the bill which Russell introduced in 1866 was defeated, 
largely owing to a revolt of a section of the Liberal party who came to 
be known as the " Adullamites," from John Bright's comparison of 
them to Saul's discontented subjects who took refuge with David in 
the cave of Adullam. The victory of the Opposition drove Russell 
from office in June. 1 Curiously enough, it was now the fate of the 
Conservatives to carry a bill so radical as virtually to transfer the 
balance of power from the middle classes to the workingman. 

The Third Derby Ministry (June, 1866-February, 1868). The Rous- 
ing of the People. — For the third time, Lord Derby became Prime 
Minister with the support of only a minority of the House of Commons. 
During the interval between the resignation of Russell and the meet- 
ing of Parliament in February of 1867, a sentiment for reform developed 
among the working classes as irresistible as it was sudden. The rejec- 
tion of Russell's bill had furnished the impulse, while the discontent 
aroused by a financial crisis, together with stirring speeches by Bright 
and Gladstone, did the rest. On 23 July, after the authorities had 
forbidden a meeting in Hyde Park and closed the gates, the mob tore 
up the iron railings and streamed in through the breach. This demon- 
stration made a profound impression. Even more significant, perhaps, 
were the organizations which were formed to advance the cause, the 
street processions, the crowded meetings, and the eloquent arguments 
of the chief speakers. Disraeli, once more leader of the House of 
Commons, was just the man to take advantage of the situation, to do 
exactly what he had denounced Peel for doing twenty years before, to 
run away with the clothes of the Whigs when he had caught them 
bathing. 

1 Though he lived till 1878, his public life came practically to an end in 1866. 
While he had made many blunders during his long career, nevertheless, he had 
devoted practically his whole life to the public service, and was ever a stanch 
advocate of measures making for progress •and the good of the people. 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 699 

The Reform Bill of 1867. — Declaring that his aim was to " work 
for the public good, instead of bringing forward mock measures to 
be defeated by the spirit of the party," Disraeli at first sought to secure 
the support of both Liberals and Conservatives to a series of resolu- 
tions on the subject. They contained a number of commonplaces; 
but their main purport was to take away with one hand what they 
gave with the other by checking the concessions made to the laboring 
classes with a complicated system of " fancy franchises " 1 and dual 
voting. These resolutions aroused the combined opposition of both 
factions of the Liberal party and were withdrawn. Eventually all 
the securities designed to comfort the Tories, such as " fancy fran- 
chises " and dual -voting, 2 had to be thrown overboard. The quali- 
fications for voting, as finally fixed in the bill of 1867, were : in boroughs 
all householders who paid the poor rates 3 and all lodgers of one year's 
residence whose annual rent was £10; in the counties, all owners of 
land of £5 annual value and all occupying tenants whose rental was 
£12. With regard to redistribution of seats, certain readjustments 
were made without altering the size of the House of Commons, among 
others the right of sending two members was taken from all boroughs 
of less than 10,000 inhabitants, while four large towns — Manchester, 
Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds — were given a third member each. 
Scotland gained a few seats ; but the Irish membership was left un- 
changed. 

The Significance of the Act of 1867. — A long step had been taken 
in the direction of democracy. Derby and Disraeli had carried through 
a much needed measure of reform and they had " dished the Whigs " ; 
but they had done it by coolly violating their privileges and sacrificing 
the principles of the Conservatives who had put them in office. It 
should be said, however, that it was in line with Disraeli's political 
philosophy to combine the nobility and the workingman against the 
great middle class. While to Derby the momentous experiment was 
" a leap in the dark," he decbred boldly that he was " educating his 

1 A name contemptuously imposed by John Bright on Disraeli's device for 
enabling a man who was a university graduate, a member of a learned profession, 
or who possessed a certain amount of personal property, to cast a vote in addition 
to the one to which he was entitled as a householder. 

2 This did not affect a form of plural voting already existing, whereby a man 
can vote in more than one place, provided that he possesses the requisite borough 
and county qualifications. 

3 Certain small householders, instead of paying the public rates directly, "com- 
pounded" with the landlords, or included their share in their rents, and were ac- 
cordingly known as "compound householders." This compounding system was 
abolished, and even small householders were assessed directly. Compounding 
was restored, however, in i860. 



700 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

party." This drew from one of his opponents the grim comment: 
" we must now educate our masters," and the gloomy prophecy that : 
" the bag which holds the winds will be untied, and we shall be sur- 
rounded by a perpetual whirl of change, alteration, innovation, and 
revolution." Yet the results were far from cataclysmic ; for although 
a new era of progressive legislation followed, the newly enfranchised 
class proved far from revolutionary in its demands. 

The Austro-Prussian War (1866). — While England was involved 
in the struggle over the extension of the franchise, Prussia, having 
succeeded in forcing a breach with the Austrians over the adminis- 
tration of Holstein, had overwhelmed them in a seven weeks' war, 
which broke out in June, 1866, and by the Peace of Prague, 23 August, 
realized two great ambitions which had guided her policy for years. 
One was the organization of the North German Confederation under 
Prussian presidency ; the other was the rounding out of her dominions 
and the welding together of her scattered territories by the incorpora- 
tion of Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, and various other States. By 
the Treaty of Vienna, 3 October, the Austrians were forced to cede 
Venice to Victor Emmanuel — whom Bismarck had attached to the 
Prussian side — and to recognize the Kingdom of Italy. Queen Vic- 
toria had sought to avert the conflict by mediation ; but her offers had 
been brusquely repulsed by Bismarck. The British Government was 
in no position to insist ; for the policy of Palmerston had left the coun- 
try in a position of isolation, estranged from the United States, from 
Russia, and from France. Thenceforth, for many years, Great Britain 
aimed, so far as circumstances would permit, to hold aloof from Eu- 
ropean complications, to maintain a policy of strictest neutrality, and 
to devote her attention to problems of Empire. 

Disraeli, the Man and his Work. — In February, 1868, Lord Derby 
resigned on account of failing health, and was succeeded by Disraeli, 
who was now sixty-four years of age. For thirty years he had been a 
member of the House of Commons, and for half that period had been 
the recognized leader of his party, posing all the while as a man of fash- 
ion and at intervals publishing novels. Starting with a theory of the 
Constitution which should emphasize the power of the Monarchy and 
the masses as against the Whig commercial aristocracy, he for a time 
led a band of youthful followers known as the Young England party ; 
but ended as an Imperialist of the most pronounced type. He first 
established his position by his brilliant and merciless onslaughts on 
Peel at the time of the Corn Law agitation. While he showed no un- 
usual capacity as a routine administrator, he proved unsurpassed as 
a party leader, formidable and courageous, resourceful, audacious, and 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 701 

imaginative. He was a remarkable judge of men, and succeeded in 
gaining the favor and confidence of the Queen to a higher degree than 
perhaps any statesman of the reign. This was due to his enthusiasm 
for the monarchical principle of government, to his growing faith in 
the Imperial destiny of England, and above all to his courtesy and con- 
siderateness and his power of flattery. As he himself boasted, " Glad- 
stone treats the Queen like a public department, I treat her like a 
woman." One looks in vain for any great measures of progressive legis- 
lation which he initiated, but the rescue of the Tory party from the 
decline which followed the Peelite schism and the popularization of 
the modern Imperialistic idea are peculiarly his work. 

Gladstone, His Character and Policy. — The Opposition leader, 
Gladstone (1 809-1 898), though five years younger than Disraeli, had 
already been in Parliament five years longer. The son of a rich Liver- 
pool merchant of Scotch birth, he had. the " audacious shrewdness of 
Lancashire married to the polished grace of Oxford." His intellectual 
curiosity, his energy and versatility were prodigious. Beginning as 
a Tory, he seceded with the Peelites and ended his career as a Liberal. 
Although his abilities were manifest much earlier, his Budget of 1853 
first established his reputation as a financier entitled to rank with 
Walpole, Pitt, and Peel. His measures of constructive statesmanship 
cannot be even touched upon except by outlining the last half century 
of English history. Great as was his superiority to Disraeli in domes- 
tic legislation, his rival far outshone him as a Foreign Minister. \ Glad- 
stone always raised his voice in behalf of oppressed nationalities, but 
he gave no continuous attention to external concerns, and, during his 
Administrations, it was generally felt that England suffered abroad 
both in dignity and power because of vacillating and dila tory methods. 
His success as a legislator and administrator was enhanced by his 
fascinating power of expounding the measures which he framed. He 
was, to be sure, over-copious and subtle, and surpassed by many in the 
finest gifts of literary grace ; but thanks to his telling phrases, his 
magical, sonorous voice, his flashing eye, his wondrous vitality and 
earnestness, no orator of his generation, except John Bright, was his 
superior. Gladstone was never congenial to the Queen. His seces- 
sion from the Peelites toward democratic liberalism offended her, and 
his reforming zeal, with its ruthless disregard of established institutions 
and vested interests, excited her apprehension. He never spared her, 
as for example when he sent her twelve closely filled pages on the com- 
plicated details of a single bill. Then the ease with which he changed 
his mind, and " oiled the joints " of his sudden transitions with words, 
bewildered her, as it did many another. Moreover, while naturally 



702 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

considerate, he came, because of his tremendous moral enthusiasm, 
to regard himself as a chosen vessel and impressed his opponents and 
many of his followers as dictatorial. While Disraeli achieved little 
in the way of tangible reform and recreated the Conservatives, Glad- 
stone accomplished much and broke up the Liberal party. 

Gladstone's First Ministry (1868-1874). —Disraeli held his first 
Premiership less than a year. When a general election, held in the 
autumn of 1868, resulted in a complete Liberal victory at the polls, 
he took the wise but novel step of resigning without waiting to face 
the new Parliament, and, 4 December, Gladstone was intrusted with 
the task of forming the first of his four Ministries. For the first 
time in years there were two united parties confronting one another, 
each led by a dominant personality. There were pressing problems 
to be dealt with — abolition of privilege, reduction of expenditure, 
readjustment of taxation, constructive social measures and the peren- 
nial Irish question. Valiantly meeting these problems, the first 
Gladstone Administration was fruitful, to an unusual degree, in signif- 
icant legislation. 

The Fenian Movement (1858-1865). — The Irish problem claimed 
the first attention ; for disturbances which Disraeli once tersely attrib- 
uted to " a starving people, absentee landlords, and an alien Church " 
had broken out in a new and acute form. The disturbances were 
due to the activity of the Fenians. 1 Early in the fifties, Phoenix 
clubs had begun to spring up in Dublin in which young men enrolled 
for the purpose of achieving Irish independence ; but little was accom- 
plished till after the foundation of the Fenian Brotherhood in New 
York in 1858. The organization spread rapidly through the United 
States, where the immigrants who, since the potato famine, had flocked 
across the ocean in steadily growing numbers, had accumulated money 
and political training which made them more capable than their 
countrymen at home of initiating a serious rebellion. Fenianism had 
no design of bettering agrarian conditions, it had no great hold on the 
peasantry, and it was frowned upon by the Roman Catholic priesthood. 
Its aim was to throw off the British rule by intimidation and force. 
The movement received a great impetus from the American Civil War, 
which furnished a military training for thousands of Irishmen and 
aroused their martial spirit, while the ill-feeling which developed be- 
tween Great Britain and the United States led them to count on the 
alliance of the Americans. Many of the Irish-Americans began to 

1 The name "Fenians" is derived from an old Irish word meaning "champions 
of Ireland," and was originally applied to certain tribes who served as the militia 
of the ancient Kings of Erin. 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 703 

make their way home, to extend their organization and to stir up 
disaffection in England and Ireland. 

The Fenian Plots and their Suppression (1865-1867). — The out- 
spokenness of the conspirators and the reports of spies stirred the 
Government to action. As the result of treachery, O'Donovan Rossa, 
the proprietor of the Irish People, was taken prisoner, 15 September, 
1865, and various supplies of arms were disclosed and captured. One 
reverse after another followed. On 31 May, 1866, an attempted 
Fenian invasion of Canada failed, largely on account of the determined 
attitude of the United States. A general rising, projected in Ireland in 
March, 1867, proved abortive. During the year 1867 England wit- 
nessed at least three disquieting manifestations of Fenian activity. 
An attempt to capture Chester Castle, to seize the arms there and to 
convey them to Ireland was only frustrated by prompt measures on the 
part of the Government. Then at Manchester, two Fenian prisoners 
were rescued from a prison van and the sergeant who guarded them was 
killed by a shot fired through the keyhole of the locked door ; three 
men executed for this reckless enterprise were hailed as the " Man- 
chester Martyrs." A project to free two prisoners from Clerkenwell 
in London, 13 December, by blowing up a portion of the prison wall, 
was nothing less than a stupid and cowardly outrage ; for it caused the 
death of twelve persons and the injury of one hundred and twenty 
more, and had the prisoners themselves been in the yard at the time, 
they too would have been killed. While such performances as this 
inevitably cast discredit upon the whole movement for Irish inde- 
pendence, nevertheless, leading British statesmen became convinced 
that violence was nothing but the logical outcome of political re- 
pression, and that the only way to restore peace and quiet was to offer 
thoroughgoing measures of conciliation. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869). — Gladstone, who, 
when called upon to form a Cabinet, had declared : " My mission 
is to pacify Ireland," thus found his hand greatly strengthened. 
Neither the disestablishment of the Irish Church, to which he was 
pledged, nor the improvement of the land tenure, which he regarded 
as almost equally pressing, had been demanded by the Fenians, yet 
he felt that, if these grievances were once removed, the movement 
recruited from discontent would wither at the roots. Gladstone's 
plan, laid before the Commons in March, 1869, provided that the 
Irish Church should cease to be a legal establishment after 1 January, 
187 1. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction was to be abolished and the four 
Irish bishops were no longer to sit in the House of Lords. The 
Church's endowments were also to be taken away, with compensation 



704 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

for vested interests, while Church buildings, episcopal residences and 
parsonages were reserved to a new voluntary organization which was 
to take the place of the old Establishment. The Regium Donum 
which the Government had allotted to the Presbyterians in Ireland 
since the time of William of Orange, as well as the Maynooth Grant, 1 
was discontinued, but also with compensation. Private endowments 
made since the Restoration of 1660 were to be left untouched. The 
tithe rent charge was to be bought in by the landlords for a sum esti- 
mated at about £9,000,000. The remaining property of the Irish 
Church, consisting mainly of land and land rents, was computed to be 
worth some £6,000,000 or £7,000,000 more. According to Gladstone's 
plan, almost half this total of £16,000,000 would be employed in pro- 
viding for the clergy, who were to have the option of continuing in 
their offices and drawing their revenues for life, or of settling for a 
lump sum. The surplus remaining was to be devoted to charity. 
Although the Episcopal clergy in Ireland denounced the bill as " highly 
offensive to Almighty God " and as " the greatest national sin ever 
committed," and although they were strongly backed by the English 
Conservatives, who regarded it as a menace to Protestantism and 
property, it passed the Lower House with little difficulty. The great 
struggle came in the House of Lords, though the Peers, instead of 
rejecting it forthwith, strove to defeat its main provisions by hostile 
amendments. All they accomplished, however, was to secure an 
increased compensation for the clergy of about £850,000 and an agree- 
ment that the disposal of the surplus should be left to Parliament. 
The Queen was largely responsible for the compromise. Much as 
she disliked the measure, she feared the consequences in case the 
Upper House persisted in its obstruction. 

The Irish Land Act of 1870. — Having disestablished the alien 
Church which had for over three centuries been a grievance to the 
Irish, Gladstone, in 1870, undertook to deal with the land system. 
The difficulties were many and complex. In the first place, with 
comparatively few large industries or thickly populated cities, the 
bulk of the Irish were dependent upon the land. This excess of culti- 
vators led to keen competition. Moreover, the Encumbered Estates 
Act of 1848 had transferred nearly one sixth of the soil to a class of 
land-jobbers who were more greedy and exacting than the old absentees. 
Leases and contracts were the exception rather than the rule, so that, 
in the majority of cases, the tenant could be arbitrarily evicted at 
six months' notice. The case of the tenant was all the worse since 

1 Toward the support of an Irish college founded, in 1795, for the education of 
priests. 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 705 

he commonly made the improvements, 1 and, after he had thus 
rendered the holding more valuable, he was liable to an increase of 
rent and to eviction if he could not pay ; though some evictions were 
defensible, to get rid of the thriftless and to consolidate holdings 
that were too small. In Ulster a better custom — known as the 
Ulster Tenant right — prevailed. There rents were fixed by a fair 
valuation instead of by competition, nor were they raised in conse- 
quence of improvements made by the tenant, who was entitled to 
compensation for unexhausted improvements when he left the estate ; 
at the same time a tenant might remain in undisturbed occupancy so 
long as he paid his rent, though he might sell his good will and transfer 
to any occupant of whom the landlord should approve. Gladstone's 
Bill legalized, in the districts where it already prevailed, so much of 
the custom as provided compensation for arbitrary disturbance and 
the right of tenants, whether disturbed or not, to sell their unex- 
hausted improvements, and provided a similar arrangement for the 
other parts of Ireland where the custom did not exist. By the so- 
called " Bright Clauses " subsequently added, loans were to be ad- 
vanced by the Government to tenants who wished to buy their lands. 
In spite of these good features, the Act of 1870 failed to give satis- 
faction. For one thing, it failed to touch the evil of competitive 
rents, which were in most cases too high ; moreover, while it hampered 
the landlord's power of eviction, it did not seriously check his exercise 
of that power, since frequently he found it more profitable — when 
he wanted to raise the rent, for example — to pay the compensation 
than to retain a tenant whom he regarded as undesirable. In a word, 
while the Irish desired many things, including fair rents and fixity 
of tenure, they got compensation — and not always an adequate 
amount — for disturbance and unexhausted improvements. 

The Education Question. — Directly after the Irish Land Act had 
been carried, the Government pressed forward an epoch-making 
Education Bill. The subject needed attention sadly ; for the English 
system, so far as it could be called a system, was incomparably below 
those prevailing in the United States, in Prussia, and in Switzerland. 
There were nearly four million children of school age, of whom nearly 
one half were unprovided for. About one million attended schools 
attached, for the most part, to the Church of England ; they were sup- 
ported by voluntary subscriptions, supplemented by fees and small 
Government grants, and were under Government inspection. An- 
other million went to schools which received no Government grant, were 

1 In England the reverse was true. The landlords usually made the improve- 
ments. 



706 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

uninspected, and often in a very unsatisfactory state. The grammar 
schools, founded after the dissolution of the monasteries by the Crown 
and by men who profited from the spoil of the monastic lands, were 
largely under Church control and were practically monopolized by the 
upper and middle classes. 1 Moreover, they did not furnish primary in- 
struction, which was generally provided by private schools and tutors. 
For a long time the working classes were mainly dependent on appren- 
ticeship, and when apprenticeship came to be superseded by the factory 
system, toward the end of the eighteenth century, two men who rep- 
resented opposing policies undertook to supply the lads with primary 
instruction. One, Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, who believed in non- 
sectarian education, was supported by the British and Foreign School 
Society, founded in 1808. The other was Andrew Bell, who advo- 
cated a form of instruction based on Church principles, and the National 
Society was founded in 181 1 to carry out his policy. In 1833 Parlia- 
ment made its first grant of £20,000, the bulk of which went to the 
National Society. Very slowly and meagerly parliamentary grants 
were increased, and a few halting steps in advance were taken — 
inspectors of schools were appointed and a committee of- the Privy 
Council on Education was created. 

The Education Bill of 1870. — The framers of the Act of 1870 were 
confronted by two main difficulties: the disinclination of many to 
pay rates for the education of other men's children, and the question 
of religious education ; indeed, there were sharply conflicting views 
among those who agreed that the existing situation should be reformed. 
Some were for free, compulsory education, divorced altogether from 
religious control; others were opposed to free education; others, 
again, insisted on some form of religious teaching, either denomi- 
national or undenominational. The Government plan was to retain 
the voluntary schools where they were doing good work, and, in dis- 
tricts where they failed to meet the need, to set up schools under the 
charge of locally elected boards. These Board Schools, as they were 
called, were to be maintained partly by Government grant, partly by 
parents' fees, and partly from local rates. Attendance was not to be 
generally compulsory, the decision being left to the discretion of each 
school board. The question of religious instruction was eventually 
settled by a compromise which satisfied neither of the extreme parties. 
The voluntary schools were allowed to continue their religious instruc- 
tion; but while the Government grants might be increased, they were 

1 In this class were the so-called "public schools" like Eton, Rugby, and Harrow, 
which prepared for the universities, were not free, and were practically beyond the 
reach of the poorer classes. 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 707 

to receive no aid from the local rates. 1 In the Board Schools all 
denominational religious instruction was prohibited. Reading and 
explaining the Bible was allowed ; but even that had to come at hours 
when parents who so desired might withdraw their children. Although 
the Act was very unpopular, especially among the Nonconformists, it 
marked a long step in the direction of providing instruction free of 
cost for all the children of the Kingdom. Within twenty years the 
number of schools had increased from 9000 to 20,000, accommodating 
5,500,000 pupils, and attended on the average by nearly 4,ooo,ooo. 2 

The Civil Service Reform (1870). — Another far-reaching reform of 
this notable year 1870 was an Order in Council providing that candi- 
dates for the Civil Service should, at the discretion of the heads of 
departments, be subjected to competitive examinations. For seven- 
teen years, posts in the Indian Civil Service had been rilled by com- 
petitive examination, while, since 1855, a Civil Service Commission 
had selected candidates for the Home Service by examination, but 
only in the case of those nominated to competition. 

Army Reform and the Ballot Act (1871, 1872). — The Secretary for 
War, and the First Lord of the Admiralty, were not behindhand in 
reforms relating to their respective departments, both in shaving down 
expenses and increase of efficiency. The only serious struggle arose 
over the abolition of the purchase of army officers' commissions. It 
was a grave defect in the existing system that capable men of train- 
ing could be jumped by mere youths of wealth and influence ; on 
the other hand, it was argued that discipline would suffer if men of 
inferior station were put in command of their social superiors, also, 
quite naturally, those who had expended large sums in the purchase 
of commissions were bitterly opposed to the change. As a concession 
to the latter it was provided that officers who had paid for their posi- 
tions might retain them, and £7,000,000 was appropriated to compen- 
sate those who wished to withdraw. The bill passed the Commons, 
with some difficulty; but the Lords, while they did not venture to 

1 Even this, however, was allowed in an indirect way. School boards were per- 
mitted to pay fees, in the denominational schools, of the children of parents, who, 
though not paupers, were unable to meet the expense. 

2 In 1902 a Conservative Government abolished the special school boards set 
up in 1870, and placed both the Board and the Church schools under the super- 
vision of the County and Borough Councils and provided that both types should 
be supported by Government grants supplemented by local taxes. At the same 
time, the actual control of the Church schools in each county or borough was 
vested in a committee of six, two from the Council, and four from the denomina- 
tion to which the school belongs. Since most of the schools were of the Anglican 
communion, the Dissenters made vigorous protests, but owing to the opposition 
of the Lords, a measure framed by the Liberal Government in 1906 failed to pass. 



708 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

reject it, sought to shelve it by delaying the second reading till the 
whole plan of army reorganization was before them. In consequence, 
Gladstone induced the Queen to declare the abolition of purchase 
by royal warrant, a proceeding for which the Prime Minister was 
loudly criticized. The Lords — who were now obliged to pass the 
Compensation Bill — took their revenge, in 1871, by rejecting a bill 
providing for vote by ballot and for more effective checks against 
corrupt practices in elections ; but they had to give their assent the 
following year. 

The Growing Unpopularity of the Gladstone Ministry (1871). — 
The Ministry, though it survived three years longer, had already 
drawn upon its head a varied and powerful opposition that was, in the 
end, to prove overwhelming. The Education Act had alienated the 
Nonconformists as well as the stanch High Churchmen, reductions 
in naval work in the dockyards had aroused the workingmen, and the 
abolition of purchase had stirred the wrath of the upper classes. 
Moreover, the conciliatory attitude of the Government in foreign 
policy was scornfully branded as too tame and submissive. While the 
Liberal party was growing steadily weaker, it was persistently attacked 
by Disraeli who was aiming to popularize the Conservatives chiefly by 
exploiting the Imperial idea, the union of the Mother Country and her 
Colonies in closer Imperial bonds. In a famous speech in 1872 he 
compared the Ministers to a " range of exhausted volcanoes." 

The Supreme Court of Judicature Act (1873). — Although in a sadly 
crippled state, for more than one measure had to be withdrawn, the 
Gladstone Ministry was able to undertake, during the last few months 
of its career, one more far-reaching reform — a fundamental reorgan- 
ization of the Law Courts and their procedure, which, however, required 
some years to complete. By the Judicature Act of 1873, and the sup- 
plementary Acts which followed, the three Common Law Courts, to- 
gether with Chancery and various other tribunals, were consolidated 
into one Supreme Court of Judicature. This was to consist of two 
primary divisions: (1) the High Court of Justice, made up of three 
subdivisions, (a) Queen's Bench, (b) Chancery, (V) Probate, Divorce, 
and Admiralty ; (2) the Court of Appeal. From the Court of Appeal 
cases went, as a last resort, to the House of Lords, which was strength- 
ened, in 1876, by the addition of three Law Lords who held their title 
for life. A fourth was subsequently added. 

The End of the First Gladstone Ministry (1874). — In 1874, Glad- 
stone suddenly appealed to the country in a general election which re- 
sulted in an overwhelming victory for the Conservatives. By pro- 
posing a tax on spirits the vanquished Prime Minister had added to 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 709 

his list a new enemy, the liquor dealers, who worked so actively 
against him that he wrote to his brother : " We have been borne down 
in a torrent of gin and beer " — doubtless an exaggeration of the in- 
fluence of this particular factor. The Ministry had committed some 
blunders, it had made many enemies and alienated some of its friends ; 
aside, however, from those who were actuated by strong religious con- 
victions or insistent upon a more aggressive policy abroad, most of its 
opponents were from those whose class privileges and vested interests 
had suffered. It had come to power pledged to carry out a vast pro- 
gram of reform, and its achievements in constructive, progressive 
legislation had been surpassed by few Ministries of the century. Not 
only that, but it had reduced expenses materially and left the treasury 
in a most flourishing condition. 

England and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). — The two 
most important features in British foreign relations during the Glad- 
stonian regime were the attitude of the Government toward the Franco- 
Prussian War and the adjustment of the Alabama claims. On 19 July, 
1870, war broke out between France and Prussia. The causes were 
many and complicated. The French were jealous of the rising power 
of Prussia ; they burned to recover the old Frankish territories to the 
left bank of the Rhine, their " natural frontier," while Napoleon III 
was anxious to unite his discontented subjects in a great war of con- 
quest. Entrapped by the adroit diplomacy of Bismarck, who was 
striving to complete the unification of Germany under Prussian dom- 
ination, the French rushed headlong and unprepared into the conflict. 
The result was a Prussian triumph. On 1 September, 1870, the Em- 
peror, with an entire French army, was surrounded and captured at 
Sedan. On 19 September the siege of Paris began, and, after heroic 
suffering, the city yielded, 28 January, 1 87 1 . Ten days before, William , 
King of Prussia, was crowned German Emperor at Versailles, and by 
the peace concluded 3 March, France ceded Alsace and Lorraine and 
agreed to pay a war indemnity of five milliards of francs. 'The organ- 
ization of the new German Empire was completed in 1871. After 
vain offers of mediation the British Government remained neutral. 
By his ruthless methods, Bismarck was able to prevent English popular 
sympathy for France from going too far, his most telling stroke being 
the publication, 25 July, 1870, of the draft of a treaty which he had 
induced the Emperor to submit to him, looking toward a French occu- 
pation of Belgium. The Queen, naturally inclined to favor the Ger- 
man cause, nevertheless, in the interests of humanity, tried to prevent 
the bombardment of Paris. This Bismarck resented as " petticoat 
sentimentality," hindering German designs. In order to prevent any 



•710 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

possibility of Great Britain and Russia combining to intervene in behalf 
of France, he sought to set the two Powers by the ears. To that end, 
he prompted Russia to seize the opportunity offered by the disturbed 
condition of Europe to abrogate the clause in the treaty of 1856 which 
excluded Russian war-ships from the Black Sea. Russia decided to 
take the step, and suddenly announced her intention in a circular letter 
issued 31 October, 1870. Great Britain protested stoutly against her 
proceeding independently of the other parties to the Treaty. Although 
a conference was assembled at London in December, the result was a 
foregone conclusion. Russia had her way. 

The Alabama Claims. — The settlement of the Alabama claims was 
regarded by many as another diplomatic defeat for the Gladstone 
Ministry. Undoubtedly, however, Russell was at fault in allowing 
the Alabama to sail. In 1865, he admitted to Gladstone that " paying 
twenty millions down would be far preferable to submitting the case 
to arbitration." The question was complicated by the resentment 
aroused in the United States against the British recognition of the 
belligerent rights of the South, and by the setting forth of indirect claims 
amounting to £400, 000, 000. * After long and arduous negotiations 
had failed to accomplish anything, the two Governments finally ar- 
ranged to appoint a joint commission to discuss the questions at issue 
and decide upon a plan of settlement. By the Treaty of Washington, 
1 87 1, it was agreed, among other things, that Great Britain should ex- 
press her regret at the escape of the Alabama and the other Confeder- 
ate cruisers, and that the assessment of damages should be referred 
to an international tribunal. This body, meeting at Geneva, was to 
consist of five members chosen by the rulers of Great Britain, the 
United States, Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil. As the result of its 
findings, announced in September, 1872, the United States was awarded 
£3,250,000. This Geneva Award marked the first step in international 
arbitration, and hence a notable advance in the progress of civilization, 
though the majority of the British people looked upon it in the light of 
a national humiliation. 2 

The Second Disraeli Ministry (1 874-1 880). — For the first time 
since the Peelite schism, the Conservatives, in 1874, came to office with 

1 These were based on trie ground that Great Britain's encouragement pro- 
longed the war, that her attitude was responsible for a large share of the Northern 
losses at sea, and on the expense incurred by the United States Government in 
pursuing the various cruisers which had sailed from British ports. 

2 By the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870, making it "an offense to build a ship 
in circumstances which gave reasonable cause for belief that it would be used 
against a friendly state engaged in war," Great Britain provided for the future 
against any difficulties of this nature. 



A NEW ERA IN DEMOCRACY 711 

a decided majority. Their ranks were greatly strengthened by the ac- 
cession of numbers from the commercial classes, who were alienated 
from the Liberal party because it was attracting the increasing support 
of the trade-unions and the artisans. A Jew who had achieved his 
earliest fame as a fop and a novelist, and who had entered public life 
advocating a union of the nobility and the masses against the capitalis- 
tic class, was the leader of a new combination of aristocracy and con- 
servative commercialism. After the mass of legislation produced by 
the late Ministry, Disraeli's Government proposed to give the country 
a comparative rest. To be sure, he passed a few measures which in- 
dicated that he was still mindful of the welfare of the working classes 
and sought their support, but his most notable achievements were in 
the field of Imperial and foreign affairs, which may best be considered 
m another connection. 

The Fall of the Beaconsfield Ministry (1880). — In dealing with 
world problems in Egypt, India, and the Near East, Disraeli — who was 
raised to the peerage as Earl of Beaconsfield in August, 1876 — showed 
vision and splendid audacity, though later events necessitated a re- 
versal of the British attitude toward both Turkey and Russia. Bea- 
consfield's Ministry reached the high-water mark of its popularity about 
the time of his return in 1878 from the Congress of Berlin. Then agri- 
cultural depression, decline in trade, strikes, Afghan and Zulu wars, 
unsatisfactory budgets, dearth of remedial legislation, together with 
a policy of systematic obstruction initiated by the new Irish Home 
Rule party in the Commons, all contributed to prepare the way for 
its overthrow. On March 8, 1880, the Prime Minister appealed to 
the country in a general election. The cause of the Liberals was much 
assisted by the superiority of their political organization based on the 
model which Joseph Chamberlain, destined to become one of the dom- 
inant figures of the generation, had introduced from the United States 
into Birmingham, whence it spread through the country. Another 
factor in the election was the support which the Irish gave to the Lib- 
erals ; but still more decisive forces in determining the election were 
the Nonconformists' hostility to the Prime Minister, the more or less 
vague desire for a fresh Administration, and the fervid speeches of the 
veteran Gladstone, who scored most scathingly the aggressive and costly 
foreign policy of the Conservatives as well as their apathy in domestic 
reform. When Beaconsfield learned of the defeat of his party at the 
polls, he resigned, 18 April, 1880, without waiting to face Parliament. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

See Chapter LIV below. 



CHAPTER LIV 
THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN (1880-1901) 

The Second Gladstone Ministry (1880-1885) ; the Bradlaugh Case 
( 1 880-1 886). — Gladstone, now over seventy, became for the second 
time Prime Minister. At the opening of the new session, Charles 
Bradlaugh, elected from Northampton, raised an issue which culmi- 
nated, after six years of struggle, in removing the last religious dis- 
ability for membership in the House of Commons. As an atheist 
Bradlaugh objected to the required oath which contained the words : 
" So help me God," and insisted on taking an affirmation instead. 
When this was finally refused he offered to take the oath ; but since 
he frankly stated that it meant nothing to him, the Speaker ruled 
against him. . After a persistent struggle, during which he was un- 
seated and reelected many times and even expelled from the House by 
force, he was finally, January, 1886, allowed to take the oath, and he 
held his seat till his death. In 1888 he secured the passage of a bill 
legalizing the substitution — formerly limited to Quakers — of an 
affirmation for an oath, both in the Commons and in the Law Courts. 
Thus the question was settled once and for all. 

The Origin and Rise of the Home Rule Party. — Meanwhile, Ire- 
land was again demanding serious attention. In 1871 Isaac Butt, who 
entered Parliament in that year, launched a new policy for which he 
invented the name " Home Rule." In contrast to the Fenians, who 
aimed at an independent republic, it was his purpose to secure a separate 
legislature for Ireland by peaceful political methods. Owing to his 
genial temper and want of aggressiveness, the movement made little 
progress under his direction. The force which he lacked was supplied 
by Charles Stewart Parnell (1 846-1 891), who entered Parliament in 
1875, and who two years later deliberately adopted and systematized 
a policy already resorted to on occasion, a policy which consisted in 
obstructing, in every way possible, the legislative policy of the House 
of Commons until the demands of the Irish Home-Rulers were con- 
sidered. At first sight it would seem that Parnell was the very last 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 713 

person to lead the Nationalist cause. He had not a drop of Irish blood 
in his veins, for his paternal ancestors were Englishmen who had set- 
tled in Ireland ; moreover, he was a landowner and a Protestant. How- 
ever, he had inherited from his mother — ■ a daughter of the Ameri- 
can admiral, Charles Stewart, who had fought in the war of 181 2 — 
an intense hatred of the English. The attainment of Home Rule for 
Ireland grew rapidly to be his consuming ambition. He was a cold, 
undemonstrative man ; but his force and energy were tremendous, 
and by sheer will power, with little or no literary training, he grew to 
be a powerful, incisive speaker. In addition to his leadership of the 
Home Rule party, he was, in 1879, elected to the presidency of the Na- 
tional Land L,eague of Ireland, founded for the reduction of unjust 
rents and for the ultimate transfer of the ownership of land to the 
occupiers. 

The Land Act of 1881. — Soon after Gladstone came to power, the 
situation in Ireland became so disturbing that in the session of 1881 
the Liberals, despairing of maintaining order by ordinary law, forced 
through a new series of coercive measures in the teeth of determined 
opposition from the Irish Nationalists. By way of conciliation, how- 
ever, Gladstone introduced a Land Act designed to remedy the defects 
of his measure of 1870 by granting the " three F's " demanded by the 
Irish — fair rents, fixity of tenure, and free sale of his interests by the 
tenant. The Act was to be enforced by a Land Court, which, however, 
took no action unless voluntarily resorted to by one of the parties, either 
landlord or tenant. It might fix a " judicial rent " which was to re- 
main in force for fifteen years, during which period the tenant could 
not be evicted, except for non-payment of rent and certain other 
specified reasons. At the end of the fifteen years the landlord might 
resume possession with the Court's consent. Meanwhile, if at any 
time the occupier wished to part with his tenant right, he was allowed, 
subject to certain restrictions, to sell it for the best price he could get, 
though the landlord was to have the first option. In case the tenant 
wished to buy his holding, the Government was to loan three fourths 
of the purchase money. Advances were also made for emigration, 
and for improvements, including reclamation of waste lands. In spite 
of its well-meant provisions, the Act found favor neither with the land- 
lord nor the tenants ; the latter insisting that the rents were fixed at 
too high a rate. 

The Phoenix Park Murders (1882). — Once more coercion and con- 
ciliation alike proved ineffective, although Parnell, after a short term 
in prison for inciting Irishmen to defeat the Land Act by intimidating 
tenants inclined to take advantage of its provisions, was released in the 



714 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

spring of 1882, in accordance with an unofficial agreement to put an end 
to boycotting and to cooperate with the Liberal party. This " treaty "' 
had scarcely been concluded when all England was shocked by the 
news that, 6 May, Lord Frederick Cavendish, the new Chief Secretary 
for Ireland, and Burke, the Permanent Under-Secretary, had been 
murdered by a band of Fenians in broad daylight in Phoenix Park, 
Dublin. The murderers escaped; but they were finally discovered 
and sent to the gallows in 1883. Parnell gained great credit with 
Gladstone by repudiating all connection with the outrage and offering 
to resign from the leadership of the Home Rule party ; but the Govern- 
ment passed a Prevention of Crimes Bill which was regarded as one of 
the strongest coercive measures of the century. The year was marked 
by a series of murders in Ireland ; but Parnell brushed aside with cold 
contempt the charge that he was in any way privy to them. Meantime, 
he had broken off all connection with an organization centering in the 
United States, the Clan-na-Gael, which under O'Donovan Rossa and 
other extremists, was now seeking to terrorize the English by attempts, 
that proved futile, to dynamite their public buildings, including the 
Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London. 

The Franchise Bill of 1884. — Gladstone in February, 1884, intro- 
duced a new franchise bill, with the object of extending to the rural 
classes the same rights of voting as were enjoyed in the boroughs, and 
for establishing a substantially uniform franchise throughout the 
United Kingdom. The new measure went almost to the length of 
manhood suffrage, since domestic servants, bachelors living with their 
parents and paying no room rent, and those who had no fixed abode l 
were the only classes excluded, and involved an addition of some 
2,000,000 voters, nearly four times the number added in 1832, and 
nearly twice the number added in 1867. Not only the Conservatives 
as a whole, but many Liberals, even in the Cabinet, insisted that it was 
dangerous to go to such lengths. While the Opposition in general felt 
that the agricultural laborer was too ignorant to vote, the Conserva- 
tives laid chief emphasis on the fact that Gladstone refused to pro- 
vide for a redistribution of seats together with extension of the fran- 
chise. The Bill, however, passed the House of Commons with some 
difficulty, but was rejected in the Lords. 

Its Passage. The Redistribution Act (1885). —The Queen strove 
as she had in 1869, to avoid a breach, though, before she had gone 
very far, influential members of the Conservative party had inde- 
pendently come to the conclusion that the measure might safely pass 
if joined to a satisfactory distribution bill. Gladstone, while he de- 
1 These latter were excluded by various residence qualifications. 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 715 

murred at first, finally yielded to this stipulation, and, as a result, the 
Franchise Bill passed easily during the autumn session of 1884. The 
Redistribution Bill, which followed close upon its heels, did away 
with 160 seats, though, by substitutions and the increase of new 
constituencies, the membership of the House of Commons was in- 
creased from 658 to 670; moreover, except in the case of the City of 
London and boroughs with between 15,000 and 165,000 inhabitants, 
which retained two members each, the country was cut up into single 
member constituencies. The Bill became law in June, 1885. 1 

The Fall of the Second Gladstone Ministry. — The foreign policy 
of the first Gladstone Ministry had aroused widespread dissatisfaction, 
that of the second stirred the Opposition to fury. The Cabinet was 
loudly criticized for truckling to Russia in Afghanistan, for making 
concessions to the Boers in South Africa after British forces had suf- 
fered a humiliating defeat at their hands ; and — what contributed 
more than anything else to drive the Liberals from power — for its 
feeble and halting policy in the Egyptian Sudan which resulted in the 
failure to relieve General Gordon and his consequent destruction at 
Khartum. Not only was the policy of the second Gladstone Ministry 
unsuccessful abroad, but its well-meant efforts to deal with the Irish 
problem had antagonized both the Home-Rulers and the Conserva- 
tives. Gladstone's first administration was notable for marked 
achievement in his peculiar field — financial administration and 
progressive legislation voicing the needs of middle class Liberalism. 
In his second, when he was confronted with a different class of 
problems, his prestige suffered distinctly. Finally, he resigned, 
12 June, 1885, nominally on the passage of a hostile amendment to 
his budget. 

The First Salisbury Ministry (July, 1885, to February, 1886).— 
The Marquis of Salisbury, who had succeeded to the headship of the 
Conservative party on the death of Beaconsfield, 19 April, 1881, now 
became Prime Minister in place of Gladstone. By the Ashbourne 
Act 2 of 1885 the Government advanced £5,000,000 to Irish tenants, 
who with loans from this fund might purchase their holdings and repay 
the debt by annual installments of 4 per cent for forty-nine years. The 
policy of creating a body of peasant proprietors as a cure for Irish 

1 Two years before, in 1883, another step in advance had been taken by trie- 
Corrupt Practices Act, which reduced the cost of general elections from £2,500,000 
to £800,000. No candidate or his agent might, henceforth, spend more than a 
fixed sum for election expenses ; also bribery, treating, and kindred practices were 
prohibited. Penalties were imposed which varied according to the gravity of the 
offense. 

2 The Act was named from its author, Lord Ashbourne, the Irish Lord Chancellor,, 



716 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

discontent, which was initiated by John Bright in 1870, and which 
formed a feature of the Act of 1881, was thus adopted and extended 
by the Conservatives. 1 This form of assistance to the Irish tenantry, 
together with the concession of increased power of self-government in 
local affairs, came to be the main substitutes which the Conservatives 
offered in place of the Home Rule demanded by the Nationalists. 
On the other hand, early in 1886, the Liberals identified themselves 
with the cause of the Home-Rulers. 

Home Rule Adopted by Gladstone (December, 1885). — In the gen- 
eral election which took place in December, 1885, Gladstone had 
evaded committing himself on his future Irish policy ; consequently 
the Irish refused to support the Liberal party, who, nevertheless, se- 
cured 335 members in the new Parliament to 249 Conservatives and 
86 Nationalists. Scarcely were the elections over when, 17 December, 
a newspaper report announced that Gladstone was prepared to sup- 
port, subject to certain conditions, a Home Rule proposition. While 
he declared that the statement had been published without his knowl- 
edge or authority, it represented his views with substantial accuracy. 
At any rate it soon became generally known that he was for " a plan 
of duly guarded Home Rule." 

The Third Gladstone Ministry (February to August, 1886). The 
First Home Rule Bill. — Salisbury was forced to resign, 28 January, 
1886, and was succeeded by Gladstone, who in constructing his third 
Ministry, informed each man whom he asked to take office that it 
would be the aim of the Government to determine whether or not Ire- 
land should be given an independent legislature. Accordingly, many 
of his old associates, including John Bright, refused to join. Lord 
Randolph Churchill achieved the result, which proved big with con- 
sequences, of stirring up Ulster to oppose the impending project, 2 
and at a meeting in Manchester, employed two terms which soon 
became generally current — " Unionist and Separatist." On 8 April, 
1886, Gladstone moved for leave to bring in an Irish Government Bill. 

1 Subsequent Land Purchase Acts were passed in 1887, 1891, 1896, and 1903. 
The chief weakness in the scheme was that it availed little in the congested districts 
where the tenants were too poor to purchase their holdings even with the liberal 
aid of the Government. The Congested Districts Board has undertaken, with a 
fair degree of success, to remedy that situation. 

2 In the past, Ulstermen had been among the leaders in the endeavor to secure 
an independent government for Ireland. But there was a strong Protestant ele- 
ment in the district, and there were vast industrial interests centering chiefly in 
Belfast, and their change of front was due to the fear that their religion and their 
wealth might be exploited by the poor Roman Catholic element who would dominate 
the Irish legislature. 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 717 

It provided for the establishment of a legislative body to sit in Dublin 
for the purpose of making the laws and controlling the administra- 
tion of Ireland, and for the withdrawal of Irish members from the 
Parliament at Westminster. While the Irish legislature was to have 
the power of imposing taxes, this was not to include customs or cer- 
tain excises, which were reserved to the Imperial body, though after 
Ireland's share of the common expenses had been provided for, any 
surplus remaining was to be handed over to the Irish Exchequer. 
Moreover, certain areas of legislation, relating chiefly to the Crown, 
the army and the navy, navigation and trade, were also to be dealt with 
by the British Parliament exclusively. The main defect in the Bill 
and the one most criticized was the exclusion of the Irish members 
from Westminster; indeed, Gladstone himself admitted that this was 
an open question. Whatever chances the measure may have had in 
the House of Commons were ruined by a schism in the Liberal party. 
Chief among the leaders of this secession movement — known as 
Liberal Unionism — were the Marquis of Hartington and Joseph 
Chamberlain. 

The Defeat of the First Home Rule Bill and the Fall of the Third 
Gladstone Ministry (1886). — In spite of a noble and eloquent speech 
by Gladstone, the Home Rule Bill was defeated on the second reading 
by 343 to 313, with 93 Liberals voting on the Opposition side. An- 
other general election followed, which in Ireland was marked by 
intense violence, while in England the strife was confined to words. 
John Bright in writing to his former leader declared that, while he would 
do much to " clear the rebel party from Westminster," he could not 
give his assent to a measure which he regarded as unjust to Protestant 
loyal Ulster, and various letters of his during the campaign carried 
great weight. On the other hand, such was the magic of Gladstone's 
presence, that, even though he was puzzling and persuasive rather 
than convincing, he won converts wherever he went, yet in the end 
he was completely defeated. Salisbury, who had been peculiarly 
acrid in his insistence on the inability of the Irish to govern themselves, 
entered on his second term as Prime Minister, lasting from 1886 to 
1892. 

" Parnejlism and Crime " (1887). — The Irish problem continued 
to be the storm center of politics. Early in March, 1887, Salisbury's 
nephew, Mr. Arthur Balfour, became Chief Secretary for that distracted 
country. Hitherto known chiefly as a young man of languid, elegant 
tastes and as a writer on deep philosophical subjects, he proved to 
be, during his four years' tenure, a vigorous and effective, if somewhat 
ruthless, administrator. On 28 March, as a means of combating 



718 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the violent and murderous activities of the extremists, he introduced 
a new Crimes Bill which contained the novel feature that its provisions 
should be permanent. While it was being enacted into law, intense 
excitement was aroused by a series of articles in the Times, entitled 
" Parnellism and Crime," charging the Irish leader and his followers 
with the employment of violence and intimidation to gain their ends, 
and even with sanctioning murder. On 18 April appeared the fac- 
simile of a letter, purporting to be signed by Parnell and dated 15 May, 
1882, in which he was made to declare that he had only condemned 
the Phoenix Park murders as a matter of policy. Though Parnell 
forthwith denounced the letter as a forgery, its publication had the 
effect of facilitating the passage of the Crimes Act. At length, in 
July, 1888, Frank Hugh O'Donnell, one of those against whom charges 
had been directed in the recent articles, brought suit against the 
Times for libel. 

Parnell's Temporary Triumph (1889). Final Ruin and Death 
(1891). — When, at the trial, the counsel for the newspaper produced 
new letters alleged to have been written by Parnell, the Irish 
chieftain was at length roused from the indifference which he had 
displayed hitherto. On 6 July, he issued in the House of Commons a 
formal denial of any connnection with the letters, and, feeling that he 
would be unlikely to obtain justice from a Middlesex jury, asked for a 
select committee to investigate the question of their origin. The Gov- 
ernment, refusing his request, took the unprecedented action of ap- 
pointing a special commission of three judges to inquire into the whole 
subject of the charges made by the articles on " Parnellism and Crime." 
The sessions of the Commission extended over more than a year, from 
September, 1888, to November, 1889; but, before its work was half 
completed, the author of the letters attributed to Parnell was dis- 
covered. He proved to be one Richard Pigott, a broken-down Irish 
journalist, who had sold them to the Times. Confessing the forgery, 
he tied across the Channel and, 1 March, 1889, he shot himself in 
Madrid to escape the officers on their way to arrest him. Thus ended 
the most dramatic feature of the inquiry. The Commission issued 
its report 13 February, 1890. Though many of the charges in the 
Times against the other Irish leaders were sustained, Parnell was 
acquitted of all complicity. The proprietors of the newspaper had 
to pay him £5000 damages and to assume all the costs of the investi- 
gation. 

Scarcely had he won his triumph, which promised much for 
Home Rule, when he and the cause were overtaken by a 
crushing reverse. In November he was involved as co-respondent 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 719 

in a divorce suit brought by Captain O'Shea, the result of which 
was to destroy ParnelPs credit with the morally strict and to fur- 
nish others with a pretext for repudiating him. Gladstone at first 
declined to be "a censor and a judge of faith and morals"; but 
owing to the decided attitude of the strong Nonconformist ele- 
ment in his party and the unmistakable trend of public opinion, 1 
he decided, after some hesitation, to throw Parnell over. " The 
English wolves howl for my destruction " was the bitter comment of 
the discredited chieftain, who defiantly resisted all efforts to induce 
him to resign. The result was to produce a schism among his followers ; 
after a long hard struggle 44 of the Nationalists chose Justin McCarthy 
as their leader, while a minority of 26 stuck to Parnell. During the 
few remaining months of his life he fought an uphill but hopeless 
fight to regain his lost ascendancy. He came to advocate separation, 
he bitterly denounced those of the opposing camp who had repudiated 
him, and had in his turn to submit to scathing personal abuse. He 
died, 6 October, 1891, at the age of forty-six. " The strongest and 
the strangest of the Irish political leaders ... he had brought Home 
Rule from the clouds and made it the leading issue in the party con- 
flict." John Redmond took his place as head of the minority. 

The Queen's Jubilee and the Growth of Imperialism (1887). — 
These years, during which the Irish problem was passing through such 
acute stages, were marked by a striking revival of the popularity of 
the Monarchy, due to the Queen's emergence from the seclusion in 
which she had remained since the Prince Consort's death and to the 
growing strength of the Imperialistic sentiment which Disraeli had 
done so much to promote. The Jubilee of 1887, marking the fiftieth 
anniversary of Victoria's accession, was at once a mighty manifesta- 
tion and a potent factor in the revival of the royal popularity and of 
the Imperialistic sentiment which had such an effect in fostering it. 
The pomp and circumstance, the crowds and pageantry which at- 
tended the celebration, together with the simultaneous outbursts of 
enthusiasm which the event called forth in the Colonies and inTndia 
were no mere empty vaporings. " Thenceforth the Sovereign was 
definitely regarded as the living symbol of the unity not merely of the 
British Nation but of the British Empire." 

The Last Years of the Second Salisbury Ministry. — In 1888 an 
important Act was passed creating for England and Wales elective 
County Councils which took over many of the administrative functions 
of the justices of the peace ; London was made a separate adminis- 
trative county, though the ancient rights and privileges of the City 
1 The Roman Catholic clergy also declared against Parnell. 



720 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

were left undisturbed. In 1892, since Parliament was nearing the end 
of its septennial term, the Conservative Government, with a good 
record behind it, appealed to the country in a general election. Its 
financial administration had been good, in 1891 it had abolished fees 
in the public elementary schools, and, in addition to the Irish land pur- 
chase Acts, had taken the first steps to assist English tenants and 
agricultural laborers to buy small holdings. Tendencies toward State 
socialism and protection were becoming more and more marked. As 
yet, however, the Liberals were less ready to accept the new situation ; 
for they still based their policy mainly upon " the extension of political 
equality and the abolition of privilege." The Conservatives, on the 
other hand, just because they were the guardians of privilege and vested 
interests, preferred to assist the masses rather than to increase their 
powers. With regard to foreign affairs, the Salisbury Ministry, while 
aiming to be conciliatory, asserted British claims with dignity and force. 

The General Election of 1892. — Gladstone, endeavoring to combine 
the radicals of his party with the old line Liberals by advocating 
various progressive measures, nevertheless made Home Rule the main 
campaign issue. The Conservatives, as a substitute for Home Rule, 
proposed to extend the peasant proprietary by further appropriations 
for land purchase and to grant the Irish a limited amount of local gov- 
ernment by establishing, with some modifications, the English system 
of County Councils. In England, Gladstone was beaten, but he 
got enough votes in Wales and Scotland to give him, with the aid of 
eighty-one Irish Nationalists, a majority of forty for Home Rule. 
Salisbury remained in office to face the new Parliament and only re- 
signed when a vote of no confidence was carried, 15 August. 

The Fourth Gladstone Ministry and the Second Home Rule Bill. — 
Though many of Gladstone's own party desired to avoid the issue, he 
proceeded to introduce, 13 February, 1893, his second Home Rule Bill, 
which differed from the first chiefly in the provision that eighty Irish 
representatives were to sit in the Parliament at Westminster, but with 
the privilege of voting only on matters of Irish concern. The main 
objection to this provision was that it would make the existing system 
of Cabinet Government practically impossible, since the tenure of the 
Government depended upon a majority in the Commons, which it 
might have when the Irish members were present, and fail to have 
when they were absent. Eventually the Bill passed the Lower House, 
1 September, by a majority of thirty-four, with the " in and out " 
clause omitted, raising the new objection that Ireland was given a 
decided advantage over Wales and Scotland ; since the Irish members 
had a voice in Welsh and Scotch internal concerns and independent 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 721 

control over their own. Throughout the debates, the excitement 
and bitterness were intense; indeed, 27 July, some of the members 
went so far as to resort to personal violence, for the first time, it is 
said, in parliamentary history. It was all in vain, however, since the 
measure was rejected in the House of Lords on the second reading, by 
a vote of 419 to 41. As a matter of fact, many members of the Lower 
House had voted for the measure only because they foresaw this result. 

Ireland in the Last Decade of Victoria's Reign. — Nearly twenty 
years elapsed before a measure of Home Rule again succeeded in 
passing the Commons. During the interval, there was a period of 
comparative peace in Ireland, and the issue played a relatively small 
part in practical politics. Many reasons contribute to explain this. 
For one thing, the Conservatives, who were in power from 1895 to 1905, 
continued their policy of trying to " kill Home Rule by kindness," 
new Land Purchase Acts were passed, and, in 1898, a Local Govern- 
ment Act extended to Ireland the same degree of local government 
which the English enjoyed. 1 In the previous year, largely through the 
efforts of Mr. (now Sir) Horace Plunkett, the Irish Agricultural Or- 
ganization Society was founded, and contributed much to the pros- 
perity of the country by fostering cooperative farming and the develop- 
ment of the dairy and poultry industry ; 2 at the same time, some forty 
credit banks had been established to assist the farmers with loans. 
In 1899, the work was made more effective by the creation of a new 
Department for Agriculture, Industries and Technical Instruction, 
with Mr. Plunkett as Vice-President. Although there has been fric- 
tion with the Government and evictions have not wholly ceased, 
Ireland has been growing steadily better off, and, during the first ten 
years of the present century, the decrease of population has been less 
than in any decade since the potato famine. Another factor which 
tended for a number of years to weaken the force of the Home Rule 
movement was the the split in their ranks resulting from the disgrace 
of Parnell. It was not till 1899 that the two sections of the National- 
ists were reunited under John Redmond. 

The Home Rule Problem. — Many factors have contributed to 
render the Irish problem so difficult as to be almost insoluble. In 
the first place, there is the baffling difference of racial temperament. 

1 In 1894 a Local Government Bill had supplemented the Act of 1888 by es- 
tablishing throughout England and Wales elective district and parish councils. 

2 This was a happy departure, for the soil of Ireland was in general too wet for 
tillage, and the improved methods of transportation had made it practically im- 
possible for the Irish to withstand the overseas competition in the supply of meat. 
Parts of Ireland suffer still from insufficient railway facilities, giving Denmark an 
advantage in supplying the London market, even with poultry and dairy products. 



722 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Religious antagonism also was for centuries an element of discord, 
though, since the Disestablishment Act of 1869, it has perhaps been 
less acute. Furthermore, the Irish have been embittered by poverty, 
which, even if — to a large degree — due to the unfortunate physical 
features of the country and to a certain lack of industrial aptitude, 
was greatly fostered by misgovernment as well as by absenteeism, 
middlemen, and rackrenting. Of late years, unquestionably, the Gov- 
ernment has done its best to improve the situation ; but it has always 
been handicapped by party differences, by the long tradition of polit- 
ical oppression in the past, and the natural desire of the Irish for in- 
dependence. How far Home Rule would solve the question it is dif- 
ficult to predict. The Irish Nationalists argue that the Union was 
brought about by fraud and hence should be repealed ; that Ireland 
best understands her own needs and hence should govern herself ; and 
that, though they have a representation in Parliament, their members 
accomplish little except by obstruction, save at times when the two 
great parties are so evenly divided as to give them the balance of power. 
These arguments have appealed to some Englishmen; others have 
contended that, right or wrong, the Irish should be listened to ; while 
to others, again, the strongest argument in favor of Home Rule is that 
a legislative body at Dublin would relieve the pressure on the Imperial 
Parliament, which is sadly overworked. On the other hand, much has 
been urged against Home Rule. For one thing, it has been argued 
that the Irish are unfit to govern themselves. Secondly, it would not 
only destroy the integrity of the British Empire, but, owing to the 
position of Ireland, it would be strategically dangerous to give her an 
independent government. Thirdly, since Ireland is not self -sufficing, 
it would be an impossible task to adjust the financial burdens. 
Fourthly, it would be unfair to the Ulster Protestants. Finally, 
none of the schemes yet suggested would be workable — either the 
admission or the exclusion of Irish members at Westminster or the 
" in and out " arrangement. Apparently the best solution would be 
a scheme corresponding to the system in vogue in the United States 
and Canada, with a Federal Parliament * at Westminster for the whole 
United Kingdom, and separate bodies for England, Wales and Scot- 
land, and northern and southern Ireland. Even this, however, would 
not be wholly without objection, since there is a strong Roman 
Catholic element in some of the counties of Ulster. 

The Resignation of Gladstone (March, 1894). — Gladstone's patience 
with the House of Lords was almost exhausted after they defeated 

1 This arrangement is known as devolution, arrived at by a process precisely the 
reverse of that by which federation is achieved. 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA'S REIGN 723 

his Home Rule Bill. When they suggested various amendments to 
the Local Government Bill of 1894 he was provoked to declare that : 
" the differences between the two Chambers disclosed a state of things 
of which we are compelled to say that, in our judgment, it cannot 
continue," a statement which occurred in what proved to be his last 
speech in the House of Commons. Not only had he failed in his 
supreme effort to carry Home Rule, but he had shattered his party 
as well. The immediate occasion of his retirement, however, was his 
inability to bring the majority to support him in his opposition to 
increased naval estimates, though the only reasons which he offered 
in his letter of resignation were his advanced age, and his failing eye- 
sight and hearing. 1 

The Third Salisbury Ministry (June, 1895, to July, 1902). — For a 
brief interval of little more than a year the Liberal party continued in 
power, until June, 1895, when Salisbury returned to head his third and 
last Ministry. Some of the chief Liberal Unionists took office in the 
new Government, among them the Marquis of Hartington, now Duke 
of Devonshire, and Joseph Chamberlain. The latter had entered public 
life as a Radical, but in his new position as Colonial Secretary he de- 
voted himself to a zealous exploitation of the policy of Imperialism 
which he had recently adopted. Regarding the Colonies and the 
dependencies as the real source of Great Britain's wealth and strength 
he determined that it should be her guiding aim to develop and con- 
solidate the Empire. Among the most important domestic measures 
of the Ministry during its first years were the Irish Local Government 
Act, 1898, and an Act establishing borough councils in London, 1899. 

The Venezuela Boundary Dispute (1 895-1 899). — Toward the close 
of 1895, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, had nearly 
brought on a war with Great Britain by a belligerent message sent to 
Congress 17 December. Declaring that Salisbury's refusal to submit 
to arbitration her territorial claims in a boundary dispute with Vene- 
zuela was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, he asked Congress to 
authorize him to appoint a boundary commission whose findings should 
be " imposed upon Great Britain by all the resources of the United 
States." Salisbury's calm and courteous attitude alone averted war. 
Convincedof the justice of his cause he submitted it to the commission 
appointed by Cleveland, and the proposal to enforce its findings was 
dropped. The commission, made up of two American and two British 
judges with a Russian jurist as president, rendered, in October, 1899, 
a unanimous opinion conceding to Great Britain practically all she 

1 Gladstone died, 19 May, 1898, and, 30 July, Bismarck, the creator of German 
unity and the most commanding figure in Europe, followed him to the grave. 



724 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

had claimed. Meantime, Salisbury's good offices in preventing an 
anti-American coalition of the European powers, when the Spanish 
war broke out in the spring of 1898, contributed to bring about a 
friendlier feeling between his country and the United States. 

Death and Character of the Queen (1901). — The year 1899 was 
sadly marked by the outbreak of a war between Great Britain and the 
Boers in South Africa, a war the embers of which still smoldered 
when Queen Victoria died, 22 January, 1901, in her eighty-second 
year, after completing the longest reign in English history. Doubt- 
less the grief at her death was more widespread and heartfelt than that 
inspired by any of her predecessors. This was partly due to her 
personal character. During her last years, the feeling against her 
German husband and against her selfish isolation following his death 
had been forgotten, and people recalled her virtues, her courage, her 
honesty, her unblemished reputation, and her interest in their welfare, 
which she had come to manifest more and more as time went on. 
Possessed of no great intellectual power, Victoria was gifted with un- 
common will and energy and strength of character ; nevertheless, she 
recognized the constitutional limitations of the Crown as no previous 
Sovereign had done, and she had the tact to yield to the expressed 
will of her subjects when the occasion demanded it. On the other 
hand, in spite of her customary high sense of duty, she on occasion 
allowed personal considerations to influence her in ways that con- 
flicted at times with the broadest public interests. Her prolonged 
indulgence in private grief put a barrier between her and her subjects, 
and, since she was fond of Scotland, she went there, after 1854, for a 
part of every year, while she visited Ireland only four times during her 
whole reign, and from 1861 to 1900 never set foot in the country at 
all — a discrimination which was keenly felt by the sensitive Irish. 
Her German connections and her devoted attachment to their dynastic 
interests affected, frequently and strongly, her attitude toward many 
foreign questions and often aroused irritation and suspicion among 
the Ministers and subjects. However, she followed public business 
and performed her public duties conscientiously and punctiliously. 
And she possessed an influence out of all proportion to her constitu- 
tionally recognized powers ; for her long experience and her detach- 
ment from party passions gave great weight to her views, and she was 
very frank and honest in expressing them to her Ministers. In the 
robustness of her nature, her simplicity, her charitable interest in the 
poor, her domestic ideals, as well as in her rather masterful temper, 
she represented the best type of the average English people. While 
strict in the standards of conduct which she set for those about her, 



THE LAST TWO DECADES OF VICTORIA' S REIGN 725 

she was very tolerant in matters of religious opinion. True to her 
feminine nature she was guided usually by sentiment rather than 
principles of reason and logic ; but her sentiments were usually whole- 
some and her instincts were right. 

The Close of the Reign and its Problems. — Yet the cause of Vic- 
toria's final popularity was due less to personal qualities than to the 
fact that she was regarded as the outward and visible sign of the 
Imperial unity that was the outgrowth largely of the last quarter of a 
century of her life. "She and her Ministers . . . encouraged the 
identification of the British sovereignty with the the unifying spirit 
of Imperialism, and she thoroughly reciprocated the warmth of feel- 
ing for herself and her office, which the spirit engendered in her people 
at home and abroad." The reign was one of astounding material 
progress and of great political progress as well ; but her death left 
many problems pressing for solution — the question of preferential 
tariffs in the Dominions, Imperial federation, the status of Ireland, 
the relations between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, 
relations between capital and labor, and of provisions to be made for 
the poor in the case of old age, sickness and unemployment. Some- 
thing has been done during the reigns of her son and grandson to deal 
with those problems, though many phases of them still await settle- 
ment. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

See chs. XL VIII ff. Also T. H. Ward, Reign of Queen Victoria (2 vols., 
1887), a cooperative work. C. A. Whitmore, Six Years of Unionist Govern- 
ment, 1886-18Q2 (1892). H. Whates, Third Salisbury Administration, 
1895-iQOO (1901). R. H. Gretton, A Modern History of the English People 
(1*913), I, 1880-1898. 

Biography. In addition to works cited ch. LII, H. D. Traill, The Marquis 
of Salisbury (1890). Lord E. Fitzmaurice, Life of Earl Granville (2 vols., 
1905)- J- H. Parnell, Charles Stewart Parnell (1914). R. B. O'Brien, Life 
of Charles Stuart Parnell (3 vols., 1898), very outspoken. W. Churchill, 
Life of Lord Randolph Churchill (2 vols., 1906), especially good for the Fourth 
Party. Rosebery, Lord Randolph Churchill (1896). T. E. Kebbel, Lord 
Beaconsfield and other Tory Memoirs (1907). J. Bryce, Studies in Con- 
temporary Biography (1903). B. Holland, Life of Spencer Compton, Eighth 
Duke of Devonshire (191 1). A. L. Thorold, The Life of Henry Labouchere 
(19 13). Sir H. Maxwell, The Life and Letters of George Villiers, Fourth Earl 
of Clarendon (2 vols., 19 13). 

For a critical bibliography of the successive English Ministries from 
1865 to 1902 see Low and Sanders, 503-506. 

For Ireland and Home Rule, see bibliography in Turner's Ireland and 
England, 471-480; see also Low and Saunders, 496, and Cambridge Modern 



7 26 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

History XII, 863-869. Besides the works therein cited see A^ Balfour, 
a 1ZI\ f Home Rule (1Q12); E. Childers, The Framework of Home Rule 
Aspects ^^^^J^ Case agaM Eome Rule (1887) and A Fool's 
Paradise (1913) ; Lord Eversley, Gladstone and Ireland (1912). 

Sections from the sources. Adams and Stephens, nos. 267-276. Robert- 
son, pt. II, XXIX-XXXII, app. 439-44L 



CHAPTER LV 
VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 

General Features. — The period from the First Reform Bill to the 
beginning of the twentieth century is so complex in character and so 
teeming with achievement that only the barest outline of its main 
features can be attempted. In literary production it challenges com- 
parison with any age except the Elizabethan. In painting the out- 
look has been notable. History has been transformed almost into 
a new science, while significant wor-k has been done in philosophy and 
other fields of humanistic scholarship. However, the really epoch- 
making achievements of the Victorian era have been in the field of 
pure science and in its practical applications, particularly in trans- 
portation and communication. The doctrine of evolution has revolu- 
tionized modern thinking, while steam and electricity, by infinitely 
multiplying means of distribution, have developed the possibilities of 
production to a point hitherto undreamed of. Moreover, but for 
steam navigation, the postal service and the telegraphs, the amazing 
growth of the British Empire and the unity which pervades it would 
have been impossible. Finally, the democratization of the United 
Kingdom, — the triumph of popular majority rule, with the, conse- 
quent breaking down of class privileges, the growth of State inter- 
vention in the interest of the masses, and the increasing humanitarian 
spirit, — is a distinctive feature of this wonderful age. 

The Condition of the Church. — The religious and moral enthusiasm 
inspired by the Wesleyan revival began to spend its force early in the 
nineteenth century, at least so far as the upper classes were concerned, 
and the Established Church — except for the Evangelicals — hardly 
warmed by the fervor of the moment, relapsed into its customary 
state of chilly conservatism. Its bishops were pompous dignified 
figures who had secured their high offices through family connection 
or personal influence, who enjoyed ample incomes and extensive 
powers, and who, with little regard for purely religious work, devoted 
themselves to politics, to the administration of their estates, to 
society and scholarly leisure. Among the " high and dry " Anglicans 

727 



728 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

there were two types. The clergy of the better sort were kindly 
and respectable, but idle and worldly. The less edifying representa- 
tives of this party were the " two-bottle orthodox," the hard drinking 
sporting parsons who came from the hunting field to read a funeral 
service, their pink coat and top-boots barely covered by a cassock. 
More earnest were the few on whom the Evangelical revival had left 
an enduring mark, and who manifested their enthusiasm in practical 
work, in prison reform, antislavery agitation, and the reformation of 
manners ; as a rule, however, they were limited and narrow in their 
ideas. The greatest extremes of wealth and poverty existed in the 
Church. While the bishops and a few favored clergy were in receipt 
of rich revenues, the rank and file of the country parsons drew only 
meager stipends, besides which more than half the Church livings were 
held by non-resident rectors and vicars, usually represented by under- 
paid curates. Akin to the evil of non-residence, and made possible 
by it, was the distressing prevalence of pluralities. Furthermore, 
men of influence, Churchmen and laymen alike, heaped their relatives 
and supporters with fat benefices. There was already much dis- 
content, when a series of events occurred which threatened to shake 
the Establishment to its very foundations. In 1828 came the repeal 
of the Test and Corporation Acts, followed by the Catholic Relief Bill 
in 1829. The passage of the Reform Bill, three years later, gave an 
impulse to a more radical policy in ecclesiastical as well as political 
legislation ; Lord Grey advised the bishops " to set their houses in 
order," and, in 1833, came the Irish Church Temporalities Act. The 
attempt to meet the threatened dangers resulted in the Oxford Move- 
ment, so called because it was started largely by a group of young 
Oxford scholars, and for some years had its center in the University. 
Its main aim was to emphasize the antiquity and authority of the 
Church, partly for the purpose of asserting its independence of State 
control, and partly for the purpose of stimulating the imagination 
and arousing spiritual and moral enthusiasm in its members. Another 
powerful stimulus to the Movement was the romantic revival in 
literature, the glorification of medievalism, which Scott had done 
so much to foster. 

The Beginning of the Oxford Movement. — John Henry Newman, 
who came to be the dominating figure in the Oxford group, dated 
the beginning of the Movement from a sermon on " National Apos- 
tasy " preached by John Keble, 14 July, 1833. A small but slowly 
increasing number of earnest-minded young men became convinced 
that if the Church of England was to be saved, it must be justified 
on other grounds than mere expediency and custom. To promulgate 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 729 

their teachings they started a series of Tracts for the Times, in which 
they sought to revive and emphasize old Catholic beliefs which had 
been discredited and forgotten, and to assert the continuity of the 
visible Church from the time of Christ and the apostles. 

The Results of the Movement. — Before long, however, grave diffi- 
culties and divisions arose. The liberals opposed the dogmatism 
of the Movement, the " two-bottle orthodox " were alienated by its 
asceticism, while both combined with the Evangelicals to resist its 
growing Romeward tendencies. A crisis was precipitated, in 184 1, by 
the appearance of Tract XC, in which Newman sought to prove that 
the Thirty-nine Articles were not necessarily in contradiction with an- 
cient Catholic doctrine. A storm of indignation arose, the Tract was 
condemned by the Oxford authorities, and, in 1843, Newman resigned 
his living at St. Mary's and went into retirement. Partly impelled 
by more zealous spirits, and partly by his own meditations, to the 
conclusion that the Church of England was a schismatical offshoot of 
the true Catholic faith, he went over to the Roman Catholic communion 
in 1845. A few other prominent men took the same step, and the 
Oxford Movement broke up. Although it had failed in its efforts to 
check the influx of liberalism and to assert the Church's independence 
of State control, its results were various and far-reaching. As a re- 
action against the attempt to identify Christianity with Roman 
Catholicism, a small but influential body of thinkers, including New- 
man's own brother, were driven to skepticism. Others less radical, 
for example Charles Kingsley, formed the nucleus of a new liberal 
party — the Broad Churchmen — which gained strength from the 
dissensions between Tractarians, the Evangelicals, and the old high 
and dry Anglicans, though a further impetus toward both skepticism 
and a more liberal school of Churchmanship came from the scientific 
developments of the century. Such were the opposing tendencies 
to which the Oxford Movement gave rise. On the other hand, the 
unshrinking attitude of those who remained true to Anglicanism 
stimulated the growth of a type of High Churchmen, that put increased 
emphasis on the Catholic apostolic traditions of the Church of Eng- 
land. Among them were Gladstone, and with this party Keble threw 
in his lot. An indirect result of the Movement was to reawaken a 
love for beauty and art in religious worship, to restore ancient cere- 
monies, and to stimulate an enthusiasm for medieval architecture. 
Such ritualism has become a usual though not invariable accompani- 
ment of High Churchmanship, inspiring piety and works of charity 
in those who are best reached through the channels of aesthetic emo- 
tion, and it has brought light and color into the drab, unlovely lives 



730 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of many who have little or no cultural influence outside their 
religion. 

Lay Patronage and the Secession from the Church of Scotland. — 
Meantime, the Church of Scotland had been rent by a secession, 
which, though impelled by different motives, had this in common 
with the Oxford Movement, that it aimed to free the Church from 
secular control. An Act of 171 1 had restored to lay patrons the right, 
taken from them twenty years before, of presenting candidates to 
benefices. Although this was opposed by many Presbyterians, and 
even resulted in the secession of a small body, the crisis leading to the 
great disruption did not come till 1833. The extension of the political 
franchise strengthened the party who held that pastors should not be 
forced on unwilling congregations by a few privileged persons. As a 
result, the "Veto Act" was carried through the General Assembly in 
1834, providing that the dissent of the majority of the male members 
of a congregation would be sufficient to exclude any minister presented. 
After the courts, in two test cases, had sustained the patrons, a pro- 
posal was made to abolish lay patronage altogether, and, when the 
Government refused its assent, some four hundred of the clergy, under 
the lead of Dr. Chalmers, seceded in 1843, and constituted the Free 
Church of Scotland. In 1902 the bulk of this body combined with 
the United Presbyterians — an organization, dating from 1847, of 
various other groups outside the Establishment — to form the United 
Free Presbyterian Church. In 1874 lay patronage was abolished in 
the Church of Scotland, and strong efforts are now being made to 
bring the two great bodies again into one fold. 

General Tendencies of Victorian Literature. — The reign of Vic- 
toria marks a distinct era in literature. At her accession, in 1837, the 
great figures of the romantic revival were all dead except Wordsworth, 
who had done his best work long before. While new writers were in 
the making, the death of Byron, in 1824, and of Scott, in 1832, was 
followed by an arid interval in poetry and novel writing, when Felicia 
Hemans set the standard, and elegant " Keepsakes " and " Books of 
Beauty " were the vogue. The literature to come was profoundly in- 
fluenced by the growth of democracy, by the new scientific temper, and 
the growing humanitarian spirit. There was an increased intensity of 
moral earnestness, a desire to appeal to the masses — who for the first 
time in history began to form a considerable circle of readers — to form 
their taste and to voice their unrest, by denouncing the evils from which 
they suffered under the existing political, social, and industrial system. 

Prose Writers. Macaulay. — Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800- 
1859), preeminent as an essayist at the beginning of the period, was 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 731 

not one of the apostles of discontent ; active in public affairs from his 
entrance in Parliament, in 1830, until within a few years of his death, 
he stoutly championed, both in his speaking and writing, the domi- 
nant Whiggism and laissez-faire. Having done his part toward secur- 
ing the extension of the franchise, in 1832, and the reforms which 
followed, he was content to depict with complacent satisfaction the 
achievements of his party. While his long and varied series of 
essays — most of which were originally contributed to the Edinburgh 
Review — and his stirring Lays of Ancient Rome are famous, his great 
undertaking was his History of England, which centers about the 
Revolution of 1688, and which he left uncompleted. He showed him- 
self to be a master of clear, picturesque narrative, which he enriched 
by apt illustrations drawn from copious stores of knowledge, and he 
excelled in graphic portraiture of political situations. On the other 
hand, he went too far in his attempts to be vivid, he was partisan, and 
he lacked the ability to delineate complex characters, often presenting 
little more than bundles of contrasted traits. But he was a forth- 
right, virile figure, who did much to shape the historical view of the 
general reader for some time to come. 

Carlyle. — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), essayist, historian, and 
miscellaneous writer, was, in his tempestuous preaching against the 
materialism and what he fancied to be pretentious shams of the age, 
a striking contrast to Macaulay. He first attracted attention with 
Sartor Resartus, or the " tailor patched," which appeared in 1833-1834. 
To some degree a spiritual autobiography, it is also a scathing jeremiad, 
lighted by flashes of grim humor and noble prophecy, against hollow 
pretense and false ideals, against the tendency to glorify mechanical 
progress rather than the things of the spirit. His French Revolution 
is unique in the field of historical literature. The picture is distorted, 
but it tells the story with a fire and dramatic intensity that leaves an 
indelible impression on the mind. The Letters and Speeches of Oliver 
Cromwell is made up of skillfully selected extracts interpreted with 
incisive comments by Carlyle; but one-sided as it is, it completely 
vindicated Cromwell from the charges of hypocrisy which had hung 
over him for two centuries. The History of Frederick the Great gave 
him another opportunity to champion a strong, though ruthless and 
cynical man, and to exhibit his rare genius for epic narration. Mean- 
time, in essays and lectures he was constantly preaching on the 
" eternal verities " and " the government of the best," and railing 
against unbaked democracy — " the universal Morison's Pill " with 
which its advocates expected to cure all the ills of society and the body 
politic. In reply to the accusation that he was sponsor for the doctrine 



732 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

that " might makes right," he insisted that the true purport of his 
teaching was that " right makes might." By virtue of his inimitable 
style, with its strange words and wild exclamations, he did succeed in 
arousing many from their spiritual torpor ; but, as a practical reformer, 
he had little that was tangible to contribute. 

Arnold, Ruskin, and Newman. — Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) 
began his literary career as a poet. His verses, superb in their classic 
purity and finish, stand in striking contrast to the glowing romanti- 
cism of the previous generation, but are chilled by austere self-restraint. 
It was as a literary critic of nice discrimination, as an advocate of 
liberalism in Biblical interpretation, and as an apostle of culture — 
or, to use his own words, of " sweetness and light " — to the philistine 
middle classes, that he did his most distinctive work. Perhaps the 
perfection of prose in nineteenth-century England was reached by 
John Henry Newman (1801-1890), especially in his Idea of a Univer- 
sity and the Apologia pro Vita Sua, the latter of which is one of the 
most profoundly human in the world's literature of spiritual biog- 
raphy, wherein he sought to reveal to his countrymen the great visible 
Church as an infallible guide descended from Christ and the apostles. 
John Ruskin (18 19-1899) marked an epoch in art criticism in his 
Modern Painters, the first volume of which appeared anonymously in 
1843. He began the work in defense of Turner; but in successive 
volumes he broadened the scope of his task to include a championship 
of modern painters in general, and to develop a philosophy of art. 
According to the view which he worked out, art is a true manifestation 
of the temper of the artist and a reflection of the spirit of his age. In 
the Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin contributed greatly to stimu- 
late a new Gothic revival. Toward the end of his life he turned 
toward questions of economic and social reform, problems into which 
he sought to infuse the breath of idealism. Gifted with an exquisite 
sense of beauty, with a consuming moral enthusiasm and a style of 
singular eloquence and richness, he performed, in spite of inconsis- 
tencies and occasional petulance, signal service in elevating artistic 
criticism from a mere question of professional technique, as well as in 
unlocking treasures hitherto hidden from the common man. Thus 
Carlyle, Arnold, Newman, and Ruskin were, each in his peculiar way, 
preachers to their generation. 

Victorian Poets. Tennyson, Browning, and Swinburne. — Alfred 
Tennyson (1 809-1 892), the reigning poet of the Victorian Age, suc- 
ceeded Wordsworth as poet laureate in 1850. He began to publish 
short lyrics as early as 1827 ; but it was years before he showed inde- 
pendence of his youthful models, Byron, Scott, and Moore, after which 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 733 

he produced some pieces of striking individuality and rare beauty. Be- 
tween 1847 and 1859 appeared the longer poems which established his 
reputation — The Princess, In Memoriam, Maud, and the Idylls of 
the King. Tennyson's distinctive merit is his perfection of form. 
Voicing the conventional thought and ideals of Victorian society, he 
was an upholder of well-ordered harmony against individual caprice, 
and whenever he approached the tragic, it was in a spirit of repose- 
ful melancholy rather than of passionate revolt. His further limi- 
tations are his lack of dramatic fire, his elaboration of the obvious 
and commonplace, and his surfeit of " linked sweetness long drawn 
out." Almost more than any other poet, he has suffered from 
the defects of his qualities ; since many of his most ineffective 
of beautiful poems are most popular. Robert Browning (181 2- 
1889) was his opposite in almost every respect. Though he could 
write with simplicity and exquisite melody, he was, both in phrasing 
and in the structure of his verse, all too often crabbed and obscure. 
On the other hand, he had the dramatic genius which Tennyson lacked, 
and is without a rival among the poets in his ability for interpreting in 
verse the spirit of music and painting. A student of life in all its as- 
pects, he showed an insatiable curiosity for probing into the farthest 
recesses of human motives and mastering the complexities of the mind 
and soul. Much in his writing that is difficult at first sight becomes 
clear to the patient reader, and almost invariably rewards serious effort. 
Pauline, his first poem, appeared in 1833 ; Paracelsus first attracted 
the attention of the discerning, while Sordello is the most inscrutable 
of his productions. Among his longer works are : Pippa Passes, A 
Blot on the 'Scutcheon, and A Soul's Tragedy, and his marvelous The 
Ring and the Book. In 1846 Browning married Elizabeth Barrett, 
the first woman poet of high distinction since Sappho. Algernon 
Charles Swinburne (183 7-1909), a devotee of pagan beauty, showed, 
particularly in his earlier work, a temper of revolt against convention 
and propriety which shocked the majority of his contemporaries. 
None have excelled him in power of word music or in mastery of the 
varied forms of poetical technique, and, especially in Atalanta in Caly- 
don, he showed a rare gift of reproducing the spirit of the Greek drama. 
However, notwithstanding a few signal achievements, the poetic drama 
in the Victorian Age never recovered the ascendancy which the novel 
had begun to usurp in the previous century. 1 

1 The Pre-Raphaelite Movement, which began about 1848, was primarily 
artistic rather than literary in its inception, a protest against the conventionalism 
bound to result from the following of any master, even Raphael, the "prince of 
painters." Nevertheless, it owed much to Newman's revival of ecclesiastical 



734 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Novelists. — Before Scott had closed his labors, two novelists 
had appeared on the scene, who, though they continued to write accept- 
able works for half a century, were soon overshadowed. Disraeli was 
the creator of the political novel. Beginning in 1826, with Vivian Grey, 
which made a sensation by its brilliancy and audacity, he concluded 
with Endymion in 1880, though Coningsby and Sybil, in which he at- 
tacked the social and political system of the dominant Whigs and ad- 
vocated his peculiar system of Tory democracy, are perhaps his most 
important productions. Of little excellence as pure literature, his 
books furnish invaluable pictures of the public men and problems of 
his time. Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-1873), later Baron Lytton, 
was an author of unusual versatility, who wrote society, philosophical, 
scientific, indeed, all sorts of novels and plays as well. While the Last 
Days of Pompeii and the Last of the Barons are among the most popu- 
lar stories, Pelham and My Novel have more merit. The Lady of 
Lyons and Richelieu are still produced on the stage. Lord Lytton made 
the most of his great talents, but missed the goal which is only attained 
by genius and sincere conviction. 

Dickens and Thackeray. — In 1836 appeared the Sketches by Boz 
and the first installment of Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens (181 2- 
1870). The long series of his novels which followed are familiar in 
every household, and probably have been more widely read than those 
of any other writer in the English-speaking world. The hardships of 
his early life which brought him in contact with the people, his early 
training as a journalist, and his love for the stage explain his power of 
appealing to the masses, his facility, and his dramatic instinct. Dur- 
ing the past generation there has been a tendency to belittle his title 
to fame. His faults are patent enough to the critical reader : his humor 
is largely obvious and extravagant caricature, dwelling much on " ex- 
ternal oddities," his pathos is often " shallow and overwrought " ; his 
situations are frequently artificial and theatrical ; he was wanting in 
penetration, and his characters are, as a rule, merely personified traits. 
On the other hand, he was a keen observer who could describe vividly 
what he saw and tell a story of absorbing interest. He had a genius for 
depicting the tragic and the terrible, his fun, in spite of all that has 
been said against it, is wholesome and captivating, and his characters 
live in the memory. Finally, and who would want to achieve more, 
his genial optimism has brought joy to millions of humankind. It has 

and religious symbolism, and had an important influence in stimulating mystical 
romantic poetry of a medieval type. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the guiding spirit 
of the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood," was a poet as well as an artist, and pro- 
duced verses of haunting beauty, such as the Blessed Damozel. 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 735 

been said that Dickens brought good out of evil, and that Thackeray 
brought evil out of good. Though this is hardly fair to Thackeray, 
the two great masters were in striking contrast. William Makepeace 
Thackeray (1811-1863) who began by picturing unscrupulous adven- 
turers, later selected his scenes and characters from high life or from 
the upper middle classes. Caring little for external nature, he was 
strong in the analysis and portrayal of character, dwelling on the faults 
and weaknesses of society and of individuals ; but, if he was cynical 
on the surface, he was a generous-minded, big-hearted man, who de- 
fined humor as " wit tempered with love," who could appreciate noble 
traits, and show a wealth of pity and tolerance for even the least edify- 
ing of those whom he felt called upon to depict. Less widely popular 
than Dickens, he has always made a stronger appeal to the thinking 
reader. Besides his inimitable satiric pictures of a life in his own day, 
he produced in Henry Esmond one of the greatest historical novels in 
the English language ; he drew a racy sketch of the four Georges, and, 
in his English Humourists, he has made the literary world of the eight- 
eenth century live again before our eyes. 

Bronte and Eliot. — Charlotte Bronte (181 6-1 85 5), the most fa- 
mous of three gifted sisters, is chiefly known for Jane Eyre, a novel of 
intense power and passion, but characterized by unrealities of detail 
due to her limited experience of life. Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), 
who wrote under the name of George Eliot, was a woman of wide knowl- 
edge both of life and books. In her first novels she reproduced, with 
graphic fidelity, the scenes and folk of her own countryside, and enliv- 
ened her serious problems with touches of fine humor. As her work 
progressed, she overdeveloped her inclination for psychological analysis. 
Adam Bede, the Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner show her at her 
best, yet, even in these early productions, she keeps in the foreground 
her great lesson that dire consequences attend the disregard of the 
moral order. 

Minor Novelists. — Among numbers of minor novelists some have 
produced work well worth reading by subsequent generations. Charles 
Lever wrote rollicking tales of Irish and military life during the era of 
the Napoleonic wars. Captain Marryat, a naval officer, produced 
after his retirement from active service, in 1830, a series of breezy sea 
stories which are not only entertaining, but valuable as a reflection of 
the author's actual experiences. Charles Kingsley was a many-sided 
man, among other things a Christian socialist and an exponent of mus- 
cular Christianity, who began by writing on contemporary problems, 
turning later to history and historical fiction. Westward Ho, a glori- 
fication of the Elizabethan seamen, is perhaps his best novel, while his 



736 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Water Babies is one of the most famous children's stories in the lan- 
guage. Charles Reade started as a dramatist, but came to devote 
most of his energies to stories exposing social abuses. The Cloister 
and the Hearth, in which he ventured into historical fiction, ranks as a 
masterpiece. Mrs. Gaskell, in Mary Barton and other works, took up 
the cause of the poor in the manufacturing districts, but, from the 
literary standpoint, is remembered chiefly for Cranford, an exquisite 
picture of life in a secluded English village. Anthony Trollope was 
amazingly industrious and businesslike, reproducing what he saw 
with the fidelity of a photographer and with almost equal absence 
of imagination; but his realistic descriptions of the clerical life 
in the cathedral city of " Barchester " are, in their way, dis- 
tinct achievements. Wilkie Collins still retains a hold on the 
lovers of weirdness and mystery. A period which could pro- 
duce Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, to say nothing of such 
a long list of writers of second rank, has certainly been supreme in 
the age of the novel. 

Later Victorian Novelists. — While it is too early to estimate the 
importance of most recent novelists, three stand out sufficiently to 
merit attention. George Meredith (1828-1909) published the Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel, one of his best-known novels, as early as 1859, the 
same year in which Adam Bede saw the light : yet he should be grouped 
with the later generation, for he outlived his contemporaries, and, 
owing to his obscurity and his daring manner of portraying life, he re- 
ceived only belated recognition. It is true that he was incapable of 
constructing an absorbing coherent plot, and his style is often as per- 
versely difficult as that of Browning; while this latter fault was 
due in some degree to the complex and baffling human problems with 
which he chose to deal, it prevented him from making the universal 
appeal reserved for supreme geniuses. On the other hand, few English- 
men have equaled him in epigrammatic power ; he had a wonderful 
gift for subtle analysis ; he described nature lovingly and superbly ; he 
delineated the life of the English upper classes with fascinating skill, 
and, at the same time, equaled Shakespeare and George Eliot in his 
faculty for creating peasants who could talk in their own tongue. 
Thomas Hardy (born 1840) resembles Meredith in his love of nature, 
and he has reproduced with artistic fidelity the scenes and peoples of 
his native Wessex ; but his conviction that the irony of circumstance 
makes sport with human endeavor most often renders him harrowing 
to read. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), handicapped during 
much of his life by a malady which killed him prematurely, showed 
himself a prince of story tellers and narrated his entrancing tales in a 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 737 

style of exquisite if rather overconscious art. He may prove, as some 
have prophesied, the herald of a new romanticism. 1 

Philosophy. — Among the many philosophical thinkers of the 
Victorian Era two are perhaps most important from the historical 
standpoint — John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) and Herbert Spencer 
(1 820-1 903). Mill, who had a soul above the mechanical train- 
ing given him by his father, was active in many fields. He was 
the last and greatest economist of the " orthodox " school which 
developed from Adam Smith, and his Principles of Political Econ- 
omy long remained the standard work on the subject; he wrote 
a suggestive essay On Liberty, in which he sought to solve the prob- 
lem of the relation between the individual and the laws of Society 
and the State ; he was a pioneer in the movement for the enfranchise- 
ment of women ; and was an interpreter of positivism 2 and the science 
of sociology, both of which originated with the Frenchman Auguste 
Comte (1 798-1 867). In his Logic, Mill marked the greatest advance 
since Bacon, providing, what Bacon did not, a philosophical method 
for scientific reasoning ; in other words, he taught — what was pecul- 
iarly valuable in an age of scientific discovery — the method of gen- 
eralizing from the facts and then verifying by deduction from known 
laws. Spencer published, in 1855, his Principles of Psychology, based 
upon the evolutionary standpoint, a very notable fact, since the book 
appeared four years before Darwin's Origin of Species. In i860 he 
issued the prospectus of his System of Synthetic Philosophy, " in which, 
beginning with the first principles of knowledge, he proposed to trace 
the progress of evolution in life, mind, society and morality." This 
he did in a long series of volumes, starting with First Principles in 1862. 
His great service was to introduce the principle of evolution into the 
varied subjects with which he dealt, and — though here he was not 
completely successful — to investigate the laws which underlie life and 
thought, and then group them into a synthetic or unified form. 

Historical Scholarship. — This period marks an amazing advance 
in historical method and research, though Thomas Buckle failed in his 
effort to construct a philosophy of the subject. The History of Greece 
by George Grote is a monument of learning, which, notwithstanding 
bias in favor of Athenian democracy and the fact that it has been super- 

1 Richard Blackmore (1825-1900) in Lorna Doone and Joseph Henry Shorthouse 
(1834-1903) in John Inglesant have each created a work of enduring merit. Rud- 
yard Kipling (born 1865) has produced verse of striking force and originality, with 
a strong Imperialistic bent, and has written tales which throw a flood of light on 
India and the Anglo-Indian military and civil life. 

2 The positivist philosophy devotes itself to a description of scientific phenomena. 

3B 



738 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

seded in parts by more recent investigations, still remains a classic. 
Most notable, however, has been the progress in the study of English 
history, especially in the early period. The enthusiasm for freedom, 
manifested in and stimulated by the Reform Bill, led to a new interest 
in the Anglo-Saxon period — regarded as a golden age of liberty which 
Norman absolutism destroyed. While others preceded him, the first 
significant pioneer work was John Kemble's The Saxons in England, 
1849. Meantime, scholars had begun to edit and print the original 
sources and, before long, a body of materials became available which 
challenge comparison with those of any other country in Europe. 
Among those who have written on the subject, only the most prominent 
names can be mentioned — Freeman, Stubbs, Maine, Pollock, and 
Mailland in the medieval, and Froude, Gardiner, Lecky, and Walpole 
in the modern period. 

Darwinism. — In science and practical applications " the advance 
made during the reign of Queen Victoria has been greater in many ways 
than the advance made from the beginning of civilization to that time." 
Among the landmarks of progress three stand out preeminent — the 
establishment of the doctrine of evolution; the extension of the use 
of steam, particularly in transportation; and the applications of 
electricity. The former has fundamentally transformed man's whole 
attitude toward the origin and growth of life. Evolutionary as distin- 
guished from creationist philosophy is as old as the Greeks, while bio- 
logical evolution, in the general sense of the descent of one species from 
another, was by no means a new idea, but it was only the long and 
patient experimental studies by Charles Darwin (1 809-1 882) which 
placed it on a sound scientific basis and resulted in its final acceptance. 
He made clear the causes of biological evolution by showing that dif- 
ferent species of plants and animals, " instead of being each separately 
created," are evolved from lower types by means of " natural selec- 
tion " in the struggle for existence; in other words, there is a " sur- 
vival of the fittest " 1 due to a process of continuous adaptation. Dar- 
win began his special investigations in 1837, which were first completely 
set forth in his Origin of Species in 1 859.2 His views were bitterly 

1 This term was coined by Herbert Spencer and adopted by Darwin, who used 
it interchangeably with "natural selection." 

2 During the previous year Alfred Russel Wallace sent a paper from the Malay 
Islands anticipating the results to which Darwin had been working for so many 
years. Happily, both men thought more of the advancement of human knowledge 
than self-glorification, so Darwin published a preliminary paper, together with 
Wallace's, and the latter got credit to the full extent of his contribution. Darwin, 
however, had started first, and had based his findings on an incomparably wider and 
more thorough research. 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 739 

opposed by the more conservative scientists, and by those who fancied 
that their theological beliefs were endangered by the conflict between 
the theory of evolution and the Biblical story of the Creation as popu- 
larly understood. Gradually, however, the substance of the Darwin- 
ian doctrine has won its way to general acceptance, though certain 
features of it, such as the inheritance of acquired characteristics, have 
been modified by later investigators. The final victory was due, in a 
considerable degree, to the championship of Thomas Huxley, who 
combined, to an unusual extent, the faculty for original research with 
the gift of popular exposition. 

Progress in Other Sciences. — Not only did the period witness 
signal progress in most of the older sciences — geology, for example, 
threw much new light on the antiquity of the earth and of plant and 
animal life — but many newer ones, such as paleontology and anthro- 
pology, were marked off as distinct fields of investigation. Notable 
gains were made in medicine and surgery, chiefly through the discovery 
of anesthesia, the germ theory of disease, and antiseptic surgery. Ether 
was an American discovery, but shortly afterwards, in 1847, a Scot, 
(later Sir) James Y. Simpson, brought chloroform into use. John 
Tyndall, a natural philosopher who devoted much attention to physics, 
and who exercised an even wider influence than Huxley in the popular- 
ization of science, was a pioneer in the germ theory of infection and 
in recognizing the value of sterilization. Dr. Joseph Lister (later 
Lord Lister) did wonders in reducing the fatality of surgical operations 
by the introduction of antiseptic bandaging. Physics and chemistry 
made amazing strides, both in pure science and in practical applica- 
tions. Among the latter, the invention of photography has an impor- 
tant place ; for it has become an indispensable ally to investigators in 
the most diverse fields from astronomy to history. The Frenchman 
Daguerre first perfected, in 1839, the process of obtaining pictures 
through the chemical action of sunlight on a metallic plate ; but the 
daguerreotype was soon superseded by the modern photography, in 
which William Talbot led the way. His process of taking impressions 
on sensitized paper has in turn been improved upon by the use of the 
dry plate. 

Electricity. — The discovery by an Italian, Alessandro Volta, of the 
voltaic pile, in 1800, followed by his cell, first provided the battery for 
producing continuous supplies of electricity, and the applications 
which followed have had an incalculable effect on modern civilization. 
Michael Faraday (i79i-i867),who has been described as the " prince 
of investigators," did so much for pure and applied science that only 
a special treatise could do him justice. Most significant in connection 



740 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

with the present subject was his work on magnetic induction, which 
prepared the way for the dynamo — the machine now employed for 
generating electricity in large quantities. His discovery of benzene, 
in 1 82 5, has led to important commercial results, especially in the prep- 
aration of aniline dyes. William Thomson (1824-1907), later Lord 
Kelvin, was a remarkable combination of pure scientist and inventor, 
whose investigations extended over the field of mathematics, heat, 
electricity and magnetism. 

Electrical Inventions and Appliances. — As practical realities, all the 
epoch-making electrical inventions and appliances date from the Vic- 
torian Era. The first attempt to construct an electric telegraph was 
made by one Lesage in 1774 ; but it was more than half a century be- 
fore a series of lines was actually in operation, and not till 1844 that 
the first public system in England was installed — soon superseded 
by the system of the American, Morse, first employed on a line of wires 
running from Washington to Baltimore. Meantime, experiments in 
submarine telegraphy had been made, and a line between Dover and 
Calais was established in 185 1. The first attempt to lay an Atlantic 
cable was made six years later; after two successive failures, in 1858 
and 1865, the momentous task was finally achieved in 1866, for which 
infinite credit is due to Cyrus Field in securing finances, and to the 
scientific genius of Lord Kelvin. 1 As the result of a long series of ex- 
periments, arc-lights were first made to work successfully in 1849, though 
Sir Humphry Davy had discovered the voltaic arc years before. The 
incandescent lamp, which traces its beginnings to a process devised 
about 1841 by an Englishman, De Moleyns, only came to be generally 
employed toward the end of the last century. With the perfecting 
of the dynamo, within the recent generation, electricity has taken 
possession of the field as a motive force, and as a means of com- 
munication and illumination, while it bids fair to supersede steam 
for purposes of transportation on railways. 

Steam Railways and Navigation. — The development of railways 
in Great Britain since the opening of the Manchester and Liverpool 
railway, in 1830, has been enormous, the tremendous significance of 
which can only be realized in view of the numbers of men employed 
for the manufacture of all the vast equipment which goes to make up 
a railroad, in the structure of the car shops, in the mines for supplying 
the materials for fuel ; in view of the increased facilities for emigration 

1 The telephone was due chiefly to American enterprise, while the perfection of 
wireless telegraphy has been the signal achievement of the Italian Marconi, who 
began his experiments in 1895, and, in 1899, first succeeded in sending messages 
across the Channel from Boulogne to Dover. 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 741 

and for carrying laborers to and fro ; and in view of the creation of 
new markets and the possibilities of transporting food supplies. The 
development of steam navigation is equally striking. In 1819 the 
first steamship crossed the Atlantic from Savannah to Liverpool, and, 
going partly under sail, occupied thirty-two days. It was not till 1838 
that the whole distance was covered under steam, when the time was 
cut to fifteen. Now the fastest steamers have made a record of less 
than five, exclusive of the delays in entering and leaving port. Origi- 
nally the ships were side-wheelers built of wood ; the first iron steam- 
ship was built in 1821 and the first iron screw propeller in 1838 ; but 
screw propellers and iron construction were not generally adopted till 
the early sixties. Iron gave place to steel about twenty years later. 
The invention of the compound and then of the triple-expansion engine 
made it possible to build both larger and swifter vessels, which, added 
to the employment of artificial refrigeration and cold storage, has in- 
creased greatly the comfort of travel. Nowadays sailing ships are 
little used except for slow coasting trade, and the effect of steam 
navigation in supplying food and raw materials, opening new markets, 
stimulating emigration and industry, as well as in consolidating the 
British Empire, has been almost incalculable. 1 

Agricultural Progress. — The period of agricultural distress follow- 
ing the Napoleonic War continued for some years. When prices dropped, 
the cultivation of poor land ceased to be profitable, consequently land- 
lords who had mortgaged their estates to extend their farming opera- 
tions went under, together with tenants working on borrowed capi- 
tal. Naturally, a further result was misery and discontent on the 
part of the agricultural laborers. However, shortly before Victoria's 
accession, conditions began to improve, and, with brief intervals of 
depression, the improvement continued until about 1876. This re- 
newed prosperity was due to a combination of many causes. For one 
thing, the revival and growth of manufactures, following the tempo- 
rary slump during the first years of the peace, created a new demand 
for food supplies and enhanced their price ; then the Poor Law of 1834 
lifted a great burden from the rural taxpayer, while railways and 
steam navigation made possible the transportation of perishable 
products and made new markets accessible. At the same time, the 

1 During the first half of the century, British naval constructors lagged behind the 
merchant marine in the introduction of improvements. Since then they have 
forged steadily to the front in iron and steel construction for hulls, in the intro- 
duction of armor-plate, in the introduction of breech-loading guns worked by 
machinery, and in the employment of torpedoes, torpedo boats, and submarines, 
so that, on the eve of the World War, the British fleet was not only nearly double 
that of any other afloat but was well abreast of the times in modern equipment. 



742 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

establishment of joint stock banks provided capital for improvements 
in which science came to the aid of practice. Chemical and geological 
knowledge was applied in the treatment of the soil, and artificially 
prepared fertilizers were adopted with excellent results. Improved 
methods of draining proved a special boon to farmers in the clay soil 
districts, where lands had been under water during the rainy season 
and hard-baked during times of drought. Intensive farming, which 
aimed to get the greatest amount out of land already under cultivation, 
began to take the place of extensive tillage, which consisted in merely 
extending the area to be worked. The ambition of wealthy manu- 
facturers and merchants to become landed proprietors had the two-fold 
effect of bringing much capital into agriculture and of raising the price 
of land. Finally, in this period, great improvements were made in 
agricultural machinery, when new types of plows, harrows, cultivators 
as well as mowing machines and steam threshing machines came to be 
employed. 

Decline in Agriculture. — The repeal of the Corn Laws, in 1846, 
ushered in a brief interval of depression, due partly to an influx of cheap 
food, partly to the breaking of the monopoly, and, more especially, to 
the fear of the British farmer that he could not compete with the over- 
sea producers. Conditions, however, soon righted themselves. The 
laborer was helped by the migration, following upon the potato famine, 
of large numbers of Irishmen who had hitherto come to England dur- 
ing the harvest season and had brought down wages by their competi- 
tion. On the other hand, the influx of money from the discovery of 
gold in California (1848) and in Australia (1 850-1 851) raised prices and 
thus aided the landlord and tenant farmer. The third quarter of the 
century was, on the whole, perhaps the most prosperous period in the 
annals of British agriculture. About 1876 came a new decline from 
which the farmer has never recovered. A chief cause was the increas- 
ing competition from overseas, due to the development of the steam- 
ship and the invention of refrigerating processes, which has made it 
possible to convey meat in cold storage from the extreme ends of the 
world. For a time these foodstuffs were absorbed by the growing 
population ; but a bad harvest in 1875, followed by a worse one in the 
" Black Year," 1879, led to extra heavy imports of corn and wheat 
from abroad, to the withdrawal of much land from tillage, and to a 
consequent rural exodus. Of late, efforts have been made to bring the 
laborer back to the soil. In 1875 a bill was passed to arrange for 
compensation to agricultural tenants for unexhausted improvements. 
Then, from 1 882 to 1 890, a series of allotment Acts were passed to enable 
the local authorities to acquire lands to rent in small parcels. This 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 743 

was followed, in 1892, by the Small Holdings Act, empowering County- 
Councils to obtain lands and advance sums of money to those who de- 
sired to purchase holdings of fifty acres or under. But none of these 
measures proved effective ; for in fifteen years not more than 850 acres 
were sold. A new Small Holdings and Allotments Act of 1907, au- 
thorizing the County Councils to take lands at the current price with 
or without the consent of the large owners, has proved more successful, 
and within three years nearly 100,000 acres were allotted to small cul- 
tivators. At present, plans are under discussion to improve the hous- 
ing conditions of the agricultural laborer, to raise his wages, to secure 
deserving tenants against eviction, and to increase still further the 
number of peasant proprietors. In view, however, of the experience 
of the eighteenth century and the increasing competition from abroad, 
it is doubtful whether the small farmer could maintain himself. 

Decorative Art. — Fertile as was the Victorian age in science and 
invention, it was, in the early period at least, barren of anything except 
bad taste in decorative art. Mansard roof houses, furnished with 
glaring carpets, ghastly marble statuary, and ornately carved black 
walnut are unlovely monuments of this period of philistine ugliness. 
Those who strove for better things were for years as voices crying in 
the wilderness. About the middle of the century Ruskin began to 
preach the gospel of a revival of Gothic art and ornament. The Pre- 
Raphaelite Brotherhood, not long after its foundation, extended its 
scope to include architecture, costume and household decoration as 
well as painting and literature. Toward the end of its short life it be- 
came an " aesthetic affectation," making for itself a sort " of religion 
out of wall paper, old teapots and fans " ; but it began as a healthy 
plea for simplicity and beauty against conventional unsightliness and 
set standards, which survived its own organization. Much was due 
to William Morris (1834-1896), one of the Brotherhood, and perhaps 
the most versatile man with brain and hand of any of the century. He 
painted pictures, he produced large quantities of excellent prose and 
verse, he went in for printing and bookbinding, and, in i860, he started 
a firm for supplying stained glass, tapestries, carpets, and household 
furniture. Everything was designed by men of artistic instinct and 
training, and, so far as possible, fashioned by hand. This wholesome 
revival of the traditions of the medieval arts and crafts has had an im- 
mense influence. Artistic taste has continued to improve, although 
an inevitable obstacle to its general diffusion has been the necessity 
for cheap machine-made goods. 

Painting and Music. — The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was 
founded by John Everett Millais and Holman Hunt, though D. G. 



744 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Rossetti became the great spiritual influence, and Edward Burne- 
Jones was a famous member. During the five years of its organized 
activity it formed the nearest to a school of painting that England has 
ever had. Outside the Brotherhood there are many names that might 
be mentioned ; for example, George Frederick Watts, who, during the 
course of his long life, painted superb portraits of most of the celebrated 
Englishmen of his time. While it is too early to estimate, the general 
opinion is that the greatest artists since Constable and Turner have 
been D. G. Rossetti, Millais and James McNeill Whistler, an American 
who spent his later life in London. Owing to the influence of Handel, 
the oratorio has been the form of musical composition which has since 
appealed most to the mass of Englishmen. And if we except Michael 
Balfe (i 808-1 870) whose Bohemian Girl has enjoyed a long and general 
popularity, the uniquely excellent comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, 
and the fine compositions of Sir Edward Elgar (born 1857), the British 
have contributed practically nothing in the way of operatic or orches- 
tral productions. 

Industrial and Social Progress. — Two striking facts in the material 
progress of Britain during the period since the first Reform Bill are 
the increase of population and the increase of wealth. The number 
of inhabitants of the United Kingdom has increased from 24,392,485 
to 45,365,599, while the total wealth of the country, estimated on the 
basis of income, has swelled, during the interval, from about £225,- 
000,000 to £2,140,000,000. In other words, wealth has increased 
about four times as fast as the population. Unhappily, however, this 
increase has been most unevenly distributed. From the beginning of 
the century to 1842 there was a startling growth of poverty and crime, 
then came a striking change for the better. Curiously enough, 
machinery was to a large degree responsible, both for the wretchedness 
and for the prosperity which followed it. Other factors were the repeal 
of the Corn Laws, which steadied and cheapened the price of food ; the 
legislation regulating conditions of employment, especially in the case 
of women and children ; and the improvement of sanitary conditions 
in the populous towns. Although conditions are still deplorable 
enough, the English laborer, what with better housing, better lighting, 
better industrial regulations, and better wages, is far better off than 
his fathers before him. Friendly societies, trade-unions, cooperative 
stores and banks, and building societies are at once indications of and 
further aids to thrift and progress. At the same time, the growing 
consumption of meat, tea, sugar and tobacco indicates a rising stand- 
ard of comfort. This, together with a steady upward movement of 
prices, especially during the last decade, has resulted in the acute 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 745 

problem that the incomes of large numbers of the working classes have 
ceased to be sufficient to meet their expenditures. Hence a serious 
agitation has developed to secure a minimum wage. However, the 
chief exploitation and suffering exists among the unskilled, for the 
skilled labor, by virtue of increasingly fine organization, has made 
comparatively good terms for itself ; but of late, particularly since 
the War, there has been a growing demand for a basic reconstruction 
of the whole relation of labor to capital. 

Evidences of Progress. — In spite of the present crisis, and in spite 
of panics and unrest, strikes and chronic unemployment, a survey Of 
the period, as a whole, shows encouraging evidences of progress. 
Old privileges of the favored and disabilities of the unfavored classes 
have been removed one by one : abolition of sinecures, cessation of 
compulsory Church rates, disestablishment of the Irish Church, and 
destruction of the monopoly of the East India Company are among the 
examples of the former, while concessions to the Roman Catholics, 
Nonconformists and aliens are instances of the latter. Although 
there are still acute differences between labor and capital, the break- 
ing down of the aristocratic barriers has tended to bring the classes 
closer together ; philanthropy has become more general, and educational 
and social settlements have been established in the crowded quarters 
of large cities. The temperance revival of Father Mathew (1790- 
1856), while mainly concentrated in Ireland, was not without effect in 
England, while cheaper tea has contributed, at least in some degree, 
to check the excessive use of alcohol. The establishment of a system 
of public education, the introduction of cheap light in the form of 
petroleum, gas, and electricity, and the spread of the newspaper — 
not an unmixed blessing — has done much to develop a more intelli- 
gent and happy body of citizens. 

Improvement of Prison Conditions. — The increase of humanitari- 
anism may be seen in all directions, in the abolition of the slave trade 
and slavery, the prohibition of flogging in the army and navy, the 
discontinuance of the press gang, the suppression of transportation, 
the protection of dumb animals, and the improved treatment of debt- 
ors and convicts. At the beginning of the century, in spite of the 
efforts of Howard, prison conditions were still frightful. Yet he had 
not labored in vain, for his work was taken up by Elizabeth Fry and 
by other worthy persons. As a result of the organized work of the So- 
ciety for the Improvement of Prison Discipline which they founded, 
the Gaol Acts of 1823-1824 were passed, providing for improved sani- 
tation and cleanliness, and individual cots or hammocks for prisoners. 
Also, regular labor, prison chaplains and schoolmasters as well as 



746 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

matrons for the women were recommended. Following a parliamen- 
tary report of 1835 the principle was established of separate cells in place 
of the old practice of herding debtors, hardened criminals and even 
lunatics promiscuously together. More recently, the custom has been 
adopted of short terms of solitary confinement, followed by penal 
servitude or associated labor on public works ; followed again by re- 
lease on ticket of leave or probation. Notwithstanding the increase 
of population, the convictions for crime have been decreased from 
19,927 in 1840 to 11,987 in 1910. 

Condition of Women. — Although much remains to be done, the 
lot of women has greatly improved since the beginning of the century. 
Within the memory of those yet living, the education of girls was largely 
in the hands of governesses and private schools, with the emphasis 
on deportment, music, and other accomplishments. Memory was 
trained at the expense of the reasoning faculties, and teaching was given 
out of " elegant abridgements." Since the middle of the century, 
however, their instruction has approximated to that of boys, and higher 
education has been opened to them. In 1867 women were admitted 
to examinations at the University of London, in 1881 at Cambridge, 
and in 1884 at Oxford, while colleges for women have been founded 
at both the ancient Universities. In 1837, the Ladies' Gallery was 
opened in the new House of Commons. Six years before, the first 
petition for votes for women was introduced, and, in 1867, John 
Stuart Mill made a strong plea for giving them the privilege. Soon 
after, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was founded, 
and during the next forty-five years, some seven bills were introduced 
— which got as far as the second reading — for extending the vote, 
usually to widows and spinsters. About 1905 a militant agitation 
developed, led chiefly by Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughters. Their 
excesses had the effect of alienating many who might have been won 
over by more rational methods, but the splendid patriotism of women 
in the War has resulted in securing them a somewhat restricted suffrage. 

Recent Labor Legislation. — Since the Reform Bill of 1867 there 
has been a marked increase in labor legislation. This includes an 
Act of 1878 simplifying, systematizing and extending all the factory 
legislation of the century, and an Act of 1901 which replaced it, and 
which is still in force. 1 More striking, perhaps, are the recent measures 
providing for social insurance. Bismarck initiated this policy in Ger- 
many, between 1881 and 1891, as a supplement to coercion in checking- 
social unrest, and, in one form or another, it has since been adopted by 

1 It includes also a series of Acts relating to mines and collieries, passed at inter- 
vals between 1872 and 1906. 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 747 

the leading Continental countries. In England the Liberal party, 
which came to power in December, 1905, has taken notable steps in 
the same direction. These have been embodied mainly in three great 
measures — The Workingmen's Compensation Act, 1906; the Old 
Age Pension Act, 1909; and the National Insurance Act, 191 1. For- 
merly employees or workmen could, in case of accident, only recover 
damages by lawsuit — a long and costly process — and they had to 
prove too that the employer was directly responsible. Beginning in 
1880 a series of Acts were passed shifting the burden of proof on the 
employer. The first of the series applied only to specified dangerous 
trades ; but the Act of 1906 renders the employer liable for compensa- 
tion — except in cases of " serious and wilful misconduct " — to all 
manual laborers, and practically all other employees, including domes- 
tic servants, who receive a salary of less than £250 a year. 

Old Age Pensions and Insurance against Sickness and Unemploy- 
ment. — The Old Age Pension Law of 1909 — an outcome of nearly 
thirty years of struggle — provides that every person, male or female, 
over seventy years of age, who has been a subject for twenty years and 
a resident of Great Britain for twelve, shall receive a pension, provided 
his or her income is less than £31 10s.; even paupers are included, 
though, as soon as the pension begins, poor relief ceases. Strictly speak- 
ing it is not an insurance scheme, since the recipients contribute 
nothing. The Act of 191 1 has a twofold aim : " to provide for Insurance 
against loss of Health and for the Prevention and Cure of Sickness, and 
for Insurance against Unemployment." By the terms of the first part, 
all wage earners between sixteen and sixty-five who have less than £26 
annual income from property are obliged to insure against sickness. 
Under the supervision of Government insurance commissioners, the 
scheme is administered through " approved societies," either existing 
Friendly Societies 1 or new bodies specially created. The funds are 
subscribed partly by the workers, partly by the employers and partly 
by the State — though, if the wage of the former is below a certain 
minimum, his quota falls on the employer — and the benefits include 
weekly payments during sickness, free medical attendance, and free 
treatment at hospitals to be supplied by the State. The second part 
of the Act is in the nature of an experiment for meeting the problem 
of chronic unemployment. 2 So far, it applies only to two trades — 

1 These are voluntary benefit or "mutual assurance" societies, some of which 
date back at least to the eighteenth century, and may possibly even trace their 
descent to the medieval gilds. 

2 Something had already been accomplished by the Labor Exchange Act of 1909, 
according to which England was divided into eleven districts, each including a 



748 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the building and the engineering — which include nearly 2,500,000 
out of a total of 15,000,000 workmen. As in the case of the sickness 
insurance, the employees, the employers, and the State all contribute ; 
the benefit is limited to a maximum of fifteen weeks, and is withheld 
in case the unemployment is due to misconduct, to strikes or lockouts. 
These socialistic features of the Liberal program were due mainly 
to Mr. Lloyd George — who became Chancellor of the Exchequer 
in 1908 — and are being watched with great interest. 

The Cooperative Movement. Trade-Unionism. — The coopera- 
tive movement in England, of which Robert Owen was the practical 
founder, started as an effort to check the evils of competition. His 
ideas, first of a benevolent cooperation between employers and work- 
men and then of State organized communities in which the employer 
had no place, came to nothing ; but an indirect result, not contemplated 
by him, was the organization of cooperative shops. The first to achieve 
practical success was started at Rochdale in 1844. Since then many 
other ventures have been undertaken. While attempts at coopera- 
tive production have been, generally speaking, failures, cooperative 
shops for distribution have had a considerable if not sensational 
success, and, in course of time, their members formed a national or- 
ganization and began to hold annual congresses and to go into the 
wholesale business. The trade-unions of various trades began to 
hold annual congresses in 1870 — before Acts of 1871, 1 1875 an ^ I ^76 
gave them legal status. In 1899 a General Federation of Trade- 
Unions, affiliated with kindred organizations on the Continent, was 
created " to supplement the activities of the Trade-Union Congress." 
Although, in 1901, in the famous Taff Vale Case, the House of Lords 
struck a blow at trade-unionism, by a decision " that the members of 
the trade-union are liable singly and collectively for acts committed 
under the auspices of the Union," this decision was offset to a large 
degree by the Trades Dispute Act of 1906 — to which the Peers gave a 

number of labor exchanges, which serve to bring employers and laborers together, 
and, if necessary, advance money to pay the latter's traveling expenses to the 
place where work is offered him. 

1 In 1867, as a consequence of outrages committed against workmen in Sheffield, 
and to a less degree in Manchester, a Royal Commission was appointed to inves- 
tigate the whole subject of the Trade-Unions, held to be responsible. It was 
shown that they labored under serious disabilities. Some of the judges, at least, 
were of the opinion that any combination to raise wages was a " conspiracy and a 
misdemeanor" at common law. Hence the discontent of the Unions; but it was 
found that, while one murder and many cases of intimidation could be traced to 
their members, only twelve unions out of sixty in Sheffield, and only one in Manches- 
ter were involved. So, by the Trade-Union Act of 187 1, their legality was formally 
recognized. 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 749 

reluctant assent — ■ protecting the funds of trade-unions. By the Os- 
borne Judgment of 1909 the Lords decided that it was illegal to employ 
moneys raised by compulsory contributions to pay the salaries of the 
members representing them in Parliament. This, again, has been 
offset by a measure of 191 1 providing for the payment of all members 
of the House of Commons at £400 a year. 

Laborite Political Parties. — Meantime, labor had sought to 
reinforce the work of the trade-unions by organizing into political 
parties. Two labor candidates stood for Parliament in 1868, and, 
six years later, when the number had risen to thirteen, two were elected. 
In 1893 the Independent Labor Party was organized for the purpose, 
not only of demanding State intervention in the interests of labor — 
for procuring an eight-hour day for example — but with the avowed 
socialistic aim of establishing " collective ownership and control of 
the means of production, distribution and exchange." Since these 
views proved too radical for the rank arid file of the British workmen 
the Trade-Union Congress, in 1899, took steps which resulted in the 
organization of a group in the Commons prepared " to cooperate with 
any party which for the time being may be engaged in promoting 
legislation in the direct interest of labor." In 1906 this organization 
took the name of the Labor Party, and succeeded in electing twenty- 
nine out of fifty-one candidates, whereas the Independent Laborites 
elected seven. Although the number of labor representatives has 
since declined somewhat, the Liberal party depends upon them, to- 
gether with the Irish Nationalists, for a majority. 

Socialism. — English socialism was for a long time identified with 
Robert Owen, who enunciated his views nearly twenty years before 
the word was coined in 1835. His work, however, had no direct result, 
and the system owes its development to Continental thinkers. About 
the middle of the century, however, a school of Christian Socialists 
was founded in England by Charles Kingsley, Thomas Hughes and 
others as a protest against the prevailing laissez-faire. While Christian 
Socialism, as a formal movement, had a short life, it planted seeds 
which have never died. In 1864 an International Workingmen's 
Association was formed in London by the combined efforts of British 
trades unionists and Continental refugees. But, as a whole, how- 
ever, the British workmen have never been socialists, though the 
depressions from 1875 to 1880 had the effect of accentuating socialistic 
tendencies, of developing a new unionism more aggressive and less 
individualistic than the old. The Democratic Federation, dating 
from 1 881, and its reconstitution two years later, under the name 
Social Democratic Federation, marks the modern stage. Yet 



750 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

neither the Federation, nor the Social Democratic party which it 
formed, has been very successful, and both have, to a large degree, 
been forced to act with the non-socialistic laborites. Recently, how- 
ever, syndicalism — a revolutionary trade-unionism originating in 
France about 1906, and aiming to control production and distribu- 
tion — has been a force in general strikes. The Fabian Society, 
founded in 1883, consists of educated men, including many liberals, 
who hold moderate theoretical socialistic views, and directs its appeal 
mainly to the upper and middle classes. While out-and-out socialism 
has made little headway, socialistic principles have gained increas- 
ingly even in the Conservative and Liberal parties, and have shown 
their strength in the legislation outlined above, undertaken by the 
latter party since 1906. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

General Conditions. Traill, Social England, VI, to 1885. J. Ashton, 
When William IV was King (1896). Brodrick and Fotheringham, ch. XX. 
Low and Sanders, ch. XX. Walpole, History of England, III, ch. XII; 
IV, ch. XVII ; VI, conclusion. History of Twenty-five Years, I, ch. I. 

Constitutional and Legal. May, Constitutional History. Maitland, 
Constitutional History, period IV, an excellent brief survey. D. J. Medley, 
Manual of English Constitutional History, a valuable work of reference, not 
chronological. E. Jenks, Short History of the English Law (191 2), especially 
period IV. Sir R. W. Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution (3 vols. 
3d ed., 1907). A. V. Dicey, Law and Public Opinion (8th ed., 1915), very 
suggestive. W. Bagehot, The English Constitution (2d ed., 1872). S. Low, 
The Governance of England (1904). L. Courtney, The Working Constitution 
of the United Kingdom (1901). T. F. Moran, The Theory and Practice of 
the English Government (1908). D. D. Wallace, The Government of England 
(1917). The three latter are good brief accounts. A. L. Lowell, The 
Government of England (2 vols., 1910), the standard work on the subject. 

Social and Industrial. Usher, Industrial History (bibliography following 
text, XIV-XVII). Porter's Progress of the Nation (ed. F. W. Hirst, 1912). 
McCulloch, Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation (1860- 
1872). R. H. Palgrave, Dictionary of Political Economy (1894-99). T. 
Mackay, History of the English Poor Law (1904). S. and B. Webb's Trade 
Unions (1894, rev. ed. 1919) and Industrial Democracy (1897). G. J. 
Holyoake's History of Co-operation (2 vols., rev. ed. 1906). J. F. Wilkin- 
son, The Friendly Society Movement (1891). Sir E. W. Brabrook, Provident 
Societies and Industrial Welfare (1898). Sir E. F. Du Cane, The Punishment 
and Prevention of Crime (1885). F. A. Ogg, Social Progress in Contemporary 
Europe (19 12), which contains much on England, is an excellent com- 
pendium. C. Hayes, British Social Politics (1913), valuable for legislation 
since 1906. Percy Alden, Democratic England (191 2). G. H. Perris, Indus- 



VICTORIAN AND POST-VICTORIAN ENGLAND 751 

trial History of Modern England (1914). A. E. Metcalfe, Woman' s Effort 
(1917), "a chronicle of British women's fifty years struggle for citizenship." 
See also Cambridge Modern History, XII, ch. XXIII (bibliography 957- 
966). R. E. Prothero, English Farming Past and Present (1913). S. 
Smiles, Lives of George and Robert Stephenson (1868). Acworth, The Rail- 
ways of England (1900). 

Science and Literature. G. J. Romanes, Darwin and After Darwin 
(1892-7). F. Darwin ed., Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (3 vols., 
1887). O. Lodge, Pioneers of Science (1893). A. R. Wallace, The Wonderful 
Century (1898). R. Garnett, Heroes of Science (1885). G. P. Gooch, 
History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (1913). Cambridge Modern 
History, XI, ch. XIII (bibliography 934-936), XII, ch. XXVI (bibliography 
972-976). Moody and Lovett, English Literature. Taine, English Litera- 
ture. McCarthy, Our Own Times, II, ch. XXIX, IV, ch. LXVII. E. C. 
Stedman, Victorian Poets (1903). Mrs. Oliphant, A Literary History of 
England in the Nineteenth Century (1882). W. L. Cross, The Development 
of the English Novel (191 1). J. A. Buckley and W. T. Williams, A Guide 
to British Historical Fiction (191 2). For further references on the novel see 
Moody and Lovett, 451. For literature in general see ch. XLIX above. 

The Church. Wakeman, ch. XX. F. W. Cornish, The History of the 
English Church (pts. I and II, 1910). Walpole, History of England, V, XXI ; 
History of Twenty-five Years, IV, XIX. Newman, Apologia pro Vita Sua 
(1864-5), frequently reprinted. R. W. Church, The Oxford Movemeni 
(1891). W. Ward, William George Ward and the Catholic Revival (1893). 
B. Ward, The Sequel to Catholic Emancipation, 1820-1850 (2 vols., 191 5). 
S. L. Ollard, A Short History of the Oxford Movement (1915). P. H. Brown, 
Scotland, III. W. L. Mathieson, Church and Reform in Scotland, 17Q7- 
1843 (1918). H. J. Laski, Studies in the Problems of Sovereignly (191 7), 
relates to the Oxford and Free Kirk movements. For further 1. ferences 
see Low and Sanders, 506-507. 



CHAPTER LVI 

SKETCH OF THE REIGN OF EDWARD VII (1901-1910) AND OF THE 
EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE V (1910-1914) 

Edward VII. Accession and Character. — Albert Edward, who, 
in his sixtieth year, ascended the throne as Edward VII, 22 January, 
1901, was a man of unusual social gifts and worldly experience, genial, 
tactful and fond of seeking acquaintances from the most diverse walks 
of life, though he was punctilious in matters of ceremony on state 
occasions. He spent short terms at various universities; but the 
rigid training to which his parents subjected him disinclined him for 
serious study ; books made little appeal to him, and in later life he 
rarely read anything but the newspapers. Furthermore, he was a pa- 
tron of sport, particularly of the turf, he was an enthusiastic supporter 
of the theater and the opera, as well as the leader of fashion in London ; 
indeed his love of pleasure and his bohemian tastes aroused serious 
criticism at times on the part of the soberer folk ; but the emergence 
of Queen Victoria from her seclusion, the swelling tide of Imperialistic 
sentiment, together with his own good nature and public spirit, made 
him a popular figure years before he became King. While he was 
an ardent promoter of philanthropic causes and a ready and gracious 
speaker at dedications of public buildings and other ceremonious 
occasions, unhappily his mother excluded him from serious political 
activities; it was not till Gladstone's last Ministry (1892-1894), that 
Cabinet business was regularly communicated to him, and he did 
not have unrestricted access to foreign dispatches until Salisbury took 
the Premiership for the third and last time in 1895. But if he was not 
studious or systematically trained, he was observant; he gathered 
stores of information from those with whom he conversed and retained 
what he heard. He was widely traveled : he visited, at one time or 
another, the chief possessions of the British Empire, and was accustomed 
to spend parts of each year in Continental capitals and watering places. 
In his close association with foreign Sovereigns and foreign ambassa- 
dors he learned much that was officially kept from him ; but he knew 
little and cared little for routine matters domestic or foreign. 

752 



EDWARD VII AND EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE V 753 

First Measures of the New Reign and the Retirement of Salis- 
bury. — King Edward opened Parliament in person, 14 February, 1901, 
and read the speech from the throne, formalities which the late Queen 
had for years dispensed with. The Commons voted him a Civil List 
of £470,000, an increase of £85,000 over that which Victoria had re- 
ceived ; but the step was bitterly opposed by the Radicals, the Labor- 
ites and the Irish Nationalists. Another important measure, carried 
in this session, was a Royal Titles Bill adding to the royal style " all 
the British Dominions beyond the Seas." x Salisbury, who was in 
failing health, resigned, 1 1 July, 1902, and died 22 August of the follow- 
ing year. He was succeeded by his nephew, Mr. Arthur Balfour. 

Chamberlain and "Tariff Reform" 2 (1903). — On 15 May, 1903, 
Chamberlain raised the issue of Tariff -Reform in a speech at Birming- 
ham advocating preferential tariffs and reciprocity in Colonial trade, 
and retaliation, where necessary, in the case of foreign countries. In this 
and subsequent speeches he argued that the whole fiscal situation had 
changed since the days of Cobden and Bright, that Great Britain's 
exports were decreasing and her imports increasing. He did not pur- 
pose to tax raw materials, but advocated moderate duties on corn, 
flour, meats, dairy produce (counterbalanced by reductions on tea, 
coffee, cocoa, and sugar), and foreign manufactures. In this way, 
he insisted, Great Britain would have a means of bargaining with the 
Colonies and supplying them with the products of industries which 
they had not yet started ; of preventing other countries from dumping 
their products on British shores ; and of increasing the revenue. 
Business depression, lack of employment, the deficit due to the Boer 
War, and the growing enthusiasm for Colonial unity all told in his 
favor, though his opponents argued that the country needed cheap 
food and that it was impossible to increase the customs revenue and 
keep out imports at the same time. His resignation from the Cabinet 
was announced, 18 September, and he was followed into retirement by 
various free-trade Unionists, of whom the Duke of Devonshire was the 
most influential. Apparently Mr. Balfour was ready to go too far 
for them and not far enough for Chamberlain. He was inclined to 
favor the principle of retaliation, without taxing food, but declared that 
the question of preferential tariffs could not be raised during the 
present Parliament. 

1 The full royal title was: "Edward VII, by the Grace of God, of the United 
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of all the British Dominions beyond 
the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India." 

2 This meant an alteration of the tariff in the direction of protection instead of 
in the direction of free trade, as is the usage in the United States. 

3C 



754 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Army Reform (1904). — The miscarriages of the South African War 
and the defects in military training and equipment which it mani- 
fested., forced the Government, in 1904, to undertake a comprehensive 
scheme of army reform. A Defense Committee was constituted, with 
the Prime Minister as its head, to deal with estimates and questions 
of larger military policy ; and at the same time the Commander-in- 
Chief was replaced by an Army Council made up of four military 1 
and three Parliamentary members, headed by the Secretary of State 
for War. 

The Fall of the Balfour Ministry (December, 1905). — The Balfour 
Ministry was steadily growing weaker. While the Prime Minister 
persisted in treating the tariff question as irrelevant and staving it 
off, the Liberals were gaining new strength. Besides the tariff, which 
had caused a split in the Unionist ranks, there were various other 
difficulties confronting the Government. For one thing, the Non- 
conformists were opposing the Education Act of 1902 by a policy of 
passive resistance, withdrawing their children from the denomina- 
tional schools and refusing to contribute financial support. Also, the 
Ministry had aroused great dissatisfaction by sanctioning ordinances, 
prompted by the South African mine owners, for admitting Chinese 
coolie labor into the Rand, a proceeding which strengthened the con- 
viction that the Boer War had been waged in the interests of the capi- 
talists. In view of all these and other difficulties, — for instance the 
fact that many had begun to tire of ten continuous years of Conserva- 
tive rule, — -Mr. Balfour tendered his resignation, 4 December, 1905, 
counting, it is said, on the hope that the Liberals would not be 
able to form a Cabinet and that his party would be recalled to 
power. 

A New Liberal Regime (1906). — On 5 December, 1905, Sir Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman was summoned to form a Cabinet. The main 
features of the Liberal program were: the exclusion of Chinese 
labor from the Transvaal ; the emendation of the Education Act in the 
interest of the Nonconformists; the reduction and national control 
of liquor licenses; and sweeping measures for social and industrial 
betterment. One of the first steps was to stop the further importation 
of Chinese into South Africa. Among the other important measures 
carried during the next two or three years were the Trades Disputes 
Bill, the Workmen's Compensation Bill, the Small Holdings Bill and 

1 They were : the Chief of the General Staff ; the Adjutant-General ; the 
Quartermaster-General, and the Master-General of the Ordnance. Responsible 
to the Array Council, but separate from it, was the Department of Inspector- 
General of the Forces. 



EDWARD VII AND EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE V 755 

the Old Age Pensions Bill already described. On the other hand, a 
Licensing Bill and an Education Bill — the latter twice — were de- 
feated in the House of Lords. Thus the Liberal party with an over- 
whelming majority in the Lower House was able to carry only part of 
its program owing to the Conservative strength which invariably 
dominates the Peers, a situation which led Sir Henry Bannerman to 
declare in October, 1907, that the constitution of the Upper House 
would have to be altered. However, he did not live to finish the fight ; 
owing to a breakdown in health he resigned 5 April, 1908. 1 

Mr. Lloyd George's Budget of 1909 and the War against the 
House of Lords. — The King summoned Mr. Asquith to assume the 
Premiership. In the reconstructed Cabinet, Mr. Lloyd George be- 
came Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his revolutionary Budget 
forced the issue. Confronted, in consequence of increased naval 
estimates and the expense of the new social industrial legislation, with 
a deficit of £16,500,000, he proceeded, in April, 1909, to frame a Budget 
based on principles very unpalatable to the Opposition, who insisted 
that a tariff was the only reasonable means of enhancing the revenue. 
Chief among his recommendations were : increased duties on the lux- 
uries of the masses, notably liquor and tobacco ; taxation of the excess 
of wealth by an increase of the income tax and the succession duties, 
and a higher rate for unearned incomes, from which he anticipated a 
revenue of over £7,000,000 ; heavy rates on monopolies, such as liquor 
licenses ; and — what roused a furious outcry — on unearned incre- 
ments of land, that is, the increase in site-values of unoccupied and 
uncultivated lots. In general, the aim of the Budget was to meet the 
deficit to a large degree by " shifting the burden of taxation from the 
producers to the possessors of wealth." The Finance Bill, based upon 
it, was introduced, 26 May, and was hotly attacked on the ground that 
it discriminated unfairly, that it struck at security of property, and 
that it would drive capital from the country. Still, it finally passed 
the Commons, 5 November, but was rejected by the Lords, on the 
30th, until the judgment of the country could be obtained — a step 
which Mr. Asquith denounced as " a wanton breach of the settled 
practice of the Constitution." 2 In January, 1910, an appeal was made 
to the country in a general election, when the issue was fought on the 
Budget, the abolition of the veto power of the House of Lords, and 
the introduction of a scheme of Home Rule ; for the Irish National- 
ists had agreed to support the Government on condition that the power 

1 He died 22 April. 

2 While right of the Peers to amend money bills had been given up in 1678, they 
had never abandoned their right to veto, though they had long ceased to exercise it. 



756 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of the Peers be so reduced that they would be unable to defeat a new 
measure of Home Rule. The result of the election showed a striking 
falling off in the Liberal majority. 1 

The Parliament Bill of 191 1. — On 10 May, three resolutions passed 
the House of Commons. (1) Henceforth, the Lords should have no 
right to veto a money bill ; if, in one month, they refused their assent 
it should, nevertheless, go to the King for his signature, the power to 
determine whether any particular measure was a money bill being left 
to the Speaker. (2) Any measure, not a money bill, passing the Com- 
mons in three successive sessions might, in spite of the veto of the House 
of Lords, be submitted to the King for his approval, provided that, 
in each instance, it had been submitted to the Peers one month 
before the close of the session, and provided that two years had 
elapsed since its first introduction. (3) The maximum life of a Parlia- 
ment should henceforth be five years instead of seven. A conference 
between the party leaders, which continued at intervals from 17 June 
until 10 November, failed to arrive " at any decision" ; then, in the 
Lords, on the second reading of the Parliament Bill, based on the three 
resolutions of 2 1 April, the Marquis of Lansdowne moved — as an 
alternative to the Government scheme — a plan for reconstructing 
the Upper Llouse by making it more representative, reducing the Con- 
servative majority, and slightly curtailing its powers. As a conse- 
quence, Parliament was dissolved 28 November and a general election 
was held for the second time within a year, with the Lansdowne res- 
olutions as the official program of the Unionist party. The result 
was a net gain of only two seats for the Liberal coalition. 

On 21 February, 191 1, Mr. Asquith introduced his Parliament Bill 
into the House of Commons, and although Lord Lansdowne intro- 
duced a new alternative scheme in the House of Lords, the Parlia- 
ment Bill passed the Upper House with amendments, 20 July; but 
Mr. Asquith refused to accept the amendments, and announced that 
he had, before the election, secured the assent of the King to create 
a sufficient number of Peers to carry the Bill if necessary. As a result, 
the Bill, without amendments, passed the Lords 10 August, and re- 
ceived the royal assent 18 August, in spite of the " Die-Hards " or 
" Forwards " led by Lord Halsbury, who had pledged themselves to 
die in the last ditch. On 24 August the Commons voted to pay their 
members salaries of £400 a year. 

The Accession of George V (6 May, 1910). — King Edward did not 
live to see the end of the struggle. He died 6 May, 19 10, and his 

1 The final returns were: Liberals, 275; Labor party, 40; Nationalists, 71; 
Independent Nationalists, 11; Unionists, 273. 



EDWARD VII AND EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE V 757 

eldest surviving son was proclaimed, 9 May, as George V. 1 In 
the winter of 1911-1912 the new King and Queen paid a visit to India 
for the purpose of holding a coronation Durbar. 

Labor Disturbances (1911-1912). — At home, the opening years 
of the reign of George V were disturbed not only by a grave constitu- 
tional crisis but by serious labor troubles. Distressingly frequent in 
recent times, the year 191 1 proved to be an " unprecedented year 
of strikes," which reached the dimensions of a veritable epidemic 
during the weeks immediately following the coronation. The strikes 
in 1912 were less in number than in 1911, but, considering the number 
of persons involved and the loss of time and money, they were more 
serious than in any previous year in English history. Worst of all 
was the coal strike, occasioned by the demand for a minimum wage 
for all underground workers. On 26 February, the first miners went 
out in Derbyshire, and by 2 March all the mines in the country, except 
a few private ones, were idle. At length the Government stepped 
in and passed a Minimum Wage Bill, 29 March, providing for joint 
district boards under an independent chairman chosen either by 
agreement or by the Board of Trade. When Mr. Asquith, however, 
refused a demand that a minimum wage should be fixed in all cases 
at 2s. for boys and $s. for men, a majority voted against resumption 
of work ; but a conference of miners' delegates, 6 April, declared for 
resumption, since a majority of two thirds was necessary to call a 
strike. After the Easter holidays most of the men were back. The 
strike had involved 1,000,000 mine workers and 500,000 from allied 
industries, and, from the time when the first men went out, had lasted 
six weeks. This, and the failure of the London dockers and transport 
workers to bring about a general strike in July, struck a hard blow at 
syndicalism. On the whole, in spite of these labor disturbances the 
year was one of prosperity in trade, and higher wages and shorter 
hours were very general. 

The Revival of Home Rule and the Ulster Opposition. — The 
leading features of the Liberal program were Llome Rule, the dis- 
establishment of the Welsh Church, 2 and the abolition of plural voting, 
or the introduction of the principle of " one man, one vote." The 
prospect of Home Rule aroused a determined opposition in Ulster 
led by Sir Edward Carson, who soon attained such an ascendancy 
in the Province as to gain the name of " King Carson." On 11 April, 

1 On 31 August, 19 10, after a long struggle, an Accession Declaration Act was 
passed which shortened the form of the oath, and removed the phrases offensive 
to Roman Catholics. 

2 A subject which had been under discussion for some years. 



758 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

191 2, the Home Rule Bill was introduced into the House of Commons. 1 
Although objections to the financial provisions of the Bill were pointed 
out and the advantage Ireland would have over Wales and Scotland, 
the chief criticism was directed against the injustice to Ulster, and 
motions were made to exclude the four northeast counties of Antrim, 
Armagh, Down, and Londonderry, which are prevailingly Protestant. 2 
In August, it was announced that the men of Ulster would pledge 
themselves to a solemn covenant for united resistance to Home Rule 
and for refusal to accept it if it were set up. A series of great demon- 
strations culminated with the signing of the Covenant at Belfast, 28 
September. On 12 July, 1913, there was another demonstration 
attended by 150,000 Ulstermen and a resolution was adopted to 
resist Home Rule by force of arms if necessary ; the enrollment of the 
Ulster volunteers began, and, by December, the numbers had reached 
100,000. All through July and August Sir Edward Carson went 
through Ulster making speeches, declaring that, in the event of the 
Home Rule Bill passing, Ulster would set up a provincial government 
and refuse to pay taxes to the Parliament at Dublin. In December 
the Government prohibited the importation of arms; but it was a 
question whether the proclamation was legal, and certainly it was not 
effective in preventing gun running. Mr. Winston Churchill suggested 
a possible scheme of federation, but the Cabinet were under pledge 
to the Nationalists to carry a Home Rule Bill before considering any 
form of modification ; the only alternatives seemed to be to take a 
referendum which the Unionists desired, or to run the risk of civil 
war if the Home Rule Bill were pressed to a final passage. 

The Passage of the Home Rule Bill (1914). — On 10 February, 
1 9 14, Parliament met. Among the chief features of its program 

1 It provided for a Parliament in Ireland consisting of a Senate of 40 members 
and a House of Commons of 164 members. Ulster, which was to have 59 members, 
was to be safeguarded by the provision that the Irish Parliament could not make 
any law "either directly or indirectly to establish or endow any religion or pro- 
hibit the free exercise thereof, or give any preference, privilege or advantage or 
impose any disability or disadvantage on account of religious belief or religious or 
ecclesiastical status." Furthermore, the Irish Parliament could not legislate on 
peace or war, the navy, army, foreign relations, trade outside Ireland, coinage or 
legal tender. The executive was to remain vested in the Sovereign or his repre- 
sentative, and 42 members from Ireland were to be elected to the British House of 
Commons. 

2 The Province of Ulster consists of 9 counties, or 1 1 including Belfast and Derry 
City. It returns 17 Home-Rulers and 16 anti-Home-Rulers, and, if the large and 
wealthy city of Belfast were excluded, the Roman Catholics would be in the ma- 
jority. They have a strong minority in the four Protestant counties. The problem 
of exclusion is complicated by the Roman Catholic minority in the four counties and 
the Protestants scattered through the rest of Ireland. 



EDWARD VII AND EARLY YEARS OF GEORGE V 759 

were : (1) a Bill for Irish Home Rule which had already passed in two 
successive sessions and been vetoed by the Lords ; (2) a Bill for the 
disestablishment of the Welsh Church which had had the same history ; 
(3) a Plural Voting Bill ; and (4) reconstruction of the House of Lords. 
The Home Rule Bill continued as the center of interest. The Unionist 
Opposition, realizing that they could not defeat the measure in the 
House of Commons, determined to force a dissolution, to secure an 
appeal to the country by a referendum or to intimidate the Liberals 
by threats of civil war in Ulster. On 2 March appeared a Declaration 
signed by twenty English subjects headed by Earl Roberts, to the 
effect that " the claim of the Government to carry the Home Rule 
Bill into law without submitting it to the judgment of the nation, is 
contrary to the spirit of our Constutition," and that, if it was so passed, 
they would hold themselves " justified in taking or supporting any 
action that may be effective to prevent it being put into operation, 
and more particularly to prevent the armed forces of the Crown 
being used to deprive the people of Ulster of their rights as citizens of 
the United Kingdom." Five days later, Mr. Asquith laid a compro- 
mise scheme before Parliament, providing that, before the Bill became 
operative, the parliamentary electors in each of the nine counties of 
Ulster might decide by vote whether their county should be excluded 
from the arrangement for a term of six years. Mr. Bonar Law, 
leader of the Conservatives, said that if the Government insisted on 
the excluded counties coming in at the end of six years the Unionists 
could not accept the plan. He again urged dissolution and submis- 
sion of the whole question to the electors, though he later intimated 
that he would agree to leave the question of the term of the exclu- 
sion to a future Parliament. Then came a crisis. On 20 March the 
Government issued an order that was interpreted by several of the 
army officers as a step toward the coercion of Ulster, and they forth- 
with resigned. Colonel Seely, the Secretary for War, at once assured 
them that they had misunderstood the order, which was purely a 
precautionary measure, and that the Government had no intention 
of using the suppression of disorder to crush political opposition to 
Home Rule, whereupon they withdrew their resignation. The 
Radical Press at once raised the cry of " army dictation." Colonel 
Seely, taking the blame on himself, offered his resignation ; Mr. Asquith 
refused to accept it, but repudiated the guarantee, and the Army 
Council framed an order to the effect that, henceforth, no officer was 
to ask for or receive any assurances " as to orders which he may be 
required to fulfill." This led to the resignation of various officers 
including Sir John (now Viscount) French, the Chief of the General 



760 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Staff. Colonel Seely offered his resignation a second time, which 
the Prime Minister now accepted, assuming the Secretaryship for War 
himself. Sir Edward Grey threw out a hint that within six years 
some form of federation might be devised, while John Redmond, the 
leader of the Irish Nationalists, who had previously insisted that there 
should be no " watering down " of the Home Rule Bill, declared 
that he was ready to exert himself to placate Ulster and to do all pos- 
sible to reach an honorable settlement. On 25 May the Home Rule 
Bill passed the House of Commons by a majority of 77 ; it was 
signed by the King, 17 September, but, in consequence of the Great 
War in which Great Britain had in the meantime been plunged, it 
never went into operation. 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

R. H. Gretton, A Modem History of the English People, 1880-igio (2 vols., 
1913), rather journalistic and Liberal in sympathy, but clear and vivid. 
Slater, The Making of Modern England, is helpful. Among the biographies 
relating to this period are: H. Spender, Herbert Henry Asquith (191 5): 
W. M. Short, The Mind of Arthur James Balfour (1918) ; Frank Dilnot, 
Lloyd George, The Man and his Story (191 7) ; St. J. G. Ervine, Sir Edward 
Carson and the Ulster Movement (191 5), and W. B. Wells, The Life of John 
Redmond (1919). The International Year Book, The Annual Register, The 
Statesman's Year Book, and Whitaker's Almanack are very useful. See also 
Dictionary of National Biography, Supplements I and II. For Ireland, see 
chs. LIV and LX, for foreign affairs ch. LVIII. 



CHAPTER LVII 

A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 

Greater Britain. — One of the most significant features of the nine- 
teenth century has been the growth of the British Empire, which, 
in iqii, included an area of 13,153,712 square miles and 434,286,650 
inhabitants — nearly one quarter of the land surface of the globe 
and slightly more than a quarter of the world's population. The 
Imperial dominion comprises territories in Europe, Asia, Africa, 
America, and Oceania, territories that may be grouped under two main 
heads, depending upon their form of government. 1. The Self- 
governing Colonies — Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zea- 
land, and the Union of South Africa — which, although nominally 
under Governor-Generals sent out by the King, are really governed 
by Ministers responsible to elected assemblies. While the Crown 
has the power of veto, it is ordinarily exercised only when a Dominion 
measure is ultra vires, or in conflict with some Imperial law or interest, 
and Dominion assemblies do, without interference, control their own 
military forces, impose taxes and duties, and even forbid the immi- 
gration of certain classes of British subjects. 1 2. Crown Colonies. 
These may be subdivided into three classes. In the first, there is an 
approximation to responsible government, for they have a legislative 
assembly, wholly or partly elected, in addition to an executive council 
appointed by the Crown or the Governor of the colony. The Bahamas, 
Jamaica, Mauritius, and Malta fall within this group. In the next 
category, both the legislative and the executive councils are appointed. 
Ceylon and the Straits Settlements have this form of government. 
Finally, there are possessions, like Gibraltar and St. Helena, where 
both the executive and legislative powers are vested in the Governor 
alone. Outside the categories of Self-governing and Crown colonies 
are various possessions or quasi-possessions. India is a dependency 
under a special form of government to be described in another con- 

1 Aside from the veto, the only control exercised by the Home Government is in 
foreign policy and certain judicial appeals. 

761 



762 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

nection. Then there are Protectorates — for example, British East 
Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, and, since 19 14, Egypt, which retain their 
native government under British supervision and control. Finally, 
there are spheres of influence, where other foreign countries agree 
not to acquire territory or ascendancy, either by annexation or treaty. 
The Growth of the Empire. — With the exception of Canada and 
portions of India, the greater part of the present Empire was only 
acquired or settled during the last century. For a generation and more 
after the loss of the American possessions and the publication of the 
Wealth of Nations, the view persisted that the monopoly of the Colonial 
market and trade should be in the hands of British manufacturers 
and merchants, though the Colonies were favored in various ways 
at the expense of other countries — by differential duties and by the 
exclusive right of supplying the Mother Country .with goods not pro- 
duced by the native British. Aside from the political evil of alienating 
the subjects beyond the seas, this system was attended with two 
economic disadvantages: it fostered the growth of industries more 
naturally adapted to other countries, and raised the cost for the con- 
sumer. Some attacked the system; then, after its exclusiveness 
had been modified by Huskisson in the early twenties, and particularly 
after the troubles with Jamaica in the succeeding decade, 1 others 
came to question the worth of foreign possessions at all. Until well 
past the middle of the century, leading statesmen of the laissez-faire 
school were insistent on the desirability of limiting " our Colonial 
empire," while, on one occasion, in a burst of impatience, even Disraeli 
— who later did so much to popularize Imperialism — referred to 
the Colonies as " millstones about our necks." Meantime, however, 
the development of steam navigation began to alter the situation. 
Emigration was stimulated, and the value of the Colonies came to be 
realized as a refuge for redundant population, as an outlet for super- 
fluous capital, as a source of food and raw materials, and as a market 
for manufactured goods. The real beginning of the movement dates 
from 1 819, when the Government appropriated £50,000 " to send a 
few hundred laborers to Cape Town." About 5000 ultimately went. 
Many would have preferred the United States or Canada ; but the 
Government insisted on South Africa, partly because it did not want 
to send its subjects to a foreign country and partly because South 
Africa lay on the trade route to the East and because its climate was 
less rigorous than the Canadian. Later, although it advanced further 
small sums to emigrants, the Government ceased to dictate. As a 
result, the majority went to North America ; moreover, about the 
1 See above pp. 621, 663. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN* 763 

middle of the century a preference for the United States over Canada 
became peculiarly marked, owing to the desire of the Irish, driven from 
home by the potato famine and the events which followed, to settle 
outside the British dominions. In the meanwhile, Edward Gibbon 
Wakefield (1796-1862) who had sought a new home in the far-off 
Pacific where he might live down a reprehensible early career, had 
" helped to create a new enthusiasm for Empire " among the thinkers 
and statesmen of his native England. His views were briefly stated 
in his Letter from Sydney (1829), and afterwards elaborated in his Art 
of Colonization (1847). Largely through his efforts, and the men he 
influenced, a society was formed in 1830 for systematic colonization. 
Furthermore, a Canadian crisis led to a famous Report by Lord Dur- 
ham, containing an eloquent plea for the development of Colonial 
possessions, so far as possible on a self-governing basis, which greatly 
furthered the new movement. As a result of all these factors there 
began to develop, shortly after the middle of the century, an enthusi- 
asm for Imperialism which was first strikingly manifested at Victoria's 
Jubilee in 1887. Before proceeding to describe it more in detail, it 
might be well to consider briefly the course of events in the separate 
colonies during the century. 

The Canadian Problem (1 791-1837). — While the Mother Country 
succeeded in retaining her hold in Canada when the thirteen Colonies 
broke away, grave difficulties developed which came to a head in the 
beginning of Victoria's reign. The population there consisted of two 
sharply distinct elements. One was the original French stock — 
Roman Catholic in faith and bound by ancient racial traditions — 
which, under the Quebec Act of 1774, enjoyed freedom of worship and 
. the privilege of trial by French law in civil cases. The other element 
was made up of British emigrants, pushing, progressive, and chiefly 
Protestants. In 1791, Pitt carried the Quebec Government Bill which 
divided the country into two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada 
with the object of separating the British in the west from the French 
in the older eastern part — a measure that was opposed unsuccessfully 
by Fox, who was in favor of uniting rather than dividing the races. 
For each province the same form of government, on the English model, 
was set up — a governor, an executive and legislative council of life 
members, all appointed by the Crown, together with a representative 
assembly whose members were elected every four years. Since the 
inert French occupied much of the more desirable situation on the 
lower St. Lawrence and lay as a barrier between the newer settlements 
and the sea, 1 the British pressed in and succeeded in forcing into the 

1 Aside from certain areas settled by Imperial Loyalists. 



764 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

legislative council a number of their candidates, many of whom were 
professional politicians and agitators who fomented discontent. The 
French resented this intrusion ; moreover, they regarded as a partic- 
ular grievance the fact that one seventh of all Canadian lands was 
set apart for the maintenance of the Anglican clergy. 1 The crisis 
began to develop, when, in 1832, the legislative assembly of Lower 
Canada refused to grant money for the payment of the councilors, 
whom they regarded as British agents. 

The Canadian Revolt (1837). — For five years they continued to 
hold up supplies, while the executive authorities seized, for their 
salaries and other expenses, such moneys as they could get their hands 
on. The Assembly insisted on their rights to control the revenue 
and the public lands as well, and demanded further that the legislative 
council should be made elective. Finally, under the lead of Louis 
Joseph Papineau, they refused to carry on public business, and were 
declared dissolved. Stormy meetings of protest followed, and an 
attempt to arrest the chief malcontents resulted in armed outbreak, 
in 1837, which was not put down without bloodshed. 2 

Lord Durham's Mission (1838). — The Home Secretary carried a 
bill, in 1838, to suspend the constitution of Lower Canada and to send 
out a Lord High Commissioner "with full powers to deal with the re- 
bellion, and to remodel the constitution of both provinces." Lord 
Durham/ chosen for the post, was an advanced reformer, and a man 
of abilities and energy, but of a fiery and masterful temper, and wholly 
devoid of tact. His mission saved Canada, but at the cost of his 
own career. On his arrival, in May, 1838, he at once assumed the 
position of a dictator; he issued a proclamation in which, while he 
threatened extreme punishment for the rebellious, he invited the Col- 
onists to cooperate with him in devising a system of government suited 
to their needs. In spite of the fact that his original powers had been 
greatly reduced since his appointment, he next proceeded to launch 
a series of ordinances, proclaiming " a very liberal amnesty," with 
striking exceptions. He forbade certain leaders who had escaped, 
Papineau among the number, to return under pain of death ; further- 
more, he exiled to Bermuda others who were in custody. While his 
method was high-handed, his aim was just and merciful ; for he wanted 

1 These were the so-called "clergy reserves." In addition the Crown reserved 
another seventh, and much more was appropriated by influential jobbers. 

2 Although the disaffection spread to Upper Canada, where discontent — due 
to the facts that the council was not responsible to the legislature and that the 
government was in the hands of a few wealthy families — was fostered by republi- 
can sympathizers from across the border, the trouble did not attain serious di- 
mensions. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 765 

to carry on his work of reorganization free from hostile interference. 
Moreover, trusting in the righteousness of his intentions, he set aside 
the Council, and selected advisers chiefly from his own secretaries 
and other officials. The event "showed that he aimed to use his powers 
for the establishment of a liberal constitutional government ; but his 
dictatorial methods aroused a fury of opposition in Canada and in 
England, with the result that he was recalled and his Quebec ordi- 
nances were disallowed. 

Durham's Report and its Consequences. — Although his mission 
seemed a failure, it bore enduring fruit in his famous Report, printed 
in February, 1839, which " laid the foundations of the political success 
and social prosperity not only of Canada but of all other important 
colonies." Durham advised that, except in the matters affecting the 
relations between the Colonies and the Mother Country — such as 
foreign affairs, defense and the regulation of trade — the making and 
execution of the laws should be in the hands of the Colonists them- 
selves. All officials, except the Governor and his secretary, were to be 
responsible to the elected legislature. The " clergy reserves " were 
to be abolished. 1 Upper and Lower Canada were to be again united 
with an assembly representing both provinces. Furthermore, the 
other British North American Colonies might, with the consent of the 
Canadian Government, be admitted to the union. In short, the Dur- 
ham Report recommended not only representative but responsible 
government in internal affairs, reunion, and possible federation. In 
July, 1840, the Canada Government Bill, reuniting the two provinces, 
with a single legislature, passed through the British Parliament and 
was carried into effect the following year. Although his recommen- 
dation for a responsible Ministry was not incorporated into the law, it 
was adopted as a matter of practice in 1847. Constitutions on the 
Durham model were granted during the next few years to such British 
possessions as were capable of exercising the privilege in every quarter 
of the globe. In Canada, however, the united legislature, with French 
and British elements working at cross purposes, presented difficulties, 
with the consequence that a solution of the problem was sought in 
Durham's suggestion of a federation, an arrangement which would 
have the further advantage of strengthening the country against an- 
nexationist designs on the part of the United States, of which there had 
been a growing, though probably groundless fear. In 1867, by the 
British North America Act, the four provinces of Quebec (Lower Can- 
ada), Ontario (Upper Canada), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were 

1 In 1854, with reservation for vested rights, they were turned over for educa- 
tional purposes. 



766 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

combined into a federal union under the name of the Dominion of 
Canada. The formal executive was vested in the Governor-General 
appointed by the Crown, who was in turn to choose Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernors for the federated provinces. The real working executive, how- 
ever, was vested in a Prime Minister, responsible to a federal Parlia- 
ment consisting of a senate, composed of members appointed for life by 
the Governor- General, and a representative legislature. Each province 
was to have also a ministry and a legislature for local concerns. 1 

Relations with Great Britain. — -In 1846, Great Britain adopted 
Free Trade, and three years later repealed the Navigation Laws which 
forbade foreign ships from trading to Colonial ports and also prohibited 
direct colonial trade with foreign countries. Henceforth, Canada, — 
and the other Self-governing Colonies as well, — was absolutely free 
in respect to its foreign trade policy, free to establish tariffs even against 
Great Britain, and, as a matter of fact, she finally adopted a protec- 
tive tariff on manufactures including those of the Mother Country. 2 
Except that she is formally under a Governor- General appointed by 
the Crown and cannot pursue an independent foreign policy, Canada 
is practically an independent State. With a population about one 
fourth French, problems of religion and language have caused inevitable 
friction, but her loyalty was strikingly manifested by the prompt and 
willing contingents which she sent to aid the British during the Boer 
War, and the recent great European War. 

Relations with the United States. — By the Rush-Bagot Conven- 
tion of 1 81 8 it was agreed that there should be no armed ships on the 
Great Lakes and no fortresses on the land frontier between the United 
States and Canada. The boundary line separating the two countries 
now extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a distance of over three 
thousand miles. This long undefended frontier, the longest in the 
world's history, is at once an indication and a further cause of the fun- 
damentally peaceful attitude of the two neighbors toward one another. 
Yet more than one point of difference has arisen requiring patient ad- 
justment. The Maine and Oregon boundary disputes were settled 
by the United States and Great Britain in 1842 and 1846 respectively. 
By an award of 20 October, 1903, a long-standing controversy regard- 
ing the Alaska boundary was at length decided. While the extreme 

1 British Columbia, including Vancouver Island, and Prince Edward Island joined 
the Dominion in 1871 and 1873 respectively. In 1870 the Dominion Government 
purchased the vast possessions of the Hudson Bay Company, out of which the new 
province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories were created in the same year. 
Part of the latter was carved into the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 
1905. Newfoundland alone still remains outside the Dominion of Canada. 

2 Great Britain, however, has for some years been favored by preferential duties. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 767 

claims of the United States were not recognized, the Canadians were 
disappointed of their hope of access to the sea in that region and their 
two delegates refused to sign. Although the British representative, 
Lord Alverstone, affixed his signature, the general feeling in England 
was that the United States had got the better of the bargain. On the 
other hand, an award at the Hague, September, 1910, adjusting the 
Atlantic fisheries dispute, was mainly in favor of Great Britain, though 
there were reservations in support of American interests. Further- 
more, the matter of trade relations has been a fruitful source of dis- 
cord. In 1854 Canada entered into a treaty with the United States 
providing for reciprocal free trade in natural products, an arrangement 
which was terminated by the United States in 1865, owing largely to 
resentment against the unsympathetic attitude adopted by the British 
Government during the Civil War. Canadian efforts to restore the 
old arrangements proved unavailing. The protected interests which 
grew up owing to the policy subsequently adopted, were greatly alarmed 
when a Liberal Administration under Sir Wilfrid Laurier negotiated 
an agreement with the United States, published 26 January, 191 1, 
providing for a substantially free exchange of natural, especially food 
products and for a mutual reduction of duties on manufactured goods. 
The arrangement was ratified by the United States Senate, 22 July; 
but, in a parliamentary election in September, the Laurier party was 
defeated and its reciprocity treaty rejected. The entrance, since then, 
of the two neighboring countries into the Great War for the preserva- 
tion of the democratic ideals which are their common heritage, fur- 
nishes a unique opportunity for a closer bond of fellowship in the future. 
Great Britain and the United States. — During the century of peace 
following the War of 181 2 inevitable differences, besides those in which 
Canada was involved, have arisen between Great Britain and the 
United States. Among the outstanding ones, the questions arising 
out of the Civil War and the Venezuela case have already been touched 
upon. Not only were these adjusted amicably, but, during the last 
half century, particularly since the impulse to democracy given by the 
Reform Bill of 1867, Anglo-American relations have grown increasingly 
satisfactory ; indeed, at the time of the Spanish- American War, Great 
Britain was our chief, almost our only European friend. Ten years 
later, following as far as possible the recommendations of the Second 
Hague Conference of 1907, the two countries concluded an arbitra- 
tion treaty, excluding, however, from compulsory arbitration sub- 
jects affecting the "independence" or " honor" or "vital interests" 
of the two countries or u the interests of third parties." The 
Treaty, which was for five years, was renewed in the spring of 1914, 



768 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

though there was a groundless fear on the part of certain United 
States senators that it might be invoked to force an arbitration of the 
vexed question of the Panama tolls. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 
19 April, 1850, had provided for the common use and neutral 
control of any canal constructed by the Nicaragua or Panama 
routes, and the British agreed not to make any settlements in Central 
America. This was superseded by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, 18 
November, 1901, by which Great Britain gave up all claims to any 
share in the construction or control of a canal from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, but on condition that the navigation be free to ships of 
all nations on equal terms. On 24 August, 191 2, a bill signed by Presi- 
dent Taft for the regulation of the Panama Canal, then nearing com- 
pletion, exempted from tolls American shipping engaged in coastwise 
trade. Regarding this as a violation of the spirit of the Hay-Paunce- 
fote Treaty, the British Government framed a protest which was pre- 
sented at Washington, 9 December, Sir Edward Grey suggesting that 
if the United States could not accept the British interpretation they 
should refer the matter to arbitration. The arbitration stage, how- 
ever, was never reached ; for, acting on a recommendation of President 
Wilson in a message to Congress, 5 March, 1914, it was voted, 12 June, 
to repeal the exemption clause, though with the proviso that the United 
States did not thereby relinquish any of its rights. 

The upheaval in Mexico following the overthrow of President Diaz, 
and the policy of " watchful waiting " adopted by President Wilson 
resulted, for a time, in a far greater strain on Anglo-American friend- 
ship. In January, 1914, the Spectator voiced the sentiment of many 
Englishmen when it declared that " if external force is used to restore 
order it must be by the United States alone," and complained that 
the President " deprecates anarchy and bloodshed, but neither stops 
them himself nor allows anybody else to stop them." As time went 
on, German intrigue contributed not a little to embitter the situation ; 
but wise moderation averted a possible rupture, and the Mexican im- 
broglio was dwarfed by vaster issues. It is to be hoped that it may 
straighten itself out, and that any surviving difficulties may be adjusted 
in the sage spirit of good will characteristic of recent Anglo-American 
relations. 

The Beginnings of Australia. — In a little more than a century there 
has grown up, in the southern hemisphere, a new Britain with an area 
equal to the United States, but with a population as yet no greater than 
that of the city of New York. The Venetian traveler Marco Polo 
(1 254-1324) refers to a land now generally believed to be Australia, 
though the name originated with the Spanish explorer, De Quiros, about 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 769 

1605. The Dutchman, Abel Tasman, discovered New Zealand about 
1642 and visited the island south of Australia which now bears his 
name, though he called it Van Diemen's Land, after the Governor of 
Java. More than a hundred years later, Captain Cook, with the mem- 
bers of an astronomical expedition, landed at Poverty Bay, New Zea- 
land, in 1769. After sailing around the islands, he proceeded to Aus- 
tralia, explored the southeastern coast, and named it New South Wales. 
The Spanish and the Dutch, who had been first on the ground, made 
no effort to found settlements, and the vast territories fell to the latest 
comers, the British. In 1 787-1 788, Captain Phillip was sent out with 
a shipload of convicts and founded a city at Port Jackson which he 
named Sydney. But conditions were hard, the convicts ignorant 
and intractable, and the real need was for men of agricultural expe- 
rience and capital. Tempted " with the promise of land, implements, 
and food," a few families began to come out, grants were also made to 
convicts whose terms had expired, as well as to some of the guards, 
and the free population increased slowly until New South Wales, as 
the new State was called, numbered, in 1821, nearly 40,000 inhabitants. 
Unfortunately, however, there was a great disproportion of men, and 
drunkenness was a fruitful cause of disorder. Meantime, the sheep- 
raising industry, which was to prove the main source of Australian 
prosperity, had been introduced, in 1791, by John MacArthur, who 
soon had a flock of 1000. The numbers multiplied steadily until, in 
1909, there were 46,187,678. 

During a drought, in 181 2-1 813, some of the colonists crossed the 
Blue Mountains, where they found a rich fertile soil. Danger of French 
rivalry and increase of immigration contributed further to extend the 
area of settlement. In 1826, the Governor of New South Wales re- 
ceived instructions to assert the British claim to the whole of Australia 
and to occupy the stations on the western shore. Thus began, in 1829, 
the settlement of West Australia. An attempt to develop the Colony 
was made by private individuals ; but the experiment proved a failure. 
In 1838 there were only 2000 inhabitants, and, in 1849, not more than 
5000. Meantime, Wakefield published his Letter from Sydney, already 
referred to, which marks an epoch in Australian colonization. He 
insisted that lands should be sold to settlers in small lots and at reason- 
ably high prices, and that the proceeds should be used to pay the pas- 
sage of emigrant laborers and for general government expenses. A 
company on his plan was formed to colonize South Australia. Un- 
wisely ignoring Wakefield's qualification that natural pasture should 
be leased on moderate terms, the Colonial Office — hitherto very lavish 
in grants to the favored — fixed a price per acre too high for the sheep- 
3» 



770 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

raisers to pay. So they moved inland and occupied fresh lands for 
which they paid nothing at all — hence they were known as " squat- 
ters." l Eventually a compromise was arranged by which they were 
given temporary rights of occupancy at a low rent. In 1825 Van Die- 
men's Land, or Tasmania — as it came to be called — which had been 
settled as a subordinate penal settlement in 1803, was made a separate 
colony. In 1851 Victoria was made independent of New South Wales ; 
then Queensland, the last of the six Australian colonies, was carved 
out of New South Wales in 1859. 

The Commonwealth of Australia. — Australia's three great problems 
have been : the transportation evil ; the subjugation of the natives ; 
and the establishment of free institutions, self-government and feder- 
ation. After a long hard struggle transportation was abolished about 
1857, though some convicts were supplied to West Australia till 1867. 
The Australian natives were of a very inferior type: numbers were 
shot for cattle stealing, more succumbed to drink and other evil habits. 
While a few survive in remote parts of Australia, they are now quite 
extinct in Tasmania. In 1842 a legislative council was established in 
New South Wales, but, owing to the steady growth in numbers, 2 
wealth and intelligence, there was an increasing demand for more com- 
plete form of self-government. After the example had been set in 
Canada, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia 
(under a permissive Imperial Act of 1850) drew up constitutions with 
popularly elected legislatures, which received the sanction of the 
British Government in 1855. Queensland received a similar privilege 
in 1859 and West Australia in 1890. 3 By various extensions of the 
franchise, every adult man and woman has received the right to vote 
in every one of the six States. Besides being a pioneer in women's 
suffrage, Australia has taken over the Government ownership of rail- 
roads and has made a remarkable contribution in the so-called a Torrens 
System " of conveyancing. 4 After nearly twenty years of agitation 
the various states were federated into the Commonwealth of Aus- 

1 The term in this sense was of American origin. Now, in Australia it is applied 
to any person who owns or leases large areas for sheep or cattle raising. 

2 The discovery of copper in 1848, and more especially of gold in 1851, led to a 
considerable influx of settlers. 

3 Gold was discovered in West Australia in 1872 and in greater quantities in 
1882 and subsequent years, with the result that the population increased to 50,000 
in 1891, and to 281,000 in 1910. 

4 By an Act passed first in South Australia at the instance of Sir Richard Torrens 
in 1858, all estates were required to be registered, and the registered owner was 
considered the real owner in all future transactions. Thus, much confusion formerly 
arising from disputed titles has been saved. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 771 

tralia by a measure sanctioned by the Imperial Parliament in 1900. 
The formal executive is vested in the Sovereign, acting through the 
Governor-General, the actual executive in a responsible Ministry 
headed by a Prime Minister. There is a federal Parliament, con- 
sisting of a senate of thirty-six — six elected from each State — and 
a house of representatives elected on a basis of population. Such 
powers as are not specially vested in the federal legislature remain 
in the legislatures of the several States, an arrangement which differs 
from that in Canada where such powers as are not specially delegated 
to the provincial legislatures are reserved to the Dominion Parliament. 
New Zealand. — In the thirties, an association, started by Wake- 
field, was formed for the colonization of New Zealand, a group of two 
large — the North and South — ■ and some smaller islands lyin^g about 
twelve hundred miles east of Australia. The British Government 
and the missionaries at first opposed the project, fearing that it would 
cause trouble with the Maoris, 1 a native race of Malay stock, highly 
intelligent and very warlike. Nevertheless, settlement proceeded 
apace ; in 1839, New Zealand was declared subject to the Crown under 
the Governor of New South Wales, and the following year a separate 
colony was constituted by a charter. In 1852 a self-governing con- 
stitution was granted. New Zealand is perhaps the most progressive 
State in the world. Women were given the vote in 1893 ; like Australia 
it has a State-owned railway system, and in many other respects has 
led in State socialism, such as Government ownership of telegraphs 
and telephones. Moreover, it conducts most of the life, fire, and acci- 
dent insurance business, and even operates some State coal mines. 
Under the Labor Ministry, large estates have been broken up — partly 
by heavy taxation, partly by compulsory sale ; a State bank has been 
founded to lend money to small farmers for the purpose of improving 
their lands ; and very progressive laws have been enacted for regulat- 
ing factories and conditions of labor. In 1895 a carefully worked out 
scheme was launched for settling trade disputes and preventing strikes. 
In the event of a failure to agree between employers and workmen's 
unions, provision was made for application to a Board of Conciliation, 
and, in the last instance, to an Arbitration Court under a judge whose 
decision shall be final, and may be enforced by fine and imprisonment. 
As a matter of fact, laborers have proved more refractory than em- 
ployers, and of late the attempt to avert strikes has been unsuccessful. 
In 1898, ten years before the Mother Country, a system of old age 

1 The Maoris long proved a serious problem, though, it must be admitted, they 
had much right on their side. Now, however, they are dying out, and in 1908 
formed only 47,000 out of a population of 1,008,000. 



772 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

pensions was adopted, with a weekly allowance of ios. for all persons 
over sixty- five. In 1907 New Zealand was proclained a Dominion, 
to which various small islands in the Pacific were annexed. 

The British in South Africa. — The British secured their first firm 
foothold in South Africa by conquering Cape Colony from the Dutch : 
during the Napoleonic Wars. The country was made self-governing 
in 1872. Meantime, in the early thirties, many of the Boers, or de- 
scendants of the original Dutch immigrants, had sold their farms, em- 
barked their families and household goods in great springless carts, and, 
driving their stock before them, departed north and northeast to seek 
new homes in the haunts of savages and wild beasts. The Great Trek, 
or emigration, occurred in 1836, though the exodus began before and 
continued after that date. Much has been made of the emancipation 
of their slaves, for which they received, in compensation, less than half 
their value. As a matter of fact, only a small number of the original 
trekkers were slave-owners to any considerable extent, and apparently 
the more impelling causes which drove them forth were their restive- 
ness under British rule and the fact that the British neither protected 
them against the natives nor trusted them to protect themselves. 
Some went to Natal ; but this was taken over as a British possession 
and annexed to the Cape Colony in 1843, being made a separate Crown 
Colony in 1856. The extension of the British rule over Natal drove 
many of the Boers westward into the Orange River country, whither 
some of the first emigrants from Cape Colony had originally settled. 
But the British still extended their sway, and, in 1848, annexed the 
Orange River Colony, which led the irreconcilables to a final refuge 
among another group of Boers who, after the Great Trek of 1836, had 
made new homes for themselves in the district known as the Transvaal. 
By the Sand River Convention, of 1852, the independence of the Trans- 
vaal, or South African Republic, was recognized by the British 
Government. Two years later, the Orange River Free State was 
accorded the same recognition, and retained its independence until 
1899. 

The Zulu War (1879). — The Transvaal, however, was re-annexed 
by Great Britain, in 1877, on the ground that the Transvaal policy 
toward the natives provoked troubles and risings which menaced the 
peace of the other South African provinces. 2 Discontent and disorder 

1 The Dutch had founded the Colony, in 1652, as a port of call between 
Holland and their possessions in the East. 

2 Also the residents of the villages, largely English and Germans, in contrast to 
the farmers, who were Boers, petitioned for annexation to protect them against the 
Zulus. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 773 

were rife enough in South Africa. There were risings of the Kaffirs 
and other natives, and, worst of all, a formidable war with the warlike 
and powerful tribe of the Zulus broke out in 1879. Although there 
were many points of friction, the real cause of the latter was resentment 
of the Zulu chieftain against the British for taking the Boers, his en- 
emies, under their protection. Feeling the need of prompt action, 
the Governor sent an invading force into Zululand before the Home 
authorities, occupied with a war in Afghanistan, had decided to send 
reinforcements. This, together with the fact that the commanders 
on the spot undervalued the fighting qualities of the natives, led to a 
series of British reverses before the Zulus were finally overcome. Zulu- 
land was divided among a number of chieftains and later reunited ; 
but, owing to constant confusion and strife, part of the country was 
later taken over by the Transvaal and the remainder came under British 
protection in 1897. 

The Revolt in the Transvaal (1880-1881). — Meantime, events had 
developed in the Transvaal leading to a great British humiliation. 
Gladstone, who became Premier for the second time in 1880, had en- 
couraged the Boers, by his language during the preelection campaign, 
to hope that he would reverse the action of 1877 ; hence, when they 
found that there was no hope that independence would again be granted 
them, they prepared for rebellion. By the end of December, 1880, 
British detachments had been forced to surrender, and a troop of Boers 
had invaded Natal. Sir George Colley, the British commander, was 
hampered by the desire of the Home Office to continue negotiations, 
by the inadequacy of his forces, and by the old British delusion that 
farmers would not fight. As a result, in an attempt to seize Majuba 
Hill, 27 February, 1881, he was attacked by the Boers, he lost his 
life and his little army was cut to pieces. In the teeth of this dis- 
aster, Gladstone insisted on resuming the negotiations as if nothing 
had happened, and self-government was restored in the Transvaal. 1 
Although the arrangement continued for nearly a score of years, it 
satisfied almost no one. The opponents of the Ministry declared that 
the British had humiliated themselves by making terms with the vic- 
torious insurgents, the British supporters in South Africa complained 
that they had been deserted, while the Dutch, still resentful at the 

1 By the terms of the Pretoria Convention of 1881 an indefinable "suzerainty" 
had been reserved to the British Crown. This was superseded by the London 
Convention of 1884, in which this meaningless term was omitted, but in which a 
new provision was introduced, that "white men were to have full liberty to reside 
in any part of the Republic (the name South African Republic was first restored at 
this time), to trade in it, and to be liable to the same taxes only as those exacted 
from citizens of the Republic." 



774 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

attempt which had been made to subjugate them, nourished the further 
grievance that any restrictions — notably on freedom to make foreign 
treaties — remained to limit their complete independence. 

The Designs of Cecil Rhodes and the Discovery of Gold in the Trans- 
vaal _ Xwo factors ultimately combined to precipitate a crisis in 
South Africa. One was the ambition of a very remarkable man to 
make Great Britain predominant in Africa, the other was the discovery 
of gold in the Transvaal. Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) was an English- 
man who, as a young man, went to South Africa for his health, where 
he made a huge fortune, mainly out of the Kimberley diamond mines 
and the Transvaal gold fields, and rose to be Prime Minister of Cape 
Colony in 1890. While Rhodes lacked scruple in the pursuit of his 
aims, he was not a mere money-maker. His dream was to make his 
country supreme in Africa, north and south, and to unite the two by 
a railroad from Cairo to the Cape. Salisbury, the British Premier, 
enthusiastically supported a strong policy in Africa. He refused to 
recognize the Portuguese claim to Matabeleland and Mashonaland, 
which lie to the west of Portuguese East Africa, 1 and, in 1890, in return 
for the cession of Heligoland in the North Sea, he induced the Germans 
to abandon their claims to Uganda and the Upper Nile, and then recog- 
nize the British protectorate over Zanzibar. France also agreed to 
this, in. return for the British recognition of the French protectorate 
over Madagascar. Steadily the British power advanced through vast 
stretches of the Continent. In June, 1894, because of the financial 
straits of the British East Africa Company, founded in 1888, the Gov- 
ernment proclaimed a protectorate over Uganda, which not only com- 
manded the Nile basin but might be regarded as the " key " of Central 
Africa. In 1899 the Niger Company was bought out for £865,000, 
thus adding to the Empire, Nigeria, a territory one third the size of 
India. Many years before, in 1882, the British occupation of Egypt 
had begun, while, early in 1899, British sway was extended over the 
Egyptian Sudan. Thus there was substantial ground for Rhodes' 
Cape to Cairo railway project. Furthermore, the discovery of gold 
in the Transvaal (1884) brought in a flood of foreigners or " Uitlan- 
ders," who were bent on developing the country, and on securing a voice 
in its affairs proportional to their wealth and influence. The Boers, 
who were mainly an agricultural people, wanted to keep the country to 

1 In October, 1888, Rhodes obtained the mining rights in Matabeleland for the 
British South Africa Company, which received its charter 29 October, 1889 ; under 
the chairmanship of Rhodes it extended its exploitations into Mashonaland, and 
the two territories, brought together under the control of the Company, came to be 
known as Rhodesia. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 77 

themselves, 1 they had little desire to develop it, and were determined 
to exclude the Uitlanders from the franchise and from all share in the 
government. 

The Jameson Raid (1895). — In the midst of the struggle the world 
was startled to learn that, 29 December, 1895, Dr. Leander Jameson, 
the administrator of Rhodesia, had ridden into the Transvaal with a 
body of the Chartered Company's troops. It developed from a sub- 
sequent parliamentary inquiry that Rhodes had, as early as June, 
formed an agreement with the foreigners interested in the South Africa 
gold fields to promote a revolution in the city of Johannesburg. Tell- 
ing his story quite frankly before the committee, he pointed out that 
the position of the Uitlanders, who owned more than half the land, 
nine tenths of the wealth and paid nineteen twentieths of the taxes, 
was intolerable ; that the attitude of the South African Republic was 
notoriously unfriendly to Cape Colony ; and stated that his aim was 
to secure control of the Transvaal in order to incorporate it in a pro- 
jected South African federation under Great Britain. His design was 
to assist the insurgents, or " reformers," with the Company's forces, 
whereupon the British Government was to intervene and annex the 
country. The rising came to nothing, owing to dissension among the 
" reformers," for one faction was opposed to Rhodes's plan of British 
rule and favored an independent republic. It was after the failure 
of this projected rising that Jameson undertook his raid, in spite of 
the efforts of Rhodes and the " reformers." He was met by a force 
of the Boers and, after a slight engagement, was overcome and sur- 
rendered. Together with the other leading raiders, he was handed 
over to the British authorities, who sent them to England for trial. 
Jameson was sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment and some of 
the others to shorter terms. 2 

Drifting into War (1896-1899). — In January, 1896, Rhodes re- 
signed as Premier of Cape Colony, and, in June, as managing director 
of the Chartered Company. He was never tried for his share in the 
conspiracy and raid, though he returned to England, in 1897, to give 
his testimony before the parliamentary committee. While the com- 
mittee reported that " whatever the justification may have been for 
action on the part of the people of Johannesburg, there was none for 
a person in Mr. Rhodes's position," he was warmly defended in debate 

1 Though it is asserted that President Kruger invited English capital to the 
country through the English press in 1884. 

2 Four of the reform leaders at Johannesburg were sentenced to death ; but the 
sentence was commuted to a fine of £25,000 each. Forty-two other members of 
the reform committee had to pay £2,000 each. 



776 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

by the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, and other men of in- 
fluence. 1 After the attempt to force their hand had proved futile, the 
Boers were more disinclined than ever to grant to the Uitlanders the 
concessions which they demanded and deserved. 2 Their cause was 
warmly espoused by the new High Commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, 
who sent a strong representation to Chamberlain urging that the Gov- 
ernment must, for its own credit, assert itself in behalf of " thousands 
of British subjects kept permanently in the position of helots." As 
a result, a series of conferences was arranged with Kruger in the early 
summer of 1899. They came to nothing because the British insisted 
on a franchise based upon five years' residence, while Kruger would 
concede nothing less than seven years, and hedged in with various re- 
strictions at that. While the Unionist Government was hot for war, 
the Liberals opposed what they regarded as an unjust and unnecessary 
aggression in behalf of Rhodes and the financial interests. At length, 
18 August, the Boers went so far as to offer a five years' franchise, 
but on conditions that the British Government would not accept, 
namely, that they would agree never again to interfere in the affairs of 
the Republic and to drop all claims to suzerainty. 3 After further vain 
negotiations both sides determined upon war. The Boers were far 
better equipped than the British imagined ; for, ever since the raid, 
they had been quietly buying from Europe arms and ammunition of the 
most improved type. On 9 October they sent an ultimatum demand- 
ing the withdrawal of troops, which the British refused to consider, 
and, two days later, they invaded Natal. In the war which followed 
it required three years and cost Great Britain £250,000,000 to subdue 
a force of not over 60,000 fighting men. 

Opening of the Boer War (October, 1899). — Neither party expected 
a long conflict. The Boers recalled their easy victory in 1881 ; they 

1 The Boers, especially President Kruger of the South African Republic, always 
suspected that the British Government was privy to Rhodes's schemes. These 
suspicions were no doubt unfounded, though it is most likely that both he and 
Jameson fancied that the authorities were not ignorant of their designs and would 
approve of them in case they succeeded. 

2 The Uitlanders stated their case in a petition, March, 1899, in which they 
complained that they were heavily taxed without any vote, that they were dis- 
criminated against in the matter of education, and that the municipal government, 
the mines and the railways were corruptly and incompetently administered. Of 
course the Boers regarded them as interlopers, but, if we admit their contention 
that they had a right to enter and develop the country, still more if they were 
originally invited, we must agree, after due allowance for their one-sided point of 
view, that their grievances were many and substantial. 

3 The British insisted that this term had been omitted accidentally from the 
London Convention of 1884. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 777 

counted on their admirable preparation, on the divided state of British 
public opinion, and the fact that their opponents had so few troops in 
South Africa. The British proved incapable of profiting by past ex- 
periences ; they did not dream that a scanty population of farmers 
would be capable of effective resistance ; 1 they did not realize the ex- 
tent of their equipment or how peculiarly adapted they were to the 
kind of fighting which the nature of the country required. Moreover, 
British generals, trained in peace or in warfare with savages, proved 
at first no match for the very competent Boer commanders — De Wet, 
Cronje, and Botha. For the sake of political effect it was regarded 
as necessary to defend northern Natal ; but strategically it was unwise, 
since the territory in question, penetrating like a wedge between the 
Transvaal and the Orange Free State, was exposed to attack on both 
sides. As a result, the British met with several reverses, and Sir George 
White was shut up in Ladysmith, where he had to withstand a long 
siege. The arrival of General Buller, as Commander-in-Chief, with 
reinforcements, brought no immediate relief; indeed, three defeats 
followed within a week. All this, however, had the effect of consoli- 
dating British public opinion in favor of the war, and of calling forth 
the best efforts not only of the United Kingdom but of the whole Em- 
pire ; calls for volunteers met with a ready response, and the Colonies, 
who had already sent contingents, loyally answered the request for 
more. While Buller was left to operate in Natal, General Roberts 2 
was put in supreme command, with General Kitchener as his chief of 
staff, and ordered to advance into the Transvaal through the Orange 
River Free State. 

The End of the First Phase of the War (September, 1900). — On 15 
February, 1900, Roberts succeeded in relieving Kimberley, which had 
been besieged for four months. Cronje, retreating toward Bloem- 
fontein, was compelled to surrender, 27 February, and, 15 March, 
Roberts occupied the capital of the Orange Free State. Meantime, 
Buller, though he was defeated again and again, kept doggedly at his 
work of trying to break through the Boer lines. However, the opera- 
tions of Roberts drew a portion of the enemy's forces from Natal, and 
28 February, after two weeks of hard fighting, Buller succeeded in a 
fourth and final attempt to relieve Ladysmith, where General White 
had conducted an heroic defense for one hundred and eighteen days. 
Buller proceeded to fight his way north, and, 12 June, brought his army 
into the Transvaal. While Lord Roberts' overspent troops had been 

1 The veteran Commander-in-Chief Wolseley was an exception. 

2 By the end of 1900 he had an army of 250,000, a greater force, it is said, than 
had ever been intrusted to any single British general. 



778 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

taking a six weeks' rest, General De Wet was conducting an active 
guerilla warfare in the south and east of the Orange Free State and 
creating havoc with small British detachments. Disregarding this 
diversion, Roberts, when he was ready, started, i May, for Pretoria. 
Johannesburg was occupied 31 May, and Pretoria was reached and 
taken, after slight resistance, 5 June. During the advance, Roberts 1 
army relieved Mafeking on the Transvaal border, where Colonel Baden- 
Powell * had been gallantly holding out for some time. The back- 
bone of the war was now broken ; but De Wet was still unbeaten, and 
other detachments cooperating with him conducted a harrowing par- 
tisan warfare, constantly threatened Roberts' communications, and 
at one time, cut him off wholly from the south. Finally, General Ian 
Hamilton was able to effect a junction with Buller's army from Natal 
and to separate the Boer forces in the Transvaal from those in the Free 
State. The plan was to crush them in detail. While those in the 
hill country of the State were gradually overcome, De Wet managed to 
escape north. Although smaller forces continued to give trouble else- 
where, the conflict was, from the summer of 1900, concentrated mainly 
in the Transvaal. By September, Roberts regarded the war as prac- 
tically ended, and Kruger had reached such a pitch of despair that he 
started for Europe. Yet, although the British Commander issued a 
proclamation declaring that he would treat those who still held out 
as rebels, it was still more than a year and a half before the supremacy 
of the conquerors was finally recognized. 

The Concluding Stage of the War (September, 1900, to June, 1902). 
— The second phase of the war, which consisted in the " gradual ac- 
quisition and occupation of the country ," was left to General Kitchener, 
who secured his conquests by blockhouses connected " by thousands 
of miles of barbed wire entanglement." Peace was finally concluded, 
1 June, 1902, by which the Transvaal and the Orange River Free State 
were formally annexed. In spite of the British victory, there was so 
much discontent with the existing military organization, with the lack 
of preparation at the opening of the war, and at the disasters which 
marked its early stages, that it was found advisable, directly the war 
was over, to overhaul and reform the whole army organization in the 
light of the recent hard experience. 

The South African Union (1909). — The enclosure and systematic 
devastation of certain districts necessitated the removal of Boer women 
and children to concentration camps where there was much inevitable 
suffering and death. Though this ruthless military policy was due to 
widespread and dogged resistance and though the sickness and death 
1 Later notable as the founder of the Boy Scouts. 




ENGLISH MILES 
200 200 400 600 800 1000 

REFERENCE 

ZH B ritiah I W/^ erman r I Portuguese [ "| Otto 
CI French | \s P a»M [~~[ltaUan | 1 Belgian 
NOTE: The Coloring shows the possessions of the different 
European Powers at the present day. 
The independent African States are uncolored.0 



Williams Engraving Co. 






A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 779 

was often caused by refusal of medical attendance and disregard of 
sanitary regulations, it raised a great outcry in England, and naturally 
enhanced the bitterness which the Boers felt at their defeat and the 
loss of their independence. This, however, was speedily and pretty gen- 
erally dispelled by wise liberality of the British, who gave and loaned 
generous sums to assist the Boers to repair the havoc which had been 
wrought. Moreover, by a stroke of enlightened statesmanship, self- 
government was restored to the Transvaal, in 1907, and to the Orange 
River Colony, in 1908. General Botha, the leader of the Boer forces, 
and General Smuts performed valiant service in reconciling their people 
to the situation. The next step was to unite the various South African 
States into a union under one central government, an undertaking 
that was completed in 1909. As is the case in Canada and Australia, 
there is a Governor-General, a Prime Minister, a Senate and a House 
of Assembly. In one respect, however, the arrangement differs de- 
cidedly from either Canada or Australia ; with scarcely more than 
1,000,000 whites and nearly 6,000,000 blacks it was felt that it would 
be safer to form a single strong Government than to establish a feder- 
ation of the four existing States. The former States are now Provinces 
which merely administer their local affairs. Owing to rivalry among 
the various cities, the executive capital was established at Pretoria, 
the legislative capital at Cape Town, and the Court of Appeals at 
Bloemfontein. No distinction is made between the use of English 
and Dutch. 

Post-union Problems. — Since the Union there has been a fair share 
of discontent, unrest and discord. General Botha, who became the 
first Premier under the Union, has been sharply opposed by General 
Hertzog and the anti-British party, chiefly on the ground of his enthu- 
siasm for Imperial defense. Moreover, during the year 1913, South 
Africa was disturbed by serious strikes. 1 Since the black natives out- 
number the whites nearly six to one, the Botha Government was so 
alive to the danger that it not only proclaimed martial law and called 
out troops but went to the length of deporting ten of the strike leaders 

1 Another difficulty has been raised by the treatment of East Indian indentured 
laborers. In 1913 the South African Parliament passed an Immigrants Regula- 
tion Act which continued a £3 tax imposed some years before by the Natal Gov- 
ernment on such Indian laborers at the end of their term of service, and also re- 
strictions on their movements from province to province. Thereupon, the East 
Indians began a policy of passive resistance, many being imprisoned for refusing 
to pay fines imposed on them. A further grievance arose, from the fact that a 
Natal court decided that wives married according to Hindu or Mohammedan rites 
should have no status in the Province. The whole policy called forth strong 
protests from the Government of India. 



780 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

to England. This procedure aroused an outcry among the English 
labor leaders which was only drowned in the thunders of the World 

War. 

Egypt Previous to the British Occupation. — Egypt, that land of 
marvelous antiquity, furnishes a striking example of the manner in 
which stress of circumstances has not infrequently forced Great Brit- 
ain reluctantly to extend her Imperial responsibilities. Egypt proper 
has an area of about three times the British Isles and a population of 
some twelve millions, of which over ten millions are native Egyptians 
of the Mohammedan faith. The country is watered by the Nile, and 
depends for its fertility not on rainfall but on the water obtained from 
the periodic overflow of the great river. The capital, situated just 
above the delta, is Cairo, and Alexandria is the seaport. South of 
Egypt is the Sudan (the land of the Blacks), with an area of a million 
square miles and three million inhabitants. Much might be said of 
Egypt's glorious but faded past under the long regime of the Pharaohs, 
of its successive subjection by the Persians, by Alexander, and by the 
Romans; but the interest for the student of modern affairs begins 
with Egypt's conquest by the Arab Saracens (the Christian name for 
Mohammedans) in 638, or, more particularly, after its conquest, in 
15 1 5, by the Sultan of Turkey, who two years later assumed the posi- 
tion of successor of Mahomet by proclaiming himself Caliph of Islam. 
For five centuries the Sultan continued as nominal overlord. After 
Napoleon's ambitious plans of conquest had been frustrated by Nelson 
and the French had been driven out, 1 Mehemet Ali, an Albanian ad- 
venturer, managed to thrust himself in as representative of the Porte, 
and eight years before his death, in 1849, secured a firman, or decree, 
from Constantinople recognizing as hereditary in his family the office 
of Governor, or Vali. Mehemet Ali disposed of his enemies with the 
bloodthirsty expeditiousness of the Oriental despot, but, albeit by 
ferocious rough-and-ready methods, he dispensed a fair degree of jus- 
tice, and worked according to his lights to develop the resources of 
the land. 

The British Purchase of the Suez Canal Shares and the Beginning 
of International Control. — It was the colossal extravagance of Ismail 
( 1 863-1 879), one of his successors, who was allowed to assume the title 
of Khedive in 1866, that first brought about active European inter- 
vention in Egypt, the final result of which was the British occupation. 
Among the projects which Napoleon had been forced to abandon was 
one to cut a canal through the Isthmus of Suez. This was taken up 
by the French engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who, in spite of the op- 

1 See above, p. 597. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 781 

position of Palmerston, succeeded (1856) in launching a company with 
a capital of £8,000,000, nearly half of which was subscribed by French 
capitalists. The Egyptian Government, which took up most of the 
remainder, ultimately sank more than £16,000,000 in the undertaking. 
The Suez Canal, opened 17 November, 1869, with great festivities, 
shortened the route from England to Bombay by 6000 miles and, in 
conjunction with the introduction of steamships, reduced the length 
of the journey from four months to three weeks. British interest in 
Egypt, 1 always great ever since the acquisition of India, now became 
vital. Ismail, after an orgy of lavishness, became bankrupt in 1875, 
having, as a result of personal prodigality, of internal improvements — ■ 
made unduly costly by official graft and mismanagement — and of 
borrowing at ruinous rates, swelled the national debt from £3,000,000 
to £89,000,000. In desperation he undertook to mortgage his Canal 
shares in Paris, whereupon, Disraeli, prompted by a wise suggestion 
from an English journalist, purchased the whole lot — 176,602 of the 
400,000 originally issued — for the British Government. Negotiating 
the purchase on his own responsibility, he succeeded in inducing Par- 
liament to ratify the step. The shares for which he paid slightly more 
than £4,000,000 are now worth over £20,000,000. The financial posi- 
tion of the Khedive was so hopeless that a Caisse de la Dctte, or com- 
mittee of bondholders, was set up in May, 1876, which was authorized 
to receive for foreign creditors the portion of the public revenues that 
the Powers forced the Khedive to devote to the payment of the interest 
on his debts. Later in the same year a scheme was formulated for 
placing the administration of Egyptian finances under the supervision 
of two commissioners, one French and one British. This Dual Con- 
trol was first established on a satisfactory basis after it had been found 
necessary to depose Ismail in 1879. The system, however, lasted 
barely three years. 

The Beginning of the British Occupation (1881-1882). — A crisis 
came in 1881 when the new Khedive was obliged to dismiss his Cabinet 
at the demand of a faction of the army who, besides having certain 
particular grievances, represented, or professed to represent, the anti- 
Turkish or patriotic Egyptian interest. What had begun asa " na- 
tional " movement degenerated, under their guidance, into an anarchis- 
tic outburst against progressive administration, and an anti-Christian 
crusade. They were led by Arabi, " a colonel of peasant origin," who 
became War Minister, 5 February, 1882. In spite of a joint note from 

1 Nevertheless, Great Britain refused in 1844, and again in 1853, proposals of 
the Tsar to annex Egypt by way of compensation for allowing him to appropriate 
other parts of the Turkish dominions. 



782 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Great Britain and France, the Khedive was obliged to admit him to 
office and was threatened with death if he removed him. A grievous 
evidence of what might be expected under the new regime was a Mo- 
hammedan massacre of Christians at Alexandria, 11 June. France 
at first had been for joint Anglo-British intervention to suppress Arabi, 
while Great Britain favored action through the Porte ; however, the 
overthrow of the French Cabinet which advocated a vigorous policy 
left the British to deal with the situation alone. When they found 
that Arabi was erecting batteries, they determined, 1 1 July, to bom- 
bard Alexandria, while the French fleet, already there, refused to par- 
ticipate and sailed away. Arabi was forced to abandon the city, and 
13 September was defeated at Tel-el- Kebir and put to flight by a Brit- 
ish army. Shortly after, a representative sent by the British Gov- 
ernment framed and submitted to the British Cabinet a scheme for 
the reorganization of the Egyptian administration. At the request 
of the Egyptian Government the Dual Control came to an end in 
spite of French protests, though Gladstone and his Cabinet dis- 
claimed all thought of a British protectorate and proposed to with- 
draw as soon as conditions warranted the step. But Great Britain, 
assuming the position of adviser, with Sir Evelyn Baring (later Lord 
Cromer) as Agent and Consul-General, acted as protector in fact if 
not in name, and remains in occupation to this day. 1 

The Sudan and Gordon at Khartum (1884). — The next crisis in 
Egyptian affairs was due to the situation in the Sudan, lying in the 
upper Nile valley to the south of Egypt. In 1881 a man rose up who 
proclaimed himself the Mahdi — the spiritual and temporal ruler 
whose coming the Mohammedans looked forward to in the last days. 
Declaring it his mission to drive the hated Egyptian power from the 

1 In December, 1914, as a consequence of Turkey's entrance in the World War 
on the German side, she finally went to the length of declaring a formal protecto- 
rate. 

The rather complicated system of government previous to December, 1914, was 
as follows. The Khedive was a vassal of the Sultan to whom he paid tribute, but 
all his acts were supervised by the British Consul-General. There was a Legis- 
lative Council and Assembly — absorbed in one House by an Act of 1913 — con- 
sisting of the 6 Cabinet Ministers, 1 7 Government appointees, and 66 elective mem- 
bers. The revenues were divided into two parts ; half went for the expenses of the 
Government and half for the foreign creditors, represented by the Caisse de la Dctte. 
There were four groups of courts : the Courts of the Cadis to administer Moham- 
medan law relating to marriage and inheritance; the Native Tribunals dealing 
with criminal and civil cases ; the Consular Courts — guaranteed by the Capitula- 
tions of the XV th and XVIth centuries — to try criminal suits of foreigners ; and 
the Mixed Tribunals — dating from 1876 — representing fifteen Powers, in which 
civil suits involving natives and foreigners were adjudicated. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 783 

Sudan, to conquer their country, to overthrow their Turkish suzerain 
and to convert the whole world to his faith, which not only was opposed 
to Christianity but to orthodox Mohammedanism as well, he gathered 
about him a body of fanatical enthusiasts. Against them the English 
commander of the Egyptian army was unable to make headway, partly 
because of the disorganized state of the Egyptian Government and 
partly because Gladstone's Foreign Minister, Lord Granville, refused 
to assume any responsibility in the Sudan. When Baring protested 
that (since the Sudan was a dependency of the Khedive) it was im- 
possible to separate Egyptian and Sudanese affairs, the Cabinet de- 
cided to abandon the country. After vain attempts had been made 
to relieve and withdraw the loyal garrison posted there, General Gor- 
don, whose offer to undertake the task had been twice refused by Baring 
and the Egyptian Ministers, was sent out by the British Government. 
Considering that the mission was intended to be a peaceful one, the 
choice was most unhappy ; Gordon was an erratic military genius and 
a religious enthusiast as well, who previously, as Governor- General 
for the Khedive in these regions, had made dire war on the slave- 
dealers, thus bitterly antagonizing the class now among the Mahdi's 
stanchest supporters. Moreover, arriving at Khartum in February, 
1884, he finally decided to hold the city and " smash the Mahdi." 
But he was gradually hemmed in and his communications cut off. 

The Failure to Relieve Him (1885). The Final Conquest of the 
Sudan (1898). — After months of delay the British Government finally 
sent a force to relieve him. Against the advice of men on the ground, 
General Wolseley, the commander, chose the long river route instead 
of the shorter road across the desert. He did at length consent to 
dispatch a column by way of the desert ; but it was too late to pro- 
cure camels, or adequate equipment and supplies. When the relieving 
force arrived within striking distance of Khartum, 27 January, 1885, 
the Mahdi was in possession and Gordon was dead. In the face of 
starvation and treachery within, as well as attacks from without, he 
held on magnificently for three hundred and seventeen days. The 
tardy arrival of the relieving force roused a storm of fury in England 
and proved the " death-blow of the Ministry," and the name of Gordon 
was cherished as that of a martyred hero. Nevertheless, the Sudan 
was abandoned. While the Mahdi only survived the taking of Khar- 
tum five months, the country was ruled for some years by his successor, 
an ex-slave-dealer, who committed sad havoc and almost depopulated 
it. Meantime, under the remarkable administration of Baring, who 
became Lord Cromer in 1901, Egypt was absolutely transformed. 
Finances were put on a sound footing, roads were built, and irrigation 



784 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

was revolutionized by the Assuan dam begun in 1898. The army, 
too, was reformed. Its most notable achievement was the recovery 
of the Sudan in a campaign which lasted from 1896 to 1898 under 
Sir Herbert Kitchener, who was also assisted by British forces. The 
critical engagement leading to the recovery of Khartum was fought 
at Omdurman, 2 September, 1898. 1 By an agreement, concluded in 
January, 1899, the Government of the Sudan was placed under the 
sovereignty of Great Britain and the Khedive of Egypt. Military and 
civil control was vested in a Governor- General recommended by the 
British and appointed by the Khedive. Under the new regime the 
Sudan appears to be recovering from Mahdism and to be on the road 
to civilization and prosperity. 

Cromer and Modern Egypt. — In addition to the financial and army 
reforms already enumerated, much has been done in Egypt toward 
improving the administration of justice, the condition of prisons, the 
state of public health, and the advancement of education. At first, 
progress in the latter field was painfully slow ; 2 of late, however, the 
gain has been rapid. With the improvement of material conditions 
and the spread of education there has been an increasing demand for 
self-government. This new nationalism first became manifest about 
1892 upon the death of Ismail's successor; stimulated by the strained 
relations between the British agency and the new Khedive and greatly 
fostered by the press, it was taken up by many young men of the better 
class, though chiefly among the Mohammedans. While much can be 
said for the movement from the standpoint of sentiment, unquestion- 
ably the country is better off under British than it could hope to be 
under native rule. Yet, as they grow ready for it, more and more of 
the government should be placed in native hands. The French, as 
they saw their Egyptian investments steadily increasing in value, 
gradually became reconciled to an indefinite British occupation, and, 
in 1904, formally agreed to demand no limit to its continuance. In 
1907, Lord Cromer resigned after nearly a quarter of a century of 
labors, crowned by unique achievement. 

The British Advance in India. — Since the passage of Pitt's India 
Bill in 1784 3 the British direct rule has been extended until it includes 
three fifths of the total area of 1,900,000 square miles and rather more 
than three quarters of a population which numbered 315,000,000 in 

1 About the same time, Major Marchand, entering from the west, occupied 
Fashoda for the French; but after delicate diplomatic negotiations he was induced 
to withdraw. 

2 According to the census of 1897 no less than 88 per cent of the males and 
qqi per cent of the females were unable to read or write. 

3 See above, p. 575. 






A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 785 

191 1. There remain some 700 native States — less than a score of 
which are of any considerable size — all of which are under the super- 
vision of British residents and enjoy British protection. Many re- 
forms have been effected, though consequent encroachments upon 
native independence and native prejudice have been bitterly resented. 
Ill feeling was accentuated by various causes. Having once inter- 
vened, Great Britain and the East India Company were constantly 
obliged, often against their will, to conquer new territories in order 
to secure those which they already held, and sometimes to annex tribes 
who sought their protection. Moreover, the British administrators, 
while in general men of the best intentions, were often overbearing 
and maladroit. Lord Mornington, later Marquis of Wellesley, who 
went out as Governor-General in 1798, has been called the " second 
father of the Indian Empire," * owing to his activity in extending the 
British power and acquiring territory. Most of these acquisitions 
were due to the risings under Napoleonic influence in the south, to 
the disorders of various Maratha chieftains who terrorized central 
India, and to the need of protecting the northern border against the 
aggressions of the Afghans. Wellesley resigned in 1805, when the 
Home Government ceased to support him against the Company. 

The Reforms of Bentinck (1828-1835). — Neither the Government 
nor the Company was in favor of further territorial expansions ; but 
the logic of events and the ambition of Governors resulted in annexa- 
tions, protectorates and subsidiary treaties 2 at more or less regular 
intervals. Though the rights of native rulers were occasionally dis- 
regarded, intervention was, in most cases, prompted by disorder or 
oppression. One great step in the interest of peace was the breakup 
of the Maratha Confederacy in 181 8. The rule of Lord William 
Bentinck (1828-1835) was marked by great reforms. He abolished 
the sati (suttee) or the practice of burning Hindu widows on the funeral 
piles of their husbands, likewise he suppressed the Thagi (or thugs), a 
secret society of robbers and murderers. In addition, he greatly in- 
creased the Indian revenue, while at the same time reducing the ex- 
penses of the administration ; he made English the official language 
of the country and sought to foster the education of the natives in 
English ways. While the Anglo-Indians resented his revision of the 
" batta," or official allowances, as well as his extension of the recently 
established custom of employing natives in the public service, his 
rule was, on the whole, peaceful and prosperous. Meantime, the 
functions of the Company had been greatly curtailed. In 1813 its 

1 Clive is known as " the father of the Indian Empire." 

2 By which a State paid subsidies in return for military protection. 

3E 



786 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

trading monopoly was confined to China, in 1833 even that was taken 
away, and all that remained were such political administrative powers 
as had been provided for in the Act of 1784. 

The Fatal Expedition to Afghanistan, the Sikh Wars, and the Ag- 
gressive Policy of Dalhousie. — Under Bentinck's successor the Brit- 
ish met with a great humiliation. Russia was thus early seeking to ex- 
tend her influence in Afghanistan, and Persia was assisting her advance. 
The British Governor-General suspected the Afghan Amir at Kabul 
of complicity, so, in October, 1838, he proclaimed the latter's de- 
position and set up in his place the representative of a rival line whom 
he supported by a British army. The natives submitted for a time ; 
but, late in 1841, they rose in revolt, in consequence of which the 
British general signed, January, 1842, a humiliating treaty by which 
he agreed to evacuate Kabul. The retreat proved to be one of the 
most disastrous in British annals. Subjected to increasing attacks, 
only one man survived out of a force of 4500 men and 10,000 followers. 
A new British army relieved two garrisons which still held out, marched 
on Kabul, took the city, 16 September, 1842, recovered the surviving 
women and children — together with the married officers who by 
special exemption had not joined the retreat — and returned to India. 
In spite of this belated assertion of power the result was a sore blow 
to British prestige. The year 1843 was notable for the annexation of 
Sind — the country in the valley of the Lower Indus. This was an 
act of aggression on the part of the commanding general, who de- 
scribed it as a " very advantageous, useful and humane piece of ras- 
cality " and announced his victory w T ith the words " peccavi, I have 
Sind." Two wars (1845-1846 and 1848-1840) — with the Sikhs, 
a powerful military and religious sect, organized into a great confed- 
eracy — resulted in the annexation of the Punjab, the region of the 
Upper Indus northeast of Sind. The second Sikh War was concluded 
during the governorship of the Earl of Dalhousie (1 848-1 856) who 
vastly extended the area of British rule by a series of notable annexa- 
tions. An able, energetic ruler, his only defect was lack of imagina- 
tion. Convinced that the British system was infinitely more enlight- 
ened and efficient than that of the natives, he failed to realize how it 
might run counter to their sentiments and prejudices. Perhaps his 
most momentous step was the annexation of Oudh, in February, 1856, 
where, it should be said, he followed the Company's wishes rather than 
his own. The native government was ineffective, oppressive and cor- 
rupt ; on the other hand, the transaction was not only badly managed, 
but involved the revocation of Wellesley's treaty of 1801 with a Wazir 
whose successors had always been loyal to Great Britain. The appre- 




o c 
INDIA IN 1857 

British Dominions I ,.l Prot ected States L_ _ I 

Independent States I 1 Frenc/i 1 1 Portuguese I 1 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 787 

hension it aroused among the other native princes was increased by the 
Governor-General's announcement that the British would take posses- 
sion of all States where the ruler was without natural heirs, — a new 
policy quite at odds with a well-established Indian law and practice 
of adopting successors. Following the proclamation, several of the 
States of the former Maratha Confederacy were taken over, and Nana 
Sahib, the adopted son of the ex-Peshwa, or former ruler of the Con- 
federacy, was deprived of his pension. Also the Mogul at Delhi was 
informed that he could not hand on the titles and revenues which his 
degenerate line had so long enjoyed. All this contributed to prepare 
the way for the Indian Mutiny, which came as a sudden shock to the 
British people just after they had finished celebrating the centenary . 
of Plassey, 23 June, 1857. 

The Causes of the Indian Mutiny (1857). — The causes of the Mu- 
tiny were many and complex — " a combination of military grievances, 
national hatred and religious fanaticism " — which culminated sud- 
denly against the English occupation of India. There were all sorts 
of elements of discontent fomented by busy agents of sedition. The 
innovations, reforms and inventions of more than two decades had 
aroused the superstitious fears of the people, especially of the Brahmans 
who cherished their caste system and their other traditions with pecul- 
iar jealousy. Owing to the activity of the missionaries, and the sym- 
pathy accorded them, perhaps too zealously, by many of the officials 
and soldiers, the belief got abroad that Christianity was to be imposed 
by force or trickery on the reluctant country. Then the time seemed 
peculiarly ripe. The miscarriages in Afghanistan had encouraged 
the disaffected to believe that their masters were not invulnerable; 
moreover, the Crimean War had been a heavy drain on British re- 
sources, and a conflict with China had begun to draw to a head before 
terms of peace had been concluded with Persia, whose Shah was united 
in a close religious bond with the Mohammedan Mogul at Delhi. Ow- 
ing to these various wars, successive contingents had been withdrawn 
till only 45,000 Europeans remained in the Indian army, while the na- 
tive troops aggregated nearly 300,000 — a disproportion of numbers 
well calculated to encourage disaffection. 

In February, 1856, the masterful Dalhousie was succeeded by a man 
of a most conciliatory attitude, Viscount Canning, whose arrival, how- 
ever, instead of averting the trouble, was followed by a series of meas- 
ures which brought it to a head. The land system in Oudh was ap- 
proximated to the English model, and many of the native Zamindars, 
who farmed the taxes of whole villages, were removed. The army 
was a hot-bed of discontent, most extreme in the Bengal army, where 



788 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the privates, who were Brahmins, or other high-caste Hindus, hated 
to render obedience to officers whom they regarded as inferiors. For- 
merly, they had been privileged over the Bombay and Madras armies 
— made up of more miscellaneous elements — by exemption from 
service beyond the seas. Canning, however, i September, 1856, 
issued a general service order which deprived them of the exemption ; 
this was not only a blow at the caste system, but meant, since the 
Brahmins might not cook upon the " black water," if they were sent 
across to Burma, that they would have to subsist on parched grain. 
But the spark which finally caused the explosion resulted from the 
introduction, in place of the old musket, of a new rifle loaded with 
greased cartridges which had to be torn with the teeth before they were 
inserted to the gun barrel. Rumor declared that the grease was com- 
posed of cow's fat and pig's lard, which infuriated both the Moham- 
medans, to whom the pig was an unclean beast, and the Hindus, who 
worshiped the cow as sacred. In vain, the Government offered 
assurances that the rumor was untrue. 

The Outbreak of the Mutiny (10 May, 1857). — In spite of mutinous 
outbreaks in more than one station during the spring of 1857, the au- 
thorities were slow to take alarm or to prepare for a crisis, when a 
little more activity at the start might have prevented the Mutiny 
from gaining dangerous headway. The first serious rising occurred 
at Meerut, about forty miles northeast of Delhi, where on Sunday, 
10 May, 1857, a body of Sepoys forcibly rescued a group of their com- 
rades who had been locked up for refusing to use the greased car- 
tridges. After a night of slaughter they marched off to Delhi, which 
became the center to which body after body of Sepoys flocked after 
they had risen in arms. The rebels proclaimed the Mogul, a man 
over eighty years old, as Emperor, and proceeded to massacre all the 
English, men, women, and children, within their reach. The Mutiny 
had become a revolution. The disaffected regions were Oudh, Bengal, 
the Northwest Provinces, and parts of central India, though in this 
latter district most of the great potentates remained loyal. Southern 
India was not disturbed, while the Punjab, which occupied a very 
important strategic position in relation to the Northwest Provinces, 
was saved by the energy of two remarkable men, Robert Montgomery 
and John Lawrence. The breathless interest of the Mutiny has al- 
ways centered about Delhi, Cawnpore, and Lucknow ; but the fighting 
ranged over a vast area from the lower Ganges to the Punjab, not to 
speak of central India. Canning, once the danger was fully manifest, 
acted with the greatest promptness and energy ; he caused troops 
to be hurried to the scene of action from every available point, from 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 789 

England, from the Persian frontier, and he even intercepted a force 
on its way to China. However, he declared that he would not "govern 
in anger," and sought to show such mercy to the mutineers as to earn 
him from those who adopted more resentful methods the name of 
" Clemency " Canning. 

The Massacre at Cawnpore, and the Siege of Lucknow. — The first 
efforts were directed toward the relief of Delhi. The approach from 
Calcutta was slow, because there was only one short piece of railway, 
one hundred and twenty miles in length, running from the city, while 
the roads were bad besides. Moreover, Delhi was defended by Sepoys 
trained in English fighting methods, who had a number of heavy cannon 
and were protected by strong thick walls, and one brave little army, 
after cutting their way through, proved too weak to attempt an attack ; 
so, encamped outside to wait for reinforcements, they were besieged 
in their turn by another native force. Meanwhile, the danger was 
spreading rapidly. At Cawnpore, General Wheeler, an old man of 
seventy-four years, had been forced to take refuge in the English 
residency. It was in an untenable position, and after holding out as 
long as he could in the withering heat against the shot of the assailants, 
he made a treaty, 27 June, 1857, with Nana Sahib, who had arrived 
on the scene of action. Though he posed as the friend of the English, 
he had been nursing his grievances secretly and betrayed their confi- 
dence by ferocious treachery. Having granted the garrison a safe 
conduct to proceed down the Ganges to a place of security, he ordered 
them to be fired on just as they were setting off in boats. The men 
who survived this cold-blooded slaughter, except four who escaped, 
were taken back to Cawnpore and shot. The women were thrust into 
a small building where they endured frightful suffering for two weeks ; 
when, on the night of 15 July, a relief force appeared, the infuriated 
Nana sent in a body of men who butchered all they could and threw 
all the rest, some of whom were still alive, into an adjoining well. An- 
other storm center was Lucknow, the capital of the recently annexed 
province of Oudh. The commandant, Sir Henry Lawrence, brother 
of John, having foreseen the danger and prepared for it, conducted 
an heroic defense ; but, about a month after the beginning of the at- 
tack, he was hit by a shell and survived only a few days. He had 
" tried to do his duty " was the only record of his achievement that 
he asked. For nearly three months not more than a thousand Euro- 
peans and seven hundred faithful natives held out against a body of 
assailants estimated at 60,000. 

The First Relief of Lucknow (September, 1857). — The force which 
had arrived at Cawnpore in July consisted of some 1500 men, of whom 



790 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

not more than 1200 were Europeans, and was led by Henry Havelock, 
who after forty-two years of faithful service had been intrusted with 
his first independent command. Leaving Calcutta in June he pressed 
on in spite of the burning heat. While unable to forestall the massacre, 
he defeated the rebels and put some of their number to death, though 
Nana Sahib escaped. On 20 July, Havelock started for Lucknow, 
less than a hundred miles away. His little band, however, was so 
weakened by sunstroke, cholera and dysentery, that he made slow 
progress, and about the beginning of September he was obliged to 
send a message to the besieged that he could not bring them the 
assistance he had promised. Two weeks later, Sir James Outram ar- 
rived with reinforcements ; notwithstanding his commission to super- 
sede Havelock, whose heroism had been quite ignored by the author- 
ities, Outram generously insisted that his predecessor should remain 
in command until the relief of Lucknow was accomplished, and served 
under him as a volunteer. The combined forces reached the outskirts 
of Lucknow, 23 September, and after two days of hard fighting, forced 
their way in. They were not strong enough to raise the siege ; but, 
thanks to their welcome reenforcements, the garrison was able to 
hold out until Sir Colin Campbell finally drove off the enemy in 
November. 

The Recovery of Delhi (September, 1857). — Meantime, Delhi, which 
the original relief contingent had not been strong enough to assault, 
was recovered, largely through the efforts of two successive expeditions 
sent, regardless of the possible dangers of a Sikh rising or an Afghan 
invasion, by John Lawrence, from the Punjab. A general assault 
began 14 September ; but it required days of hard fighting before the 
last gate of Delhi was taken. While the Emperor was spared to drag 
on his few remaining years in exile, his sons were put to death, to save 
them, so it was alleged, from being recovered by a Mohammedan mob. 
The month of September, notable for the relief of Lucknow and the 
taking of Delhi, marked the flood tide of the Indian Mutiny ; never- 
theless, it took months before the rebels were driven from Lucknow 
and before the various disaffected districts Were finally reduced. Sir 
Colin Campbell, who had arrived, 17 August, as Commander-in-Chief, 
directed, henceforth, the military operations of the reenforcements 
which by autumn had begun to pour rapidly into the country. 
Havelock survived just long enough to witness Sir Colin's comple- 
tion of the relief of Lucknow. 

Final Suppression of the Mutiny (1858). — Partly owing to the ex- 
tremely cautious methods of Sir Colin, the conquest of Oudh occupied 
nearly all the year 1858, and it was not until the beginning of 1859 






A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 791 

that the last vestiges of the Mutiny had been stamped out. In spite 
of the merciful intentions of " Clemency " Canning, a grave sense of 
peril, resentment, and a desire to make examples to serve as a warning 
for the future, resulted in furious reprisals. Many were summarily 
shot — some blown to pieces at the mouths of cannon — while others 
were executed after trials in which very scant justice was shown. 

The Powers of the East India Company Transferred to the Crown 
(1858). — Meantime, the remaining powers of the East India, or 
"John " Company, as it was popularly called, had been transferred to 
the Crown. Early in 1858 the question of the government of India had 
come up for discussion in Parliament. The existing system was loudly 
criticized on two grounds : (1) divided authority, and (2) the anomaly 
of allowing a mercantile company to share in the control of the Empire. 
The Directors presented a remarkable petition declaring that the acts 
of aggression which contributed to the Mutiny were in contradiction 
to the Company's traditional policy, and arguing that if the Govern- 
ment took over the patronage as well as the remaining political powers 
of the Company, the whole administration of India would become the 
football of politics. Nevertheless, the system of dual control was 
needlessly complicated, and, after some delay, a bill was finally passed 
3 August, 1858, vesting the sole sovereignty in the Crown, represented 
in England by a Secretary of State for India responsible to Parliament. 
Since then, various measures have modified somewhat the system then 
adopted, usually with the view of giving the natives an increased par- 
ticipation in affairs. According to the arrangement existing previous 
to December, 1919, the Secretary of State was assisted in England by 
a Council which might be as large as fourteen, the members of which 
were appointed nominally by the Crown, really by the administration 
in power, and, since 1907, including two native Indians. In India, 
the Governor-General, or Viceroy as he is now commonly called, had 
an appointed Executive Council of six in which, since 1909, one native 
member was included. To these six might be added the Commander- 
in-Chief of the Indian army, who ranks as an extraordinary member. 
Moreover, there was a Legislative Council comprised of the Executive 
Council plus certain additional members not to exceed sixty. About 
half of these were elected directly or indirectly to represent various 
classes and interests, landholders, professional classes, merchants, 
Mohammedans and Hindus. The remainder were appointed. While 
there was a large native element which had a chance to make itself 
heard, there was always a slight official majority for the Government 
which, as a matter of fact, had the initiative, and controlled the mak- 
ing and administering of the laws. On the other hand, while the gen- 



792 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

eral principles of English law prevailed, native law and custom, notably 
Hindu and Mohammedan, were still in vogue in many fields, particu- 
larly in the family law, such as rules of succession and inheritance. 
Natives were eligible for judicial office, and, except for the higher 
positions, about one thousand in number, occupied practically all 
branches of the civil service. While the government was one for the 
people rather than by the people, those in control were chosen by the 
rigid test of merit, and are responsible, either personally or through 
their superiors, to the British Parliament, famous among the world's 
representative bodies for its alertness and democracy. 

Recent Indian History. — An evidence of Disraeli's Imperial im- 
agination was the Royal Titles Bill of 1876 by which the Queen was 
declared Empress of India, a measure greeted by the natives with in- 
tense enthusiasm. In 1878 the British became involved in a war in 
Afghanistan in another attempt to check the forward policy of Russia, 
who had induced the Amir to admit a Russian resident. Instead of 
trying to induce the Russians to withdraw, Disraeli insisted on forcing 
the Amir to accept a new scientific frontier and to admit a British 
resident ; in other words, he entered on a policy of aggression for the 
greater security of India. Less than six weeks after his arrival at 
Kabul, the Resident was attacked and killed by disaffected Afghans, 
whereupon General Roberts was dispatched to Kabul and occupied 
the city 10 October, 1879. Several were executed by way of reprisal 
and Afghanistan was divided between two rulers, but complete subju- 
gation of the northern part which was contemplated by the Viceroy of 
India was defeated by the advent of a Liberal Administration in 1880. 
Later, the storm center of Russian and British rivalry shifted to Persia. 
Several factors, however, contributed in the course of time to trans- 
form Anglo-Russian hostility into an Anglo-Russian agreement. For 
one thing, the defeat of Russia by Japan in the war of 1 904-1 905 broke 
the tradition of Russian invincibility ; moreover, the rise of Japanese 
power brought the British to realize that they could utilize Japan's 
increasing strength to counterbalance the weight of their old enemy in 
the East. 1 The third factor was the activity of Germany, who began, 

1 Consequently, in 1902, Great Britain concluded a treaty with Japan for the 
maintenance of peace and order in the far East, providing that if either Power went 
to war in the defense of its interests, the other would remain neutral, and that if 
either were attacked by more than one foreign enemy, the other would come to 
its assistance. This treaty was expanded into a formal alliance, 27 September, 
1905, by which the maintenance of the territorial rights of Japan in Korea and of 
Great Britain in India were mutually guaranteed, as well as the integrity of China 
and the policy of the open door. On 14 July, 191 1, this alliance was revised and 
renewed, this time with the concurrence of the British Dominions. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 793 

not long after the accession of William II, to secure a predominat- 
ing influence in Turkey and to develop a design controlling a route 
through Asia Minor to the head of the Persian Gulf. Accordingly, 
in 1907, Russia and Great Britain came to an agreement by which 
Persia was divided into three zones : a Russian sphere of influence 
was recognized in the north, a British in the south, and the third 
was left neutral. Differences were also adjusted in Afghanistan and 
Tibet. 

The Indian Problem. — Although, naturally, she has had her own 
interests to serve, Great Britain has protected India in peace from 
foreign aggression and, except for occasional outbreaks, from the on- 
slaught of border tribes. Moreover, she has made considerable and 
persistent efforts to develop the resources of the land. For example, 
out of a debt which stood at £240,000,000 in 191 1, £195,000,000 had 
been spent for railroads and irrigation. At the eve of the World War 
India was more prosperous than at any time in her history, with in- 
dustries developing, wages rising, wealth increasing and laborers in 
great demand. Unhappily, this prosperity, which owes so much to the 
enlightened efforts of the British, is only relative. There is still a pa- 
thetic amount of poverty, ignorance, hunger, and disease. While 
there are five universities and not a little has been done for the educa- 
tion of the masses, less than 1 per cent of the females, 10 per cent of the 
males, and 25 per cent of the children of school age can read and write. 
But the British have worked against tremendous obstacles, they found 
hordes of inert people generally opposed to education, exploited by 
native princes and tax farmers, exposed to devastating attacks of war- 
like tribes and to periodic famine due to lack of transportation, to 
defective rainfall and to the great congestion of population in certain 
areas. It is a sad fact that famines have been lamentably frequent, 
even in recent years, but valuable lessons have been learned from ex- 
perience, and the Government has made heroic efforts to cope with 
the evil on humane and scientific principles formulated by commissions 
of inquiry. Aside from remission of revenue and charitable donations 
at emergencies, a special famine insurance fund has been established 
as well as other intelligent measures of relief. " Now," it was stated, 
in 1913, by a competent authority, " the administration of the famine 
relief has been reduced to a highly organized system which is being 
constantly improved, and the fine railway system, which we have 
created, enables food to be transported to the stricken areas to an 
extent that was formerly impossible. Famines will inevitably afflict 
the people of India, but the loss and suffering have been infinitely 
mitigated, and what remains is mainly due to inherited habits and 



794 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

customs, which, for a time at least, will continue to militate against 
the promptitude and completion of the relief measures." Attempts 
to deal with the plague, another deadly scourge, have been less success- 
ful because "it was often found impossible to employ preventative 
measures recommended by science, owing to the panic of the native 
population, and their unconquerable opposition to isolation, hospitals, 
house-to-house visitations, segregation camps, and inoculation." Some 
of these difficulties have been fomented by the " incendiary writing 
of the vernacular press," — a fruitful and perplexing source of dis- 
content and agitation. 

There exist, amidst the teeming hordes of India, a million or so more 
or less highly educated natives, among them forward aspiring spirits 
who resent the dependent state of their people and demand complete 
self-government for their country. While theirs is a legitimate as- 
piration, as a future possibility, the impartial observer must consider 
that these extreme nationalists err in idealizing the happy prosperous 
state of India before the British occupation, that they fail to conceive 
the insuperable obstacles to an immediate realization of their ambi- 
tion, and that some at least have been worked on by German propa- 
ganda to overthrow the existing system by assassination, as well as 
organized revolt. Granted that a few are competent to rule, — and 
many are dreamy idealists with little capacity for practical administra- 
tion — ■ who could choose them and what common harmonious basis 
of representation could be devised? " India is not a nation but a con- 
geries of races and tribes exhibiting the most varied characteristics of 
language, religion, material civilization and social type." There are 
no less than 230 languages, more than 20 of which are spoken by over 
1,000,000 each, while Hindi, the most numerous of all, is spoken by 
not more than one quarter the total population. Then there are strong 
racial, religious and social antagonisms — the warlike men of the Pun- 
jab have the utmost contempt for the peaceful intelligent Bengali, 
while a Mohammedan landowner regards a coolie much as a Southern 
planter regards a negro. As to religion, there are more than 200,000,000 
Hindus, and, among its derivatives, 3 ,000,000 Sikhs and about 10,000,000 
Buddhists, the latter practically confined to Burma; there are nearly 
70,000,000 Mohammedans, and less than 4,000,000 Christians. The 
Hindus, the most numerous, are not only made up of various sects but 
include some sixty-nine castes, ranging from the Brahmans and the 
Rajputs to the lowest orders; they not only cannot intermarry or 
associate on terms of intimacy, but the higher sort are polluted by 
contact or even close proximity with the lower, though travel has done 
something to modify such extreme aloofness. While the Hindus are 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 795 

in general the best educated, the Mohammedans have qualities making 
them most capable for ruling, A native once told the late Lord Roberts 
that to withdraw the British rule would be like opening the doors of 
the cages in a menagerie and that the tiger who overcame the rest 
would be the Mohammedan from the north. Nevertheless, of late 
years, there has been a strong nationalistic movement on the part of a 
group of progressive Hindus who believe that even " good government 
is no substitute for self-government." Their mouthpiece is the Indian 
National Congress which , since 1885, has held annual meetings. Even 
within this body there have arisen sharp conflicts between the extrem- 
ists who are impatient for immediate results and those who realize that 
preparation for self-government must, perforce, be a plant of slow 
growth. Great Britain has committed blunders and even worse in 
her administration, many of which have been most vigorously de- 
nounced by critics among their own people ; many of her merchants 
and officials have shown a stolid indifference and lack of appreciation 
of native customs and prejudices, others, with the best of intentions, 
have failed in this respect, but, on the whole, the British administra- 
tion has been a marvel of wise achievement. Since immediate self- 
government would result in incalculable turmoil and confusion, the 
'best hope for the immediate future would seem to lie in the develop- 
ment of policies already in process — further instruction of officials 
in the language and customs of leading Indian peoples, a more exten- 
sive promotion of their industry, commerce and agriculture, 1 increased 
education of natives in the English language, and enlarged representa- 
tion in the legislative councils. 

The Imperial Problem. — Such is the British Empire at the begin- 
ning of the twentieth century. The problem of administering this 
vast extent of territory, scattered over the globe and inhabited by 
less than 70,000,000 whites and more than 360,000,000 non-European 
people of distinct traditions and sentiments, is a complex and formi- 
dable one. It has been rendered easier from the fact that, in a consider- 
able part of the expansion, extension of commerce and colonization 
has been a factor as potent as military force. So far as possible, too, 
Englishmen have been given an opportunity to practice self-govern- 
ment in their new homes, and " to train subject peoples for the dis- 
charges of similar responsibilities." Where responsible government 
has been impossible, efforts have been made, in the last half century, 

■ 1 At last, Great Britain, stimulated no doubt by a concerted international 
movement, put a stop to an old scandal, by announcing, May, 19 13, that the In do- 
China opium traffic was ended. This imposed upon the Indian Government the 
heavy burden of meeting a loss in revenue estimated at £4,000,000 a year. 



796 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

to provide for effective administration by civil servants whose merits 
have been tested by examination. While British statesmen, from the 
generation following the American Revolution up to fifty or sixty years 
ago, expected and even wished for a sundering of the Imperial domin- 
} ons — much to the distress of loyal Canadians and Australians — 
a great change has taken place, especially in the last generation. The 
British people, formerly ignorant and indifferent in all that concerned 
Imperial questions, are now — owing in no small degree to the vision 
and eloquence of Disraeli — enthusiastic and active. Conferences 
of Colonial Ministers, beginning at London during the Jubilee of 1887, 
have done much to draw the Colonies to the Mother Country. The 
aid furnished by Canada and Australia in the Sudan campaign of 1885 
and in the Boer War, the penny post, the improved steam communica- 
tions, and the cable to Australia have been additional links. The 
Colonial Conferences — known since 1907 as Imperial Conferences — 
have now become regular institutions meeting every four years and 
have discussed such vital questions as Imperial defense. And in the 
intervals of their meeting a permanent Imperial secretarial staff is 
in constant session at London under the supervision of the Colonial 
Secretary to keep the Dominions informed of all matters of common 
concern that may come up at future conferences. The League of Em- 
pire l has been active throughput the British Dominions for the further- 
ance of education in Imperial concerns. Although the prospect of a fed- 
eration, with a common Imperial Cabinet and Parliament, was widely 
discussed during the last years of the nineteenth and the first years of 
the present century, the trouble of adjusting a fair system of represen- 
tation between the Mother Country and the Colonies with their scanty 
white population, the enormous distances, the difficulty of keeping 
overseas representatives in touch with their constituents, the fact that 
Great Britain clings to free trade while Canada and Australia continue 
to favor protection, as well as their desire and that of South Africa to 
restrict the immigration of dark-skinned folk, and the question as to 
whether the Self-governing Colonies should be drawn into European 
complications except of their own free will, have combined to render 
the likelihood of a federal Parliament well-nigh out of the question. 
But the bonds of unity, based on community of interest and policy, 
have become steadily stronger, particularly in view of the supreme 
efforts and sacrifices arising from the World War. All indications seem 

1 Another active organization is the Royal Colonial Institute, founded in 1868, 
to promote the cause of " United Empire." The Imperial Federation League, 
started in 1884, was dissolved ten years later, without effecting its particular pur- 
pose, though it achieved much in educating people to think imperially. 



A CENTURY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREATER BRITAIN 797 

to point to a British Commonwealth of Nations with a stronger, more 
representative and more permanent central Cabinet. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

The Empire. H. E. Egerton, A Short History of British Colonial Policy, 
1783-1915 (5th ed., 1918). E. G. Hawke, The British Empire and its 
History (1911). A. W. Jose, The Growth of Empire (1913). C. F. Lavell 
and C. E. Payne, Imperial England (1918). Sir C. V. Lucas, The British- 
Empire (1915). A. F. Pollard, ed., The British Empire, its Past, its Present, 
and its Future (1909). A. P. Newton, The Old Empire and the New (1917). 
Lord Cromer, Ancient and Modern Imperialism (1910). A. J. Herbertson 
and O. J. R. Howarth, The Oxford Survey of the British Empire (6 vols., 
1914). Sir C. V. Lucas, ed., Historical Geography of the British Colonies 
(6 vols., new ed. 1915). Sir W. J. Ashley, The British Dominions, their 
Present Commercial and Industrial Condition (191 1). A. B. Keith, Selected 
Speeches and Documents on British Colonial Policy (2 vols., 19 18). R. 
Jebb, The Imperial Conference (2 vols., 191 1). Sir Charles Dilke, Problems 
of Greater Britain (1890). G. R. Parkin, Imperial Federation (1913). An 
Analysis of the System of Government throughout the British Empire (191 2). 
H. E. Egerton, Federations and Unions within the British Empire (191 1). 
Edward Jenks, The Government of the British Empire (191 8). A. B. Keith, 
Responsible Government in the Dominions (3 vols., 191 2), and Imperial 
Unity and the Dominions (1916). J. E. Barker, The Great Problems of 
British Statesmanship (1918). Lionel Curtis, Problems of the Commonwealth 
(1917). A. W. Tilby, The British in the Tropics, 1 527-1910 (191 2). 

Canada. Durham, The Earl of, Report on the Affairs of British North 
America, 1839, Sir C. V. Lucas ed. (3 vols., 191 2). A. G. Bradley, llie 
Making of Canada (1908). Sir J. G. Bourinot, Canada (1897) and Canada 
under British Rule, 1760-1900 (1900). George Bryce, A Short History of 
the Canadian People (2d ed., 1914). G. M. Wrong, "The Constitutional 
Development of Canada," Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans., 4th series, vol. I, 236-253. 
G. M. Wrong et al., The Federation of Canada, 1867-1 91 7 (four lectures, 
191 7). T. Hodgkin, British and American Diplomacy Affecting Canada 
(1900). Cambridge Modern History, X, XI, XII and bibliographies. 

Anglo-American relations. John Bigelow, Breaches of Anglo-American 
Treaties (191 7). W. A. Dunning, The British Empire and the United States 
(1914). A. C. McLaughlin, America and Britain (1919). Mary W. 
Williams, Anglo-American Isthmian Diplomacy, 1815-1014 (1914). S. C. 
Johnson, History of Emigration from the United Kingdom to North America, 
1763-1912 (1913). Sinclair Kennedy, The Pan-Angles (1915). E. D. 
Adams, Great Britain, America, and Democracy (1919). O. Wister, A 
Straight Deal or the Ancient Grudge (1920). 

Australia and New Zealand. E. G. Wakefield, A View of the Art of 
Colonization (1849, new ed., 1914). A. W. Jose, A History of Australasia 
(1918). Ernest Scott, A Short History of Australia (1917). W. T. Reeves, 



798 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand (1902). A. Siegfried, 
Democracy in New Zealand (1914)- 

South Africa. H. A. Gibbons, The New Map of Africa, 1900-1916 
(1916). Dorothea Fairbridge, History of South Africa (1918). G. M. 
Theal, South Africa (191 7). L. S. Amery, "The Constitutional Develop- 
ment 'of South Africa," Roy. Hist. Soc. Trans., 4th series, vol. I, 218-236. 
W. B. Worsfold, The Union of South Africa (191 2). James, Viscount 
Bryce, Impressions of South Africa (1897), and Britain and Boer (1900). 
Sir A. C. Doyle, The War in South Africa (1902) and The Great Boer War 
(1902). J. A. Hobson, The War in South Africa (1900). R. G. Campbell, 
Neutral Rights and Obligations in the Anglo-Boer War (1908) . G. L. LeSueur, 
Cecil RItodes, the Man and His Work (1914)- H. Spender, General Botha 
(1917). W. Levi, Jan Smuts (1917)- 

Egypt. W. B. Worsfold, The Story of Egypt (n. d.). A. E. P. B. Weigall, 
Egypt from 1798 to 191 4 (1915)- Lord Cromer, Modern Egypt (2 vols., 1908), 
and Abbas II (1915). W. L. Balls, Egypt of the Egyptians (1916). Sidney 
Low, Egypt in Transition (1914)- Cambridge Modem History, XII, ch. XV. 

India. Sir Alfred Lyall, The Rise and Expansion of the British Dominion 
in India (4th ed., 1907). Sir W. W. Hunter, Brief History of the Indian 
Peoples (23d ed. 1903). L. J. Trotter, History of India (rev. W. H. Hutton, 
1917). V. A. Smith, The Oxford History of India (1919). Sir T. W. Holder- 
ness, People and Problems of India (191 1). Sir Courtney Ilbert, The Govern- 
ment of India (191 5). M. J. Chailley, Administrative Problems of British 
India (1910). Sir G. Strachey, India, its Administration and Progress 
(4th ed., 191 1). V. Chirol, Indian Unrest (1910). The Mutiny is treated 
in most of the general histories; for bibliography see Low and Sanders, 
pp. 497-499, and Cambridge Modern History, XI, pp. 965-967 ; the standard 
work is Sir John Kaye's Sepoy War (3 vols., 1864-76) completed by G. B. 
Malleson (1878-80) ; for a briefer work see T. Rice Holmes (5th ed., 1898). 
The Imperial Gazetteer of India is a mine of information relating to the 
country. For special topics, see Sir T. Morison, The Economic Transition 
in India (191 1) ; Sir Wm. Lee-Warner, The Native States of India (191 1) ; 
A. H. Benton, Indian Moral Instruction and Caste Problems (191 7) ; E. W. 
Hopkins, The Religions of India (1896) ; J. B. Pratt, India and its Faiths 
(19 16) ; and Studies in Indian Life and Sentiment. Among the works deal- 
ing with conditions and events since the outbreak of the Great War are : 
The Aga Khan, India in Transition (1919) ; Wm. Archer, India and the 
Future (191 8) ; Lovat-Fraser, India under Lord Curzon and After (1918) ; 
DeWitt Mackenzie, The Awakening of India (191 7) ; K. V. Rao, The Future 
Government of India (1918) ; V. A. Smith, Indian Constitutional Reform 
(1919) ; F. B. Fisher and G. M. Williams, India's Silent Resolution (1919). 
H. A. Gibbons, The New Map of Asia (1919), and H. M. Hyndman, The 
Awakening of Asia (1919), are both hostile in their attitude toward the 
British administration. Lajpat Rai, Young India (1916), England's Debt 
to India (1918) and India and the Future (1919) , the works of a fiery extremist. 

The Round Table, a quarterly devoted primarily to the British Empire, is 
invaluable for current problems. 



CHAPTER LVIII 

BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO 
GERMANY AND THE CAUSES OF THE WORLD WAR (1870-1914) 

Great Britain's " Splendid Isolation." — The death of Palmerston, 
in 1865, was followed by a long period during which the British foreign 
policy was generally one of aloofness from Continental affairs. 
The Liberals, dominated until his retirement in 1894 by the master- 
ful personality of Gladstone, were interested primarily in domestic 
progress, and, though, with their leader, they raised their voices from 
time to time in behalf of oppressed nationalities, they aimed, as far as 
possible, to pursue their course unhampered by European complica- 
tions. Disraeli, so long as he led the Conservative party, applied 
his spacious imagination mainly to popularizing the idea of Imperial- 
ism and fostering the British overseas dominion. " England," he 
declared so early as 1866, " has outgrown the European Continent. 
. . . Her position is no longer that of a mere European Power. 
England is the metropolis of a great maritime Empire, extending to 
the boundaries of the furthest ocean, though she is as ready and as 
willing, even, to interfere as in the old days when the necessity of her 
position requires it." Salisbury, his successor, though quick enough 
to take a firm stand whenever British interests or honor seemed to 
be threatened, assumed as his guiding aim the maintenance of the peace 
of Europe. With rare foresight he came to realize that antagonism 
to Russia which led to more than one crisis, even during his own time, 
was " the superstition of an antiquated diplomacy." It was the men- 
ace of Germany that finally brought Great Britain again into the 
European arena. For two centuries British policy has been a reason- 
ably consistent one — to oppose any attempt to overthrow the balance 
of power, and, furthermore, to protect her Empire. Hence, she has 
fought the France of Louis XIV and Napoleon, as well as Russia and 
Germany. Naturally pursuing her own interests, in the main, 
nevertheless, high moral issues, among them the cause of oppressed 
nationalities, have made a powerful appeal to her people. No doubt 

799 



8oo SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

she has been a party to treaties and measures not always defensible ; 
but her policy has of late been far from aggressive, while she has 
shown a rare constancy in the maintenance of treaty obligations. 

Bismarck's Predominance in Europe. — For twenty years follow- 
ing the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck remained Chancellor of the 
German Empire, which — with Prussia as the dominating element — 
his calculating and ruthless policy of blood and iron had created. 
Though he assumed the position of leader in the councils of Europe, 
he had no mind for further conquests, either in Europe, or, at least 
for the time being, beyond its confines. Germany he regarded as a 
" satiated State," and, besides, he had plenty of pressing problems 
to occupy him nearer at hand. 

European Relations. The League of the Three Emperors. — 
While he was always ready to play one Power against another when 
need arose, Bismarck's primary aim was to cultivate such friendly 
relations and to make such diplomatic combinations as would keep 
France isolated. Thus, in 1872, he concluded an informal agreement 
with Austria and Russia, known as the League of the Three Emperors 
or Drei Kaiserbund. Both his allies were opposed to Great Britain's 
support of Turkey ; furthermore, the Tsar was particularly affrighted 
at the " pernicious example given by the growing republicanism and 
socialism in England." Such was the anti-British attitude of Austria 
and Russia in the early seventies. Anglo-French and Anglo-German 
relations were also not without disquieting features. Bismarck's 
exposure of the designs on Belgium which he had tempted Napoleon 
III to urge, had contributed not a little to harden the British against 
the French at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, while Queen 
Victoria's ineffectual protest against the pitiless siege of Paris had 
aroused German resentment without to any considerable degree 
reconciling the French. Bismarck, himself, cherishing no Imperial 
ambitions and recognizing that the British had no aggressive inten- 
tions in Europe, was generally inclined to cultivate friendly relations 
with Great Britain. However, aside from the feeling of his Russian 
and Austrian allies and the hostile attitude of the German press, his 
path was strewn with further difficulties. British Ministers, while 
peacefully inclined, distrusted him and viewed him coldly ; moreover 
— and here he revealed the typical German autocrat — he complained 
of the " absolute impossibility of confidential intercourse, in conse- 
quence of the indiscretions of English statesmen in their communi- 
cations to Parliament, and the absence of security in alliances, for 
which the Crown is not answerable in England, but only the fleeting 
Cabinets of the day." Circumstances soon arose that seriously weak- 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 8oi 

ened the Russo-German tie, though the alliance was never completely 
broken during Bismarck's Chancellorship. 

A New Crisis in the Near East. — One such crisis, which dragged 
Great Britain again into the whirlpool of European politics, was 
pregnant in results ; for it contributed not only to alienate Russia 
from Germany, but to tighten the Austro-German alliance and to open 
the way for a rivalry of pan-Germanism and pan-Slavism in the Bal- 
kans which has been such a factor in bringing about the recent World 
War. The trouble began, in 1875, with a revolt in the provinces of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Though egged on by Russia and Austria, 
they had suffered real grievances at the hands of Turkish officials, 
religious oppression and financial extortion as well. The provisions 
of the Treaty of 1856 had been violated in almost every conceivable 
way : the Porte had not kept its promise of ameliorating the lot of 
the Christians under its rule, Russia had not been excluded from the 
Black Sea, and endless other causes of friction existed to invite trouble. 
The three Powers of Austria, Russia, and Prussia were insistent that 
Turkey should be made to reform her administration by force of arms 
if necessary. The British Ministers, however, would go no further 
than to urge reform upon the Sultan, still believing in the possibility 
of the regeneration of Turkey, a delusion which their jealousy of Russia 
contributed to nourish. Depending upon support of Disraeli (now 
Lord Beaconsfield), the Turks pursued a policy of suave evasion. On 
5 May, 1876, a body of Mohammedan fanatics rose at Salonika; 
among their victims were the French and German consuls, and although 
British, French, and German fleets were hurried to the scene of action 
the disorders continued. During the summer of 1876, Serbia and 
Montenegro joined in the war. About the same time an insurrec- 
tion broke out in Bulgaria, and was suppressed by the Turks with such 
atrocities as to arouse a fury of indignation in England, especially 
among the Liberals. Gladstone, emerging from his retirement, pub- 
lished a pamphlet on the Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the 
East, and made speeches of fiery eloquence in behalf of the oppressed. 
Beaconsfield, who had little sympathy for the Christians in the Turkish 
provinces and a consuming dread of Russia, accused his rival of making 
political capital out of the situation, referring to him as a " designing 
politician," seeking " to further his own sinister ends." 

The Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). — Beaconsfield of course 
dominated the Cabinet, and it was only the opposition of the British 
Government to the use of force that held Russia back. At length a 
conference of the Powers was arranged at Constantinople. Lord 
Salisbury, the British representative, solemnly informed the Sultan 
3 f 



8o2 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

that if he failed to observe the warning of the Powers and allowed 
maladministration to continue, the responsibility would rest with the 
Porte ; but the effect of these weighty words was counterbalanced by 
the attitude of Beaconsfield, and the Turks, thereby encouraged to 
count on British support, rejected a protocol framed by the Confer- 
ence voicing the demands of the Powers. As a consequence, Russia 
declared war on Turkey, 24 April, 1877. For months the conflict was 
waged with varying fortune until, in December, the power of the Turk- 
ish resistance was broken. In January, 1878, the Russian troops 
occupied Adrianople ; but, though they were within striking distance 
of Constantinople, their energies were, for the moment, well-nigh 
exhausted. There were three parties in England. At one extreme 
were those who regarded the welfare of the Christian subjects of the 
Porte as a matter of secondary importance and insisted upon the main- 
tenance of the integrity of Turkey as a necessary barrier against 
Russian aggrandizement. Opposed to them was the party who 
felt that the maintenance of the Ottoman Empire in Europe was a 
disgrace to Christendom, and that it must be destroyed at all hazards. 
Between these extremes was the great mass of men who were ashamed 
of the Turkish atrocities, but who, nevertheless, could not bring 
themselves to support the armed intervention of Russia. There were 
sharp differences of opinion in the Cabinet as well. The policy of 
the Foreign Minister was to hold aloof without coercing or assisting 
Turkey, so long as the British interests in the Suez, in Egypt, in the 
Persian Gulf, or anywhere along the route to India, were not affected. 
With some difficulty he maintained this policy until the Russians 
advanced on Constantinople, when, as a counterpoise, a British fleet 
was sent to the yEgean. It sailed through the Dardanelles, and took 
up a position near the Turkish capital. On 3 March, the Russians 
extorted from their vanquished enemy the Treaty of San Stefano. 

The Treaty of San Stefano (1878). — The treaty provided among 
other things for : (1) the creation of an autonomous vassal principality 
of Bulgaria, extending from the Danube on the north and the Black 
Sea on the east to the iEgean on the south, and so big as not only to 
menace the integrity of Turkey, but practically to swallow up Mace- 
donia, which the Greeks burned to recover ; (2) the independence of 
Serbia, Montenegro, and Rumania ; l and (3) the autonomy of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina under Christian governors. The plan of a 
" Kg Bulgaria " was opposed strenuously both by the Mussulmans 
and by the Greeks. Great Britain, who favored their protests, on the 

1 Formed by the union, between 1859 and 1866, of the ancient provinces of 
Moldavia and Wallachia. 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 803 

ground that it would practically amount to the creation of a Russian 
province dominating the Balkan peninsula, 1 only later came to recog- 
nize that the formation of strong and independent buffer States in the 
Balkans might prove just as effective a check on the expansion of 
Russia as would the preservation of the integrity of Turkey. Austria, 
who had apparently received a promise from Russia, that she might 
occupy the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was also dissatisfied. 
As a result, the Congress of Berlin was arranged, where, owing mainly 
to the insistence of Great Britain, the whole treaty was reviewed. 
Although it was unprecedented for a Prime Minister to take such a 
step, Beaconsfield went in person to Berlin. 2 

The Congress of Berlin (1878). —The chief work of the Congress, 
which sat from 13 June to 13 July, under the presidency of Bismarck, 
was to alter two provisions of the Treaty of San Stefano. Austria 
was ajlowed to occupy and administer Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, 
the " big Bulgaria " was cut down to a district north of the Balkans. 
South of the mountains was formed the province of Eastern Rumelia, 
under the Control of the Sultan but administered by a Christian Gov- 
ernor-General named by the Porte with the assent of the Powers. 
Macedonia, too, was excluded from the Bulgaria contemplated by 
the Russian arrangement, handed back to the Sultan, and, in spite of 
promised reforms, remained groaning under Turkish oppression and 
constantly in revolt until 1913. Beaconsfield on his return to England 
was received with tremendous enthusiasm, and declared complacently 
that he had obtained " peace with honor." But the achievement 
which he contemplated with the greatest pride was not destined to sur- 
vive a decade ; for, in 1885, Eastern Rumelia, his pet creation, quietly 
proclaimed its union with Bulgaria. Serbia, backed by Austria, 
waged a war in vain to prevent it, and the arrangement was sanctioned 
by Salisbury, the successor of Beaconsfield as head of the Conservative 
party. Bulgaria, resenting Russian domination in her affairs, soon 
broke with her protector, a result which might have been precipitated 
sooner if she had got the strength which she desired in 1878. Great 
Britain, however, had accomplished something by showing the Rus- 
sians that they could not presume to adjust the affairs of the Near 

1 Beaconsfield may also have been influenced by the fear that the resentment of 
the Mohammedan subjects of the British would be roused by so great a reduction 
of the boundaries of the leading Moslem State. 

2 Meantime, 4 June, Great Britain, nine days before the opening of the Berlin 
Congress, had concluded a convention with Turkey by which she received the 
island of Cyprus in return for an agreement to protect the Asiatic provinces of the 
Porte from Russian attack, on condition that the Sultan "introduce necessary 
reforms therein." 



804 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

East unopposed ; but even the heirs of Beaconsfield's policy came 
to recognize that there was a more effectual way of holding the Mus- 
covite power in check, than by a futile attempt to sustain the in- 
tegrity of Turkey in Europe. 

The Triple Alliance (1870-1882). — Although Bismarck protested 
that he merely acted the part of an " honest broker " at the Congress 
of Berlin, his support of Austria and Great Britain against the efforts 
of Russia to champion the Slavs, and to extend Muscovite influence 
in the Balkans, put a serious strain on Russo-German relations. To 
secure Germany against a possible Russian attack — and also against 
France, which he regarded as far less dangerous — the German 
Chancellor arranged with Austria, in October, 1879, a Dual Alliance, 
that in 1882 he extended into a Triple Alliance by the inclusion of 
Italy, thus thrusting a wedge between a possible junction of France 
and Russia by way of the Mediterranean, as well as securing a possible 
avenue of attack on the French border. Not content with the security 
aimed at by the Triple Alliance, Bismarck also undertook to tie 
Russia's hand against a possible combination with France by the 
so-called policy of " re-insurance." It required no little adroitness 
to enter into treaty relations with a Power against which he had 
already effected a combination, even if only defensive in character, 
particularly since he had offended that Power by his pro-Austrian 
and anti-Russian attitude in 1878. Neverthless, he concluded in 
1 881, in 1884, and again in 1887, arrangements with Russia, providing 
that, if either Germany or Russia were attacked by a third Power, the 
other would remain neutral. 

The New Kaiser William II (1888-1918). — Changes fraught with 
consequences for the future followed close on the accession, 15 June, 
1888, of Kaiser William II. He kept the peace, it is true, for a quarter 
of a century ; indeed, he was apparently anxious to avoid war so long 
as he could attain his ends without fighting for them. However, his 
inordinate sense of his divine mission and of the superiority of German 
Kultur, his close identification alike with the military Junker class 
and with the captains of Germany's prodigious industrial and com- 
mercial development, his ambitious colonial and Near Eastern policy 
■ — not merely for economic expansion but also for political domination, 
— his enlargement not only of the army but of the navy as well, his 
amazing assertions and periodic rattling of the saber, ultimately pre- 
cipitated a crisis which drenched the world in blood. While there 
were grim and potent forces at work, too mighty perhaps for even the 
All-Highest to control, he had not a little to do with unchaining them. 
On 8 March, 1890, he dropped his experienced and wary pilot, Bis- 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 805 

marck, partly because he chafed under the veteran Chancellor's 
dictatorial methods and partly because he differed from him on many 
questions of State policy. For one thing, the Kaiser declined to renew 
the re-insurance treaty with Russia ; then he began to take more ener- 
getic steps to secure for Germany a place " in the sun," by reaching 
out for colonies in the few available regions of the earth where the other 
Powers, notably Great Britain and France, had not secured a foothold, 
and he began to assume the position which British official diplomacy 
— following only slowly in the wake of enlightened British public 
opinion — was beginning to discard, the position of official protector 
of the unsavory Turk. The final chapters of the Near Eastern crisis 
can best be considered later ; but neither here nor in the matter of 
colonial expansion, did Germany come into serious conflict with Great 
Britain for years to come. Already, before the accession of William 
II, in spite of the reluctance of Bismarck and the old Kaiser to embark 
on a colonial career, Germany had acquired, between 1884 and 1886, 
German Southwest Africa as well as possessions in the Cameroons, 
Togoland and along the East African coast, besides various islands in 
the Pacific. In 1897 she made use of the murder of two missionaries 
to obtain the Chinese port of Kiau-Chau, in the same year she got 
the Caroline Islands, and, in 1899, two of the Samoa group. Few of her 
acquisitions were suitable for white settlers, and indeed her main aim 
seems to have been to secure sources for raw material, coaling stations 
and strategic positions. Only recently has it been made clear that in 
Africa she was aiming to drill native armies, to establish military and 
naval bases, and to control a belt straight across the Continent that 
would cut the British colonies in the south from their possessions in 
the north. There are some evidences that the British have hampered 
her development. For example, having possessed themselves of Wal- 
fisch Bay, the best harbor on the southwest coast, they refused to sell 
it ; but the refusal was due to the protests of Cape Colony. Then, 
as a counterpoise to the German occupation of East Africa, they ex- 
tended their power and territory in a manner described in another 
connection. 1 On the other hand, Great Britain agreed, in 1898, that 
Germany might buy the Portuguese colonies in Africa whenever Portu- 
gal was willing to sell ; though later, Sir Edward Grey refused to sign 
the treaty , because Germany insisted on keeping the agreement 
secret. 

Franco-Russian and Anglo-French Agreements. — The publication 
of the terms of the Triple Alliance, in 1888, and the Kaiser's refusal to 
renew the re-insurance treaty with the Tsar, in 1890, resulted in bring- 

1 See above, p. 774. 



8o6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ing Russia and France together. Their isolation was fully revealed 
to them, while a young ruler, prone to fiery and reckless assertion, 
had seized the reins of power from the cautious if cynical old Chan- 
cellor. So, under pressure of necessity, autocratic Russia and demo- 
cratic France entered into what might seem otherwise an unnatural 
conjunction. The first formal diplomatic step was taken in 1891, 
and the agreement — apparently defensive in character — was offi- 
cially proclaimed, though not in detail, in 1896. Thus an effort had 
been made to restore the balance of power in Europe ; but for a time 
little more was done. The Kaiser, in spite of occasional wild and 
threatening speeches — for example, he had declared in 1890 : " every- 
one who is against me I shall crush " — had striven to keep his country 
at peace. To be sure, he had, on the repulse of the Jameson raid, 
sent a congratulatory telegram to Kruger; but the idea originated 
with his Foreign Office rather than with himself, designed, unsuccess- 
fully as it proved, to test French feeling on the question of recognizing 
the independence of the Boers. Moreover, he was unable to avert 
rapprochements on the part of Great Britain with France and Russia, 
which came in the course of a few years. The European feeling 
manifested against her at the time of the Boer War had awakened 
Great Britain to a realization of her isolated position and stirred her 
to the task of settling her outstanding disputes with various countries, 
of restoring the balance of power and of extending the policy of inter- 
national arbitration. 

Under the Marquis of Lansdowne, who had succeeded Salisbury as 
Foreign Secretary 1 in 1900, the ties with Italy and Portugal had been 
strengthened and cordiality with France had been reestablished after 
the partial estrangement dating from the British occupation of Egypt 
and manifest during the Boer War. In this work the British Foreign 
Minister was greatly assisted by the pacific Edward VII, who as Prince 
of Wales had formed many warm personal attachments in France, 
though, in his new capacity as King, he was careful not to usurp the 
functions of his responsible Ministers. In 1903, during his first 
Continental tour since his accession, he stopped at Paris, and his visit 
was returned by President Loubet in July. This prepared the way 
for the Entente Cordiale concluded by Lansdowne and the French 
Foreign Minister Delcasse, 8 April, 1904. The British agreed to 
recognize French interests in Morocco, while the French agreed to 
recognize those of Great Britain in Egypt. In return for an assurance 
that the British Government would not alter the political status of 

1 Salisbury had held this office himself, together with the Premiership, from 
r8o5 to 1900. 






BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 807 

Egypt, they ceased to ask for a fixed time for the withdrawal of the 
British, and consented to allow them a freer hand in the administra- 
tion of Egypt's surplus revenues. 

The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1906). — Events in the Far East led 
to a startling demonstration on the part of Germany, in 1905, and pre- 
cipitated an understanding between Russia and Great Britain, whose 
conflicting Eastern interests had kept them at swords' points for so 
many generations. After Germany had secured a forcible " lease " 
of Kiau-Chau, Russia fixed her clutches on Port Arthur ; France also 
obtained a port, while, in May, 1898, Great Britain, as a means of 
counteracting these acquisitions, got a lease of the island of Wei- 
Hai-Wei, together with some territory on the mainland opposite Hong- 
Kong. Two years later, in 1900, there occurred a rising of the Boxers, 
a society organized against foreign encroachment. During the course 
of its suppression by a joint army of the Western Powers and the United 
States, Russia took occasion to occupy the whole of Manchuria. Her 
refusal to evacuate Manchuria, or to give assurances as to the terri- 
torial integrity of Korea and the Chinese Empire, involved her in 
a war (1 904-1 905) with Japan in which the latter won a complete 
triumph. 

The Morocco Crisis (1905), and the Algeciras Conference (1906). — 
While Japan leaped into the position of a military and naval power 
of the first rank, Russia was so prostrated that Germany took advan- 
tage of the situation to protest against the recent strengthening of the 
Anglo-French Entente by which France was given a free hand in in- 
ducing the Sultan of Morocco to undertake civilizing reforms. Al- 
though Germany, in return for commercial privileges, had agreed to 
the French policy of " peaceful penetration " in Morocco, she changed 
her tone as the war went steadily against Russia. In the spring of 
1905 the Emperor visited Tangier in his yacht, and, under the pre- 
tense of protecting German commercial rights, practically assumed a 
protectorate over Morocco, by declaring that he could not allow any 
Power to step between him and the free Sovereign of a free country. 
The British Government remained neutral, but intimated that un- 
provoked aggression against France would arouse public opinion in 
England. Finally, a conference was arranged, which met at Alge- 
ciras, close by Gibraltar, 16 January, 1906. Although it declared the 
sovereignty and independence of the Sultan of Morocco, and " eco- 
nomic liberty without any inequality," within his dominions, and al- 
though plans for reforming the system of taxation and policy of the 
country were placed under international control, the paramount 
interests of France and Spain were recognized by intrusting them 



808 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

with these financial and police duties as agents. The Kaiser*, who had 
asserted six years previously, that "without Germany and the Ger- 
man Emperor no important step in international policy should be 
taken " had, with no small degree of success, asserted his prestige. 
At the same time, Great Britain had indicated that the Entente might 
be a force to be reckoned with. Moreover, the Kaiser's assertiveness, 
coupled with his designs in Turkey and Asia Minor, presently to be 
considered, prompted Russia and Great Britain to compose their 
differences in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet in 1907. Although the 
extent of the agreement is not fully known, there was now a Triple 
Entente of Great Britain, France, and Russia which might be employed 
as a weapon of defense against any aggression on the part of the Triple 
Alliance. Great Britain was no longer isolated, and her relations to 
Germany since the turn of the century must next be examined. 

England and Germany. — Although the Kaiser professed friendli- 
ness to England and seemed to like English ways, Edward, Le Roi Paci- 
ficatetir, who drew Great Britain closer to other European countries, 
was able to accomplish very little toward improving relations with 
Germany. The latter country, in consequence of the enormous de- 
velopment of population and industry in recent times, was seeking to 
spread beyond the seas, and resented the fact that Great Britain 
had preempted the best part of the colonial field. The British, on 
their part, were apprehensive of the increasing manufacturing and 
commercial development of Germany and of her growing sea power. 1 
So, while Edward and his nephew the Emperor William interchanged 
formal visits on occasion, their relations were far from wholly cordial. 
Indeed, notwithstanding frequent attempts at adjustment, relations 
grew steadily worse. Since Germany now was the leading military 
power of Europe it was a matter for specially grave concern to the Brit- 
ish that she should aspire to become a formidable sea power as well. 
A reasonable increase of her fleet to protect her growing commerce, and 
such colonies as she had acquired, was perhaps to be expected, but 
Britain, who freely admitted all countries to her colonial trade and 
who was absolutely dependent on her overseas dominions for food 
supplies, for raw materials and markets, could not contemplate with- 
out alarm the scale on which Germany planned her naval increase. 
It was clear that she meant to expand. Many years ago she began to 

1 Moreover, there were personal reasons why the English Royal and the German 
Imperial families were not warmly attached to one another. The Queen was a 
Danish princess and the Prussian attitude in the Schleswig-Holstein question had 
aroused a rancor never completely healed. Another source of friction was the 
unpopularity in Germany of Edward's sister Victoria, the mother of William II. 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 809 

discourage the migration of her people to other lands, realizing that 
within a generation or two they would be a complete loss to the Father- 
land, though the so-called Delbriick Law of 19 13 was an insidious at- 
tempt to enable Germans, naturalized in other countries, to retain their 
allegiance to Germany as well. Since the Government did not want to 
restrict the birthrate either, there was a prospect of ultimate overpop- 
ulation, though there was far less immediate danger from this than 
there was from the fact that the country was producing more than her 
own people could absorb. The French and the United States had 
hampering protective tariffs, the British Self-governing Colonies 
favored the Mother Country with preferential duties, and, though all 
signs pointed to the contrary, Germany seems to have feared that the 
whole British Empire might in time be closed to her by a solid wall of 
protection. Hence her feverish haste to secure strategic positions in 
the backward countries of the world, her intrigues in India, her designs 
for a Middle-Africa, and also a Middle-Europe and a Middle-Asia, 
which latter would enable her to cut Britain and France off from their 
Russian ally and at the same time sever the British from their Eastern 
Empire. Such an unobstructed path from Berlin to the head of the 
Persian Gulf would mean not only economic power but political pres- 
tige as well. This, too, Germany craved. As the years went on, it 
became increasingly manifest that Germany's success had gone to her 
head, that she looked down from lofty heights of self-righteous scorn 
on the British as worn-out, flabby hypocrites, and on the French as 
hopelessly decadent. Her vainglorious Kaiser, regarding himself as 
a divine instrument, was convinced that by " keeping his powder dry," 
by appearing from time to time in " shining armor," he could obtain 
the objects on which he had set his heart. In this he was backed by 
a military caste even more militant than himself, by persistently 
aspiring business groups, and by vocal professors shrieking that it was 
the mission of Deutschtum to spread Kultur the world over. The 
patient application and ingenuity of the Germans and their real faith 
in their ideals demand praise, but many of the ambitions which they 
nourished, together with the means by which they sought to realize 
them, were bound to disturb the peace of the world. Some of the 
points thus briefly touched on deserve to be considered a bit more in 
detail. 

Anglo-German Trade Rivalry. — A study of statistics in trade and 
production since 1870 would seem, at first sight, to indicate that Ger- 
many was outstripping Great Britain by leaps and bounds, and some 
have argued that this aroused a hostility which contributed materially 
to precipitate a crisis. Aside from the fact that the British trading 



810 SHORTER HISTORY" OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

classes were the least warlike element in the country previous to the 
outbreak of hostilities, a few other facts must be taken into account.. 
Since Great Britain became the workshop of the world, a generation or 
two before Germany began her commercial and industrial develop- 
ment, it is clear that, starting with a much smaller volume of business, 
the latter's increase or gain is relative rather than absolute. Never- 
theless, it seemed when Germany's exports during the forty years 
from 1870 to 1910 increased by 194 per cent and her imports by 170 
per cent, while those of the British could only show gains of 115 per 
cent and 130 per cent respectively, that the younger competitor was 
destined, in the long run, hopelessly to outstrip her older rival. The 
growth of German coal and iron production — facilitated in no small 
degree by the acquisition of the rich ore districts that she wrenched 
from France in 1870 — was equally remarkable, so that, by 191 1, she was 
the third coal-producing country in the world, with an output exceeded 
only by that of the United States and Great Britain, while she pro- 
duced 15,200,000 tons of iron to Great Britain's 9,500,000 tons and was 
excelled only by the United States in this industry. Moreover, 
she had become a formidable competitor in shipping, two of her lines 
— the North German Lloyd and the Hamburg- American — being 
especially famous for the size, speed, and convenience of their ships. 
In many respects the Germans are entitled to the greatest credit 
for their achievements in building up their trade and industry. They 
have worked with patience and intelligence. They have evolved 
with great pains a system of technical education at once scientific 
and practical. They have trained salesmen l who have learned the 
language and studied the temper and wants, if not always the needs of 
prospective foreign customers ; they have provided cheap goods of a 
reasonably serviceable grade for improvident folk, and have arranged 
long and easy terms of payment. The British, trusting in the durable 
high grade character of their goods and in their security against com- 
petition, long remained, to a not inconsiderable extent, complacently 
indifferent to the desires of their customers ; they clung to antiquated 
methods and machinery, and took their ease, cutting into business 
hours with afternoon tea, hunting, and athletic sports. On the other 
hand, certain of the German business methods have been short-sighted 
a rid unscrupulous. By means of Government subsidies and tariffs they 
had encouraged, sometimes overstimulated home production and 
kept the price high in their own country in order to dump the surplus 
at cheap rates on markets which they wished to penetrate ; by secret 

1 Their mercantile class have been a striking contrast to their cruel and over- 
bearing bureaucratic officials. 






BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 8ll 

underhanded methods they have got control of banks, business con- 
cerns, and newspapers in foreign countries, and by undue extension of 
credit had brought their finances — in the opinion of many — to a 
perilous state just previous to the war. 

Once roused to the danger of German competition and having re- 
covered from the depressing effects of the Boer War which for a time 
hampered their efforts, the British began to recover their lost ground. 
An examination of the figures from 1909 to 191 3 will show that Great 
Britain's exports increased by 38.6 per cent — including re-exports by 
46 per cent — as against Germany's 44.3 per cent, while the gains 
in imports were 23 and 20.5 per cent respectively. If the basis of 
increase per head were considered, the British gain would be even more 
striking, since the population of Germany is greater, and for years has 
increased more rapidly than that of the United Kingdom. In 1913 
British foreign trade was the greatest in her history. 1 She still pos- 
sessed 50 per cent of the world's tonnage and was building annually 
more shipping than the rest of the world together. Her prosperity 2 
was marked, 3 and there was, in spite of much industrial discontent, 
comparatively little unemployment, while, owing to various causes, 
Germany had fallen into a period of industrial and commercial depres- 
sion with little prospect of improvement. 

All together, while for years there had been complaints and warnings 
in consular reports, in periodicals and newspapers, while there had 
been panics from time to time, constant misery among the unskilled, 
together with complaints from the skilled artisans that wages did not 
keep pace with rising prices, while there was steady agitation for a 
protective tariff and while apprehension and bitterness were manifest 
toward Germany in many quarters, it is out of the question to assert 

1 There is another aspect of the statistics which seems, from a superficial glance, 
to be rather damaging to Great Britain, namely, that for many years her imports 
have exceeded her exports ; but her position is like that of the rich investor living 
on his income ; the excess represents a surplus bought with the return from foreign 
investments and the yield from her enormous carrying trade. In 191 2 Great 
Britain had invested abroad some £4,000,000,000, fully four times as much as 
Germany. 

2 It apparently had begun to spend itself by the spring of 1914, though the 
decline had not become very marked when the war broke out. 

3 Some would ask, if Germany with complete freedom of trade in the British 
dominions was underselling her competitor, how has it been possible that the latter 
has of late been holding her own? The answer is that in the Self-governing 
Colonies there are preferential tariffs in favor of Great Britain while in the colonies 
under the control of the British Parliament there is no discrimination. It is in 
the former that Great Britain has counterbalanced Germany's gains in the latter, 
as well as in various other undeveloped parts of the world. 



8l2 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

that British jealousy of German trade ascendancy led to the War. 
The traditional British free trade policy was triumphantly vindicated 
at the polls in 1906 and twice in 19 10; the Liberal Administration, 
in power for eight years previous to the War, sought in every way to 
preserve the peace ; the commercial classes were those most opposed 
to war; and finally, by responding to the stimulus of competition, 
Great Britain had, for at least three years previous tp the crisis, begun 
to recover her old lead over her threatening trade rival. 

The Race in Naval Armaments. — Meantime, the creation of a pow- 
erful navy, to supplement her army — the most formidable in Europe 
— had aroused the gravest disquiet, among the far-seeing, as to Ger- 
many's designs. Very early in his reign, Kaiser Wilhelm began to 
manifest an intense enthusiasm for a big navy, to protect, as he said, 
Germany's expanding commerce; but various of his characteristi- 
cally thumping expressions, such as " the trident must be in our hands," 
gave color to the suspicion that his ultimate aim was to contest the 
naval supremacy of Great Britain. However, the actual work of 
building up the German Navy during the past twenty years has been 
due mainly to the tireless energy of Admiral von Tirpitz, who became 
Minister of Marine in 1897. The very next year, the German Navy 
League was founded to popularize the idea of a great fleet, and a million 
members were soon enrolled. Also, in 1 898, the new Minister introduced 
his first bill to provide for a high seas fleet. Two years later, in 1900, 
when Great Britain was in the grip of the Boer War without a friend 
in Europe, a second bill was introduced providing for increased esti- 
mates. The British were forced to accept the challenge : thus a race 
of armaments, feverishly intermittent, began. Von Tirpitz, in season 
and out of season, worked through the press, the Navy League, as 
well as in the Reichstag, to realize his cherished ambition. In this 
same year, 1900, aformer chief of the Admiralty staff frankly considered 
the possibility of a war against England, which, he declared, was not 
improbable " owing to the animosity which exists in our country to- 
ward England, and, on the other side, to the sentiments of the British 
nation toward all Continental Powers and in particular against Ger- 
many." 

The British fleet was put on its modern basis by the Naval Defense 
Act of 1889. Aside from needed increase and reorganization, the two- 
Power standard was then adopted ; that is, the naval strength of Great 
Britain should be equal to that of any two other nations combined, 
France and Russia being at that time the two greatest rivals to the 
British at sea. Then came the German menace involved in the Naval 
Law of 1898. This same year the Tsar of Russia " proposed an Inter- 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 813 

national Conference for the purpose of devising means for reducing 
expenditure on naval and military armaments." Although the Hague 
Conference of 1899 was unable to agree upon a plan of reduction of 
armaments, it recommended the proposal for consideration by the vari- 
ous Governments concerned. The German reply was the law of 1900 
almost doubling her navy. Owing to the agreements of 1902 with 
Japan and of 1904 with France, Great Britain was able to withdraw 
the greater portion of her fleet from stations in Chinese and Japanese 
waters and from the Mediterranean, and to concentrate in the English 
Channel. About the same time, old ships began to be scrapped, and 
a new type, the so-called Dreadnought, was introduced, — speedy, 
heavily armored and equipped with a small number of large caliber 
guns instead of many guns of various calibers. These two facts gave 
von Tirpitz, who had refused to consider any project for reduction of 
armaments, a new excuse to expand his construction program, for 
which, the Morocco crisis of 1905 had furnished another stimulus. Al- 
though he carried a third Naval Bill in 1906, the radical Liberals in 
England succeeded in reducing substantially the estimates for 1906. 
Unhappily, this overture was regarded by the Kaiser as a confession of 
weakness. He declared flatly that, if the question of regulation of 
armaments were brought before the second Hague Conference, called 
to meet in 1907, he should decline to be represented. Indeed, he went 
further, on another occasion, and declared that he regarded the ap- 
proaching Conference as " great nonsense." l 

A fourth German Naval bill, in 1908, prompted Edward VII to de- 
clare, during the course of a visit to his Imperial cousin, that " the 
naval rivalry set on foot by Germany was s„ure to provoke suspicions 
as to its ultimate intentions, and thus to embitter relations, then per- 
fectly friendly and natural, between the two countries." While 
King Edward was optimistic about the existing feeling, there was no 
doubt that the German big-navy party were making matters worse. 
The Kaiser, in an interview published in a London newspaper, admitted 
that " a majority of his people were hostile to England." Among the 
British there was a large pacific element, though, on the other hand, 
there were stalwart spirits who insisted on more battleships. At 
the same time, Lord Roberts, England's greatest general, sought to 
rouse his countrymen from a fancied sense of security by pleading for 
compulsory military training. Few took him seriously, but the naval 
estimates were once more greatly increased, owing in no small degree 

1 The German Government was not only opposed to disarmament but even to 
arbitration treaties, on the ground that arbitration was a derogation of sovereignty 
and that it handicapped, in case of difficulties arising, a people prepared to strike. 



8l4 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

to the fact that Austria backed by Germany had just annexed the 
provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This time the Reichstag — 
seeing signs of determination rather than yielding, and, for the moment 
at least, impressed by the hopelessness of gaining in the race — re- 
fused new taxes to meet another increase in the German building pro- 
gram. Thereupon, von Bethmann-Hollweg, who became Chancelior 
in this year, 1909, made a specious overture, proposing that Germany 
would " retard her rate," if the British would promise to remain 
neutral in the event of a Continental war. The British naturally 
hesitated to accept such a proposal in view of the fact that it might 
involve deserting her allies, and, while they were still negotiating, the 
Kaiser and the Chancellor x frankly stated that they could not bind 
themselves not to enlarge their naval program. Following a second 
crisis in Morocco in 191 1, when the attitude of British statesmen forced 
Germany to abate her demands, the Reichstag at length passed a fifth 
bill which made it clearer than ever that Germany was aiming " to 
be supremely powerful both by sea and land." Two days after the 
new program was announced, Lord Haldane, a British statesman of 
decided German sympathies, arrived in Berlin to discuss the naval 
situation, but the result proved futile. From this time, however, the 
British Government ceased to maintain a two-Power standard, and 
it was definitely stated in Parliament that she would retard her build- 
ing whenever Germany did the like. When Admiral Tiipitz, in Feb- 
ruary, 1913, agreed that the British ratio of 16 to 10 — which she had 
adopted in relation to Germany in place of the old two-Power standard 
— was " acceptable " to him, Mr. Churchill, the British First Lord 
of the Admiralty, proposed a " naval holiday " ; but Tirpitz refused 
this, on the ground that Germany could not afford to have her plants 
and her shipyards idle. Mr. Churchill's renewal of the offer, 18 
October, was not favorably received by the public of either country. 
Even the friendly Lord Haldane went so far as to say that : " What- 
ever efforts Germany may make she must reckon upon our making 
efforts which will be still greater, because sea power is our life and in 
sea power we intend to remain supreme." Apparently, Germany 
finally had come to recognize this fact, and, though there was no re- 
tardation, there had come to be " a substantial agreement " as to the 
respective rates of increase. 

It -seems difficult not to place on Germany the chief blame for this 
costly procedure ; for Great Britain had never menaced German com- 
merce ; indeed, she had been guilty of little or no aggression for a hun- 

1 The latter declared, 30 March, 1911, that he considered "any control of arma- 
ments as absolutely impracticable." 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 815 

dred years. In time of peace, Germany could enjoy perfect freedom 
of the seas ; she might fear British control of the Suez and of coaling 
stations, but there was no indication that these would be used against 
her unless she provoked hostile action. While there were English- 
men who indulged in reckless utterances, the statesmen in power, 
backed by the majority who kept them there, strove for peace at every 
crisis, notably, as we shall see, in 1908, 191 1, and 1914. They refused 
to increase their land army in spite of the fervid agitation of Lord 
Roberts. They made no protest against the great military force 
which Germany regarded as essential for the protection of her frontiers, 
but insisted that the British supremacy at sea must be maintained 
for the purpose of guarding the lanes of travel to her Colonies so vitally 
essential not only for raw materials and markets but for food supply 
itself. While some Germans recognized this point of view, the general 
attitude was arrogant and ominous. The trident-grasping Kaiser 
had declared : "our future lies on the water " ; one of his ex-Chancellors 
wrote a book in which he asserted that " England's reluctance to make 
war on us has allowed us to get a grip on the sea," and these are only 
two out of any number of similar statements that might be quoted. 
A large section of the press was hostile in tone, the possibility of in- 
vading England was openly discussed, and German officers gleefully 
drank to Der Tag, or the day when they would meet England in a de- 
cisive naval combat. 

German Kultur. — During the fifty, and still more during the 
twenty-five years preceding the War, the German people have under- 
gone an amazing and startling transformation. The old land of the 
dreamy philosopher, the gifted composer, the patient scholar, the docile 
toiler, has, since the founding of the Empire, been forced under the 
spell of Prussia and its grim and ruthless materialism. Frederick the 
Great, who first brought his State into the circle of first-rate Powers, is 
the ancestor of the arbitrary and cynical tradition which came to pre- 
vail. He would have " no ministers abroad but spies, no ministers at 
home but clerks," and declared : " I keep my treaties just so long as 
it is my interest to keep them and no longer." The depths to which 
the Germans were reduced by Napoleon's victorious troops, their 
partial recovery with their conscript army, the failure of the liberal rev- 
olution of 1848 and the triumph of Bismarck, and the unexampled 
prosperity which followed under Prussian domination, irresistibly 
converted the country to a policy of hard realism. 

Meantime, the German thinkers had become deeply impressed by 
the Darwinian doctrine of the survival of the fittest. They taught 
themselves to believe that they were superior beings, and that it was 



816 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

their mission to impose their Kultur — their peculiar philosophy of 
life and their peculiar form of political, social, and industrial organiza- 
tion—on the rest of the world even by military force. Many, 
indeed, came to glorify war as the noblest form of human activity, 
insisting that — as an essential condition to progress — the weak 
should be crushed and the strong prevail. Perhaps the most influen- 
tial pioneer of this school was Heinrich von Treitschke (i 834-1 896), 
who devoted his rare eloquence and literary skill to the exaltation of 
the German State under Prussian domination. " The greatness and 
goodness of the world," he passionately taught, " is to be found in the 
predominance there of German culture, of the German mind, in a word, 
of the German character." A German World Empire was his ambition, 
and war was the way to bring it about. " War," he avowed, " is 
both justifiable and moral, and ... the ideal of perpetual peace 
is not only impossible, but immoral as well." After 1870 his fury was 
concentrated against England as the final great obstacle in Germany's 
progress toward her goal. " If our Empire," he declared, " has the 
courage to follow an independent colonial policy, a collision of our in- 
terests and those of England is unavoidable. It was natural and 
logical that the new Great Power of Central Europe had to settle 
affairs with all Great Powers. We have settled our accounts with 
Austro-Hungary, with France, and with Russia. The last settlement, 
the settlement with England, will be the lengthiest and the most 
difficult." In 191 1 this necessity of a war with England, in order that 
Germany might secure her " place in the sun," was discussed with 
brazen frankness by von Bernhardi in Germany and the Next War. 

Perhaps enough has been said of the Kaiser — who regarded him- 
self as the anointed of God to carry on the work of his ancestors and to 
lead the German people to greater glory and power and wealth. For 
years he had sought to attain these ends by alternating gracious per- 
suasion with bluster. Many of his expressions — his " mailed fist," 
his " shining armor," and his injunction to the Chinese Expedi- 
tionary force, in 1900, to " be as terrible as Attila's Huns " — are known 
everywhere. Not infrequently he rose to supreme heights. To his 
recruits at Potsdam, in 191 1, he announced : " Body and soul you be- 
long to me. If I command you to shoot your fathers and mothers . . . 
you must follow my command without a murmur." But it was in 
his speech to his soldiers on the Declaration of War in 1914 that he 
reached the apogee of presumption : " Remember," he said, " that 
the German people are the chosen of God. On me as German Emperor 
the spirit of God has descended. I am His weapon, His sword and His 
Vice-regent. Woe to the disobedient! Death to cowards and un- 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 817 

believers!" It was mentality such as this which confronted Great 
Britain, as well as the rest of the world. 

The Pan-German Movement. — There was much that was fine in 
the German's devotion to his State and his fervid faith in his Kultur, 
and much that was said and written might have seemed the mere 
vaporings of a ruler afflicted with acute Imperial megalomania and 
of deluded egotistical professors, but it was backed not only by the 
domineering cult of the Prussian caste but by a consuming zeal for 
political prestige and business domination. The Pan-German League, 
founded in 1886, at first counted for little, but after its reorganization 
in 1893, it became a potent factor in propaganda for German expan- 
sion. It aimed to reach out and bring within the Empire Holland, 
Flemish Belgium, and even — according to the plans of the more am- 
bitious — the Scandinavian countries, together with Austria and the 
German parts of Russia. Another design was to press down through 
the Balkans and to control a road to the head of the Persian Gulf, 
and still another was to establish a Middle-Africa as well. In the 
course of time the Pan-Germans joined forces with the Navy League 
and other influential organizations. While the annexation policy 
remained largely a dream before the War, it came very near a grim 
reality during the course of the struggle, though Holland and the 
Scandinavian countries never came within Germany's grip. 

Futile Negotiations. — In spite of commercial rivalry, race of arma- 
ments and ambitions openly proclaimed, the German Government 
made more than one overture to Great Britain. But they all involved 
the possibility of deserting France and Russia with whom the British 
were united in a defensive agreement. For example, von Bethmann- 
Hollweg's proposal for a retardation in construction was coupled with 
the condition that the British and the Germans should agree that 
(1) Neither country had any idea of aggression and that neither would 
in fact attack the other ; (2) That, in the event of an attack made on 
either Power by a third Power or group of Powers, the Power not 
attacked should stand aside. Gladly Great Britain would have ac- 
cepted the first point ; but the second she could not allow herself to 
be trapped into accepting. Bismarck had shown, in 1870, how easily 
Germany could draw an attack on herself when she desired war. In 
such an event, Great Britain once entangled in this agreement — and 
she had a prejudice for observing treaty obligations which the new 
German political philosophy had discarded — would have to hold 
hopelessly aloof while France, or even Belgium, whose neutrality 
she had joined in guaranteeing, were crushed. Sir Edward Grey 
admirably stated the British position in 191 1 : " One does not," 

3G 



818 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

he said, " make new friendships worth having by deserting old ones. 
New friendships by all means let us make but not at the expense of 
the ones we have." At the time of Lord Haldane's visit, in 1912, when 
negotiations were reopened, Great Britain expressed her readiness to 
agree that she would " neither make, nor join in, any unprovoked 
attack upon Germany " and to give an assurance that " aggression 
upon Germany is not the subject, and forms no part of any treaty, 
understanding or combination to which England is now a party, nor 
will she become a party to anything that has such an object." This, 
however, would not satisfy Germany, who would come to no terms un- 
less England would " acquiesce in a formula of neutrality which was 
deliberately calculated to destroy her existing friendships with France 
and Russia, and by which she would have abandoned her treaty 
obligations to small states." Meantime, a long chain of events in the 
Near East led straight to an appalling crisis which, while the British 
Foreign Office strove to maintain the peace of Europe, vindicated 
their foresight in rejecting the specious proposals above outlined. 

German Penetration in the Near East. — In 1889 the Kaiser paid 
a visit to the Sultan at Constantinople which proved the prelude to a 
German penetration of European and Asiatic Turkey, not for the pur- 
poses of colonization, but for commercial expansion and political 
prestige. German officers were sent to train Turkish troops, German 
capital was placed in the country, banks were established and German 
merchants began to acquire the lion's share of Turkish trade. These 
activities began after Great Britain, even before her entente with 
Russia, had come to realize that there were better ways of holding 
in check her ancient Muscovite rival than by continuing to bolster 
up the hopelessly corrupt Turkish State. 

Great Britain and Turkey (1894-1897). — Terrible massacres — 
during the years 1 894-1 896 — of the Armenians, whose Christian na- 
tional aspirations infuriated the Sultan, precipitated the change in 
the British attitude. Early in 1895, the Powers presented a joint 
note to the Porte demanding reforms ; but, this time, obstruction came 
from Russia — who had no desire to see a strong Armenian state pro- 
tected by the Powers blocking her road to the Persian Gulf. Glad- 
stone, from the retirement in which he was spending his declining 
years, raised his voice for independent intervention on the part of 
Great Britain; while his appeal was not acted on, and while the 
Armenians had to wait till 1899 before any reforms were under- 
taken, he converted many to his way of thinking. Meantime, in a 
speech of 19 January, 1897, Salisbury, who had gradually come to the 
conclusion that his country had erred in seeking to maintain the integ- 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 819 

rity of Turkey, uttered his famous declaration : " We put all our 
money on the wrong horse." In view of events at this time and of 
the atrocious massacres sanctioned by Germany during the Great 
War, it would seem that Germany thus early was, to no small degree, 
responsible for encouraging the Turk in defying the will of the Powers. 
Indeed, in 1896, while the Sultan's hands were red with blood, the 
1 Kaiser thought it a fitting time to send him an Imperial photo- 
graph. This he followed up, in 1898, by a tour through the Turkish 
dominions, during which at Damascus he made an amazing speech 
wherein he declared that the 300,000,000 Mohammedans who looked 
to the Sultan as Caliph would find in him, the Kaiser, a friend and 
protector. 

The Bagdad Railway Project. — Only an incurable optimist could 
hope, in view of past experience, to regenerate the Turkish regime. 
However, the Kaiser and his advisers may have thought that they 
could succeed where others had failed ; moreover, here was a chance 
for legitimate development in almost the only area not preempted 
by Great Britain, France or Russia. Mesopotamia, the valley of the 
Tigris and the Euphrates, might be restored to its ancient fertility, 
and a commercial route might be opened through Asia Minor to the 
head of the Persian Gulf. Germany and Austria were closely allied, 
Germany was rapidly securing control of Turkey ; if the Austro-Ger- 
man alliance could dominate the Balkans there would be created an 
uninterrupted highway from Berlin to the Indian Ocean. The menac- 
ing feature of this scheme was that it would drive a solid wedge be- 
tween the British and the French on the west and Russia on the east, 
threatening the British line of communication between Egypt and 
India, and even jeopardizing the security of the British occupation 
of Egypt. More than one German writer expressed the German 
ambitions in the frankest of language. " Egypt is a prize which for 
Turkey would well be worth the risk of taking sides with Germany in 
a war with England," said one, while another wrote : " The Bagdad 
railroad being a blow at the interests of British Imperialism, Turkey 
could intrust its construction only to the German company, because 
she knew that Germany's army and navy stood behind her." The 
preliminary concession was secured, in 1899, the year after the Kaiser's 
second visit to Constantinople, and, in 1903, the steps were completed 
by which the Bagdad Railway Company was established as an Otto- 
man corporation. In spite of the undoubted commercial advantage 
of such a railway, the British prevented the Germans from securing the 
terminal port of Koweit at the head of the Persian Gulf, and blocker 1 
the progress of the undertaking, until satisfactory financial and 



820 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

political arrangements could be devised. 1 It is clear that it was 
not the project itself, but the methods by which it was to be carried out 
to which the British objected ; since, in 1914, they agreed to a treaty 
for the completion of the road which was only interrupted by the out- 
break of the war. 

The Young Turkish Revolution (1908). — Germany's hold on the 
Ottoman Government was for the moment loosened by the Young 
Turkish Revolution in 1908, a movement which not only failed to 
realize the hopeful expectations which it had aroused, but started a 
train of events which contributed to a world tragedy. Unfortunately, 
the leaders were actuated by Mohammedan bigotry and intense na- 
tionalism as much as by democratic and reforming zeal. Hence they 
stirred up opposition among the subject peoples in the Ottoman Em- 
pire and, even worse, they inspired fear among European Powers that, 
with their fresh vigor, they might seek to recover territories on which 
the old effete Government had practically relaxed its hold. This 
prompted Francis Joseph, the Austrian Emperor, to announce, 3 
October, 1908, the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which 
Austria had administered since 1878. Russia opposed this extension 
of Austrian power in the Balkans, but she was not in a position to 
fight, for she had not recovered from her defeat by Japan in 1904- 
1905, and Great Britain was unwilling to support her in a Balkan 
quarrel, the ultimate consequences of which the British had not yet 
come to realize. The Kaiser made much of the fact that he had ap- 
peared behind his Austrian ally in " shining armor." Moreover, 
Germany, though for years she had been cultivating the old regime, 
soon managed to secure an equally strong hold over the leaders of the 
Young Turks. While engaged in this task she essayed another trial 
of power in Morocco. 

The Second Morocco Crisis (191 1). — Twice by trading on the weak- 
ness of Russia the Kaiser had successfully asserted himself : in Mo- 
rocco in 1905 and in the Balkans in 1908. His third effort was far less 
successful. In consequence of a rebellion in Morocco, France detailed 
troops to restore order; whereupon Germany took occasion to de- 
clare that she would not acquiesce in French ascendancy in the country 
without compensation, and, 2 July, 191 1, the Kaiser sent a ship of 

1 The Germans, who undertook the construction in sections, were to be liberally 
paid by an increase in the Turkish customs in which the British were heavily inter- 
ested. That was the first proposal ; the second was that Germany, France, and 
England should each advance 30 per cent of the required funds and Russia 10 
per cent; but according to the concession of 1903, Germany could appoint six of 
the eleven directors of the railway company, and would thus control its policy, while 
the three other Powers concerned advanced 70 per cent of the funds. 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 82 1 

war to Agadir. His attempt to test the strength of the Anglo-French 
Entente was speedily and conclusively met. The British Government 
declared that Germany's action created a new and grave situation, 
and that it did not purpose to stand aside if British interests and treaty 
relations with France were affected. While Germany was not with- 
out justification in assuming that one element in France was seizing 
the occasion of the disturbed condition of Morocco to intrench her- 
self there by force, she hurt her case by her attempt to bully France 
and to ignore England. Brought to a standstill by the latter's deter- 
mined attitude, she now condescended to indicate the terms on which 
she was prepared to treat with France. England agreed not to inter- 
fere, and, by an arrangement, concluded in November, Germany, in 
return for territorial cessions in the Congo region and a guarantee of 
equal economic opportunities for all Powers in Morocco, agreed to the 
French political ascendancy in the latter country. The Pan-Ger- 
manists were infuriated by what they regarded as a humiliating set- 
back to German diplomatic prestige. 

The First Balkan War (1912-1913). — Not long after, the Christian 
States of the Balkans seized the opportunity of a war between Italy 
and Turkey (1911-1912) to combine against the latter for the purpose 
of realizing long-cherished ambitions and redressing ancient grievances. 
Zeal for reform and national aspiration were, it should be said, fo- 
mented by Russia, the champion of Pan-Slavism, who longed to expel 
German-ridden Turkey from Europe, and to control Constantinople 
and the exit from the Black Sea. By the end of July, 191 2, alliances 
were concluded between Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro. 
The swift decisive campaign which followed the opening of war 
in October, gave the slow-moving European Powers no chance to get 
their bearings. Not only was the defeat of Turkey a sore blow to the 
military prestige of the Germans who had trained the Turkish army, 
but the prospect of a strong united Balkan League promised a serious 
obstruction to the Austro-German plan of dominating the Balkans. 

The Treaty of London (1913). — After the Balkan Allies had gained 
a series of striking successes, a peace conference was arranged at Lon- 
don, where delegates from the countries at war held their first meeting 
16 December, 191 2. Meantime, Great Britain and the other Great 
Powers had been working to keep the conflict localized, and the British 
Premier, Mr. Asquith, in a speech of 9 November, had declared that : 
" the victors were not to be robbed of the fruits which had cost them 
so dear." Terms which the Turkish delegation agreed to accept were 
rejected in Constantinople in consequence of a coup d'etat, and hostili- 
ties, which had been suspended, were reopened. On 16 May, 1913, the 



822 SHORTER HISTORY Of ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

peace sittings were resumed ; after ten days of wrangling, Sir Edward 
Grey, the British Foreign Minister, sent for three of the delegates and 
informed them that they must agree to terms on the basis of a treaty 
drawn up by the Great Powers, or leave London. As a result, the 
Treaty of London was signed, 30 May, 19 13, by which Turkey ceded 
to the Balkan allies all European territories north and west of a line 
from Midea, on the Black Sea, to Enos, on the /Egean, together with 
the Island of Crete. Settlement of the status and frontiers of Albania 
was left to the determination of the Great Powers. 

The Second Balkan War and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). — 
Trouble began when Austria, supported by Italy, insisted that Albania 
be set up as an autonomous State. This blow to Serbia was rendered 
all the harder by withholding from her the port of Durazzo, which cut 
off this landlocked country from reaching the Adriatic. Blocked to- 
ward the west, Serbia, in view of the great gains which her armies 
had made in Macedonia, asked Bulgaria for a revision of the treaty 
which they had made in February, 191 2, regarding the future disposal 
of Macedonia — a demand in which she was backed by Greece. 
Bulgaria — egged on by Austria — without referring the dispute 
to the arbitration of the Tsar of Russia 1 whom she doubtless feared 
would decide against her, indeed without warning or declaration of 
war, on 29 June attacked the Greek-Serbian lines in Macedonia. 
Rumania, who had stood aloof in the previous war, now came in with 
a fresh army in the Bulgarian rear. For a few weeks the latter count ry 
waged a hopeless struggle with her exhausted troops, but, finally, 
she was forced to agree to the Treaty of Bucharest, 6 August, 1913, 
by which all her opponents profited at her expense. Though the con- 
flict had been precipitated by her own folly, Bulgaria had emerged from 
the second Balkan War sadly disappointed and furiously embittered 
against her former Balkan allies. Serbia, while she had acquired some 
Macedonian territory, had failed to secure her exit to the sea and nour- 
ished a new grievance against Austria. Thus the Balkan problem 
was more acute than ever, and the Powers of Europe were in a state 
of unstable equilibrium. 

The European Situation (1913-1914). — In spite of the growth of 
international socialism, pacifistic writing, and Hague Tribunals, 
expensive military establishments were being maintained, and no 
acceptable scheme of disarmament had been devised. The Triple 
Alliance had provoked the Triple Entente, and although the latter, 
from all indications, was as purely defensive in character as the former 

1 This was to have been the last resort, according to the Treaty of February, 
1012. 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 823 

professed to be, Germany insisted that she was being encircled on land 
and deprived of the freedom of the seas ; she was an open advocate 
of the politics of power which she had arrogantly asserted on three 
occasions, in 1905, 1909, and 191 1 ; her population, though she was 
still able to absorb it, was increasing, and, more pressing and serious, 
she was manufacturing more than she could consume; she envied 
France and Great Britain their colonies ; she was striving to control 
one route through the Balkans to the Persian Gulf and another across 
central Africa from east to west. Since 1898 she had been building 
up a powerf ul navy, and, not content with her great and highly trained 
army, she passed a Bill, in 19 13, greatly to increase her effective force, 
a step which stimulated France and Russia to further efforts and 
also brought Belgium to introduce universal military service. So 
much for Germany ; but all the other countries had their fears, am- 
bitions, and disturbing elements. France still resented the loss of 
Alsace and Lorraine, though there is no indication that she would have 
gone to war solely for that cause, but she feared for the safety of her 
colonies, and she had been obliged to submit to more than one affront 
from her former conqueror, which kept her apprehensive and galled 
her pride. Great Britain had, in Germany, a serious manufacturing 
and commercial competitor, the increase of the German navy was a 
menace to the sea power on which the safety of her Empire depended, 
to say nothing of the pretentious threats which the Germans frequently 
directed against her. 1 Italy was irritated at German aid to Turkey 
in the recent war with Tripoli, and she was burning to secure Italia 
Irredenta, districts in the Austrian Alps which menaced her safety, 
and stretches on the Eastern shore of the Adriatic which she desired 
on sentimental and commercial grounds. The real storm center, 
however, was in the Near East. Russia, aiming to control the outlet 
from the Black Sea, was resolutely championing the pan-Slavic in- 
terests against Austria, who had made a vain attempt, so early as 
August, 1 9 13, to secure Italian support in an aggressive war against 
Serbia. 

The Serajevo Tragedy. — Suddenly, 28 June, 1914, Francis Ferdi- 
nand, the Austrian heir-apparent, together with his Consort, were 
murdered at Serajevo in Bosnia. What followed has been told time 

1 In spite of the tenseness of the European situation, accentuated by German 
patriotic celebrations at the centenary of the Battle of Leipzig (October, 19 13), Mr. 
Lloyd George pleaded in the Daily Mail, 2 January, 19 14, for a reduction of arma- 
ments on the grounds that (1) British relations with Germany were infinitely more 
friendly than they had been for years; (2) Germany was concentrating on her 
army rather than on her navy ; and (3) the spread of revolt against military oppres- 
sion throughout Christendom. 



824 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and again, and should be considered here chiefly so far as Great Britain 
is concerned. While the assassins were Austro-Hungarian subjects 
they were Serbians; moreover, there seems to be little doubt that 
their action was due to Serbian propaganda and promoted by Serbian 
assistance. Here was a heaven-sent chance to break the strength 
of a State, which — backed by all the strength of Russia and pan- 
Slavism — blocked the Austro-German route to the ^Egean, a neces- 
sary stage on the road to the Persian Gulf. Although a momentous 
conference was called by the Kaiser, 5 July, to see if his generals, his 
admirals, and his financiers were ready, and although heavy selling 
of certain foreign stocks by Berlin operators took place, 10-13 J ul y 7 
no official step was taken till 23 July, whe 1 ! Austria launched an 
ultimatum against Serbia, which, in the words of Sir Edward Grey, 
was " a more formidable document than any which he had ever seen 
before addressed by one State to another independent State." l The 
moment was well chosen. Great Britain was in the throes of the strug- 
gle over the Irish Home Rule Bill. France was distracted over the 
notorious Caillaux trial, while reports of 13, 14 July disclosed serious 
weakness in the equipment of the army, which only accentuated a 
strong Socialistic sentiment against mounting expenses for arma- 
ments. At the same time, Russia was shaken by serious labor troubles 
manifested in the outbreak of strikes at St. Petersburg. The President 
and Premier of France were absent in Russia, and the Kaiser was cruis- 
ing along the Norwegian coast. Thus his assertion may be true that 
he never saw the actual ultimatum to Serbia, though the responsibility 
of the German Government is all the greater, since, as they after- 
wards admitted in their own White Book, they " permitted Austria 
a completely free hand in her action toward Serbia." Clearly, as the 
British Government asserted, it was " the deliberate intention " of 
Austria, and of Germany who backed her, " to take both Serbia and 
Europe by surprise." 

The Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia. — The Austrian ultimatum, 
or demarche, as they preferred to call it, embodied ten drastic demands 
and was to be answered within forty-eight hours. On 24 July Ger- 
many announced to the Powers her approval of the note. The Ser- 
bian reply, presented 25 July, agreed unqualifiedly to eight of the 
demands. The two others she was unable to agree to unreservedly ; 
nevertheless, with the hope of adjusting peacefully even these two dis- 
puted points, Serbia declared her willingness to submit the decision 

1 Vorwaerts, the Berlin Socialistic paper, stated, 25 July, that the demands on 
Serbia "are more brutal than have been ever put to an independent State in the 
world's history, and can only be intended deliberately to provoke war." 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 825 

to the Hague Tribunal or to the Great Powers. Although the Serbian 
reply was a fairly lengthy document, the Austrian Minister to Belgrade, 
scarcely more than thirty minutes after he received it, was seated in 
a train leaving the city. All the facts and indications go to support 
the assertion of the British Ambassador to Vienna " that the Austro- 
Hungarian note was so drawn as to make war inevitable, that their 
Government are fully resolved to have a war with Serbia." Austria 
had great provocation ; but her demarche was couched in such a form 
as to make it impossible for Serbia to accept all its terms without re- 
serve if she hoped to maintain her national independence and self- 
respect. 

Sir Edward Grey's Attempts to Arbitrate. — From the first, Sir 
Edward Grey strove valiantly to effect a settlement " simply and 
solely from the point of view of the peace of Europe." His aim was 
not " to localize the conflict," as the German White Book later as- 
serted, but to prevent an Austrian attack on Serbia which would 
inevitably draw in Russia on the Serbian side, with the ghastly 
prospect of involving the whole of Europe in war. He had not 
hesitated to declare, with reference to the Serajevo tragedy, that " no 
crime has ever aroused deeper or more general horror throughout 
Europe; none has ever been less justified. Sympathy for Austria 
was universal. Both the Governments and the public opinion of 
Europe were ready to support her in any measures, however severe, 
which she might think it necessary to take for the punishment of the 
murderer and his accomplices " ; moreover, 24 July, he urged Serbia 
" to express concern and regret " and " to give Austria the fullest 
satisfaction " if it was proved that Serbian officials were involved. 
On the 25th, the day the Austrian note was answered, he proposed 
and urged that Germany, France, Italy, and Great Britain arrange 
a conference to find some way out of the difficulty. France, Italy, 
and even Russia agreed, but Germany, while full of pacific assurances 
that she was doing her best to restrain her ally, refused to agree to 
this plan, on the ground that it would be forcing Austria into an arbi- 
tration which she had not sought. Naturally she had not ! Germany 
failed to publish in the White Book her correspondence with Austria 
during these critical days; but evidence later disclosed makes it 
clear that she was backing Austria to the limit in the expected event 
that Serbia refused to agree to her impossible demands. Meantime, 
28 July, Austria declared war on Serbia, and Russia, who had given 
Serbia promises of support, ordered a partial mobilization, 29 July; 
this was followed two days later, 31 July, by a general mobilization, 
only after Austria had bombarded the Serbian capital of Belgrade 



826 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

on the 30th. Thenceforth, Germany took the initiative. When 
Russia and France refused to accept her peremptory ultimatums, 
she declared war on the former, 1 August, and on the latter, 3 August, 
after German armies had already invaded Luxemburg and entered 
French territory. 

" The Question of Responsibility." — Five years previously, in 
1909, Germany by appearing behind Austria " in shining armor " 
had overawed Russia into allowing Austria to work her will in the 
Balkans. This time it was not to be. The guilt of Germany in pro- 
voking the crisis is pronounced in a scathing indictment by Prince 
Lichnowsky, her Ambassador to London, who, because of his laudable 
desire to promote good relations with Great Britain, had for some time 
been treated with scant consideration by his own Government. Here 
is what he says : 

"As is evident from all official publications — and this is not refuted by 
our White Book, which, owing to the poverty of its contents and to its omis- 
sions, is a gravely self-accusing document — 

"1. We encouraged Count Berchtold (Austrian Foreign Minister) to 
attack Serbia, although German interests were not involved (sic !) and the 
danger of a world-war must have been known to us. Whether we were 
aware of the wording of the Ultimatum is completely immaterial. 

"2. During the time between the 23d and 30th July, 1914, when M. 
Sazonow (Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs) emphatically declared that 
he would not tolerate any attack on Serbia, we rejected the British proposals 
of mediation, although Serbia, under Russian and British pressure, had 
accepted almost the whole of the Ultimatum, and although an agreement 
about the two points at issue could easily have been reached, and Count 
Berchtold was even prepared to content himself with the Serbian reply. 

"3. On the 30th July (31 July), when Count Berchtold wanted to come 
to terms, we sent an Ultimatum to Petrograd merely because of the Russian 
mobilization, although Austria had not been attacked; and on the 31st 
July (1 August) we declared war on Russia, although the Tsar pledged his 
word that he would not order a man to march as long as negotiations were 
proceeding — thus deliberately destroying the possibility of a peaceful 
settlement. 

"In view of the above undeniable facts, it is no wonder that the whole of 
the civilized world, outside Germany, places the entire responsibility for the 
world- war upon our shoulders." 

Great Britain Drawn into the War. — Happily for Great Britain, 
both her duty and her interest impelled her to strive for peace to check 
Austro-German aggressions, and, if need be, to support France, 
Russia, and Belgium. She had made specific agreements with 
France in 1904 and with Russia in 1907, which apparently contem- 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 827 

plated joint action in case of necessity, though she was free to decide 
what constituted a case of necessity. However, she was bound in 
honor to protect the French coast, since the French had withdrawn 
their whole fleet to the Mediterranean, leaving the British to concen- 
trate in the Channel and North Sea. Furthermore, together with 
Prussia, Austria, France, and Russia, she had guaranteed the neutral- 
ity of Belgium in 1839. Austro-German domination of the Balkans 
might seriously menace her Eastern possessions, while German occu- 
pation of Belgium, in conjunction with her steadily increasing navy, 
might threaten the very existence of the British Isles. Finally, in the 
event of a European War, Great Britain would have to face the issue 
of standing by France and Russia or leaving them to be crushed, 
with the certain prospect of having to fight the victor alone in the near 
future. Nevertheless, while Sir Edward Grey strove by every means 
in his power to bring about a peaceable adjustment, he steadfastly 
refused from the first to enter into any engagement binding his country 
to support Russia and France by force of arms. Such an assurance 
might have brought Germany to reason ; but it would have been quite 
contrary to his pacific intentions. Moreover, he was a responsible 
Cabinet Minister, and it is almost certain that the Liberal party in 
the Commons, and public opinion outside, would never have supported 
a pledge to enter into war on what seemed to most a purely Balkan 
quarrel. Yet, by 29 July, he had reached the point of solemnly warn- 
ing the German Ambassador in London " that there was no question 
of our intervening if Germany was not involved, or even if France 
was not involved, but if the issue did become such as we thought 
British interests required us to intervene, we must intervene at once." 
The same day, the Imperial Chancellor at Berlin offered, in return for 
British neutrality, " every assurance that the Imperial Government 
aimed at no territorial acquisitions at the expense of France." But, 
when questioned by the British Ambassador, he was unable to " give 
a similar undertaking " with regard to the French Colonies, or to 
guarantee that German forces might not be forced to enter Belgium. 
As a result, the British Government refused to bind themselves to 
neutrality on such terms. Honor and prudence both demanded that 
Great Britain keep her hands absolutely free to act if there was any 
possibility of crushing France or violating Belgium. 

The Violation of Belgium. — On 31 July, Sir Edward Grey sent 
definite inquiries both to France and Germany whether they were 
" prepared to engage to respect the neutrality of Belgium so long as 
no other Power violates it." France gave an unqualified promise at 
once. Officially, Germany would give no such assurances, though 



828 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the well-disposed Lichnowsky sought to ascertain the intentions of the 
British Government in case guarantees were given regarding Belgium 
and the integrity of France and her colonies. On 2 August, Germany 
invaded Luxemburg and, two days later, sent an ultimatum to Bel- 
gium demanding " a free passage through Belgian territory, and 
promising to maintain the independence and integrity of the kingdom 
and its possessions at the conclusion of peace, threatening, in case of 
refusal, to treat Belgium as an enemy. An answer was requested with- 
in twelve hours." This outrageous proceeding caused the King of 
the Belgians to appeal to the King of Great Britain for " diplomatic 
intervention to safeguard the integrity of Belgium." In response to 
King Albert's appeal, the British Government sent an ultimatum 
through their Ambassador at Berlin requesting that the German 
Government give a satisfactory assurance by twelve o'clock that 
night, 4 August, to respect the neutrality of Belgium. Otherwise the 
Ambassador was instructed to ask for his passports " and to say that 
his Majesty's Government feel bound to take all steps in their power 
to uphold the neutrality of Belgium and the observance of a treaty 
to which Germany is as much a party as ourselves." His account of 
his final interview with von Bethmann-Hollweg that evening reveals 
one of the most dramatic and infamous incidents in history. 

"I found the Chancellor very agitated," he reports. "His Excellency 
at once began an harangue which lasted about twenty minutes. He said 
that the step taken by His Majesty's Government was terrible to a degree ; 
just for a word — 'neutrality,' a word which in war time had so often been 
disregarded — 'just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was going to make war 
on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to be friends with her.' 
All his efforts in that direction had been rendered useless by this last terrible 
step, and the policy to which ... he had devoted himself since his accession 
to office had tumbled down like a house of cards. What we had done was 
unthinkable ; it was like striking a man from behind while he was fighting 
for his life against two assailants. He held Great Britain responsible for 
the terrible events that might happen. I protested strongly against that 
statement and said that in the same way as he . . . wished me to under- 
stand that, for strategical reasons, it was a matter of life and death to Germany 
to advance through Belgium and violate the latter's neutrality, so I would 
wish him to understand that it was, so to speak, a matter of 'life and death 7 for 
the honor of Great Britain that she should keep her solemn engagement to do 
her utmost to defend Belgium's neutrality if attacked. That solemn compact 
simply had to be kept, or what confidence could anyone have in engage- 
ments given by Great Britain in the future?" 

Already, earlier in the same day, the Chancellor had made to the 
Reichstag the following blunt statement which speaks for itself : 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 829 

"We are now in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law. Our 
troops have occupied Luxemburg and perhaps are already on Belgian soil. 
Gentlemen, that is contrary to the dictates of international law. It is true that 
the French Government has declared at Brussels that France is willing to 
respect the neutrality of Belgium, so long as her opponent respects it. 
We knew however that France stood ready for invasion. 1 France could wait 
but we could not wait. A French movement on our flank upon the lower 
Rhine might have been disastrous. So we were compelled to override the 
just protests of the Luxemburg and Belgian Governments. The wrong — 
/ speak openly — that we are committing we will endeavor to make good as 
soon as our military goal has been reached. Anybody who is threatened, 
as we are threatened, and is fighting for his highest possessions, can only 
have one thought — how he is to hack his way through." 2 

An opeji-minded study of the British diplomacy during the fateful 
twelve days which preceded Great Britain's ultimatum to Germany 
cannot but confirm the conclusion that : " It is very difficult to see 
what more Sir Edward Grey could have done to prevent the outbreak 
of war between Austro-Hungary and Serbia, which did inevitably, as 
he foresaw from the first, drag in other nations. He urged Serbia 
to moderation and even to submission ; tried to induce the four Powers 
to mediate jointly at St. Petersburg and Vienna ; he proposed a con- 
ference of the four Powers to prevent further complications ; he did 
everything in his power to restrain Russia from immediate armed 
support of Serbia ; he declined to join France and Russia in eventual 
military action ; and even up to the violation of the neutrality of 
Belgium he still strove to avert the horror of war from Europe." 
Possibly an unequivocal statement that Great Britain would support 
Russia and France might have restrained Germany ; but such a step, 
as the representative of the pacific Liberal party and as a responsible 

1 When the Germans subsequently rummaged the Brussels archives they found 
records of conversations between the British and the Belgians; but these related 
only to action to be taken in case Belgium were attacked, and the Germans knew it, 
for we have the word of King Albert that he informed them at the time. 

2 Maximilian Harden, editor of the Zukunft — ■ who, previous to the War, was a 
most vociferous supporter of the German national policy, but who later came into 
conflict with the Government because of his outspoken criticism of their aims and 
methods — later expressed himself with even more refreshing candor : 

"Let us cease," he wrote, "our wretched efforts to apologize for what Germany 
has done, and let us stop heaping contempt and insult upon the enemy. We have 
not plunged into this colossal adventure against our will, nor was it forced upon 
us by surprise. We wanted it, and we do not appear before the bar of Europe, be- 
cause we do not recognize its jurisdiction in our case. Our might will make a new 
law in Europe. It is Germany who strikes. . . . Germany is carrying on this 
war because she wants more room in the world and larger markets for the products 
of her activity." 



830 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Minister, Sir Edward Grey could not take. Yet vital as were British 
interests' it required the violation of the neutrality of Belgium to arouse 
the country an overwhelming sentiment for participation in the 



in 
war 



FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

For good brief accounts of general European history : C. J. H. Hayes, 
Political and Social History of Modern Europe (2 vols., 19 16) ; CD. Hazen, 
Europe since 181 5 (ioio), Fifty Years of Europe, 1870-1919 (1919) and 
Modern European History (1917) 5 L - H - Holt and A - w - Chilton, The 
History of Europe, 1862-1914 (191S) ; J- S. Schapiro, Modern and Con- 
temporary European History (19 18). 

For European Governments and International Law : A. L. Lowell, 
Greater European Governments (19 18) ; F. A. Ogg, The Governments' of Europe 
(1916). A. S. Hershey, The Essentials of International Public Law (1914). 

For general causes of the War : A. Bullard, The Diplomacy of the Great 
War (19 16); A. C. Coolidge, The Origins of the Triple Alliance (191 7) ; 
W. S. Davis, Wm. Anderson and W. W. Tyler, The Roots of the War (1918) ; 
G. Lowes Dickinson, The European Anarchy (1916). H. A. Gibbons, The 
New Map of Europe (1914) ; C. Seymour, The Diplomatic Background of the 
War (1916); G. Guyot, The Causes and Consequences of the War (1916) ; 
W. H. Hobbs, The World War and its Consequences (1919). 

For the diplomatic rupture : J. W. Headlam, The History of Twelve Days, 
July 24th to August 4th, 1914 (191 5) ; E. C. Stowell, The Diplomacy of the 
War of 1914 (vol. I, 191 5); Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky, My Mission 
to London (1918) ; W. Muehlon, The Vandal of Europe (1918) ; Collected 
Diplomatic Documents relating to the Outbreak of the European War (191 5) ; 
J. B. Scott, ed., Diplomatic Documents relating to the Outbreak of the European 
War (2 vols., 1916) ; Sir A. Oakes and R. B. Mowatt, The Great European- 
Treaties of the Nineteenth Century (1918), very useful for reference. 

For British foreign policy in general and for Great Britain and Germany 
especially: T. E. Barker, Great and Greater Britain (2d ed., 1910) ; H. E. 
Egerton, British Foreign Policy in Europe to the End of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury (191 7); Viscount Bryce et al., The War of Democracy, the Allies' 
Statement (1917) ; Sir E. Cook, How Britain Strove for Peace (1914) ; J. A. 
Cramb, Germany and England (1914) ; Earl Loreborn, How the War Came 
(1920) ; E. Meyer, England, its Political Organization and Development and 
the War against Germany (Eng. tr., 1916) ; Ramsay Muir, The Expansion 
of Europe (1917) and Britain's Case against Germany (1918) ; G. Murray, 
The Foreign Policy of Sir Edward Grey, 1906-191$ (1915) ; G. F. Nicolai, 
The Biology of War (191S) ; C. W. C. Oman, The Outbreak of the War, 1914- 
1918 (1920) ; F. S. Oliver, Ordeal by Battle (191 5) ; G. W. Prothero, German 
Opinion and German Policy before the War (1916) ; J. M. Robertson, Britain 
versus Germany, an open letter to Professor Edward Meyer (191 7). G. E. 
Schmitt, England and Germany, 1740-1914 (1916) ; Why We are at War, 



BRITISH FOREIGN RELATIONS 831 

Great Britain's Case, by members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History 
(1914). See also Louise F. Brown, The Freedom of the Seas (1919) ; G. L. 
Beer, The English-Speaking Peoples (191 7) ; E. Boutmy, The English 
People, a Study of their Political Psychology (Eng. tr., 1904) ; C. Cestre, 
France, England and European Democracy, 1215-1915 (19 18) ; C. K. Hob- 
son, The Export of Capital (19 14) ; A. E. Zimmern, Nationality and Gov- 
ernment (19 1 8). 

For a full, excellently annotated bibliography of works appearing in 
English to the spring of 1918, see G. M. Dutcher, History Teacher's Magazine 
(now the Historical Outlook), March, 19 18, pp. 155-183, later reprinted in 
Collected Materials for the Study of the War (1918), which includes S. B. 
Harding's valuable syllabus on "The Study of the Great War," which 
originally appeared in the Hist. Teacher's Magazine, January, 1918, pp. 30-62. 



CHAPTER LIX 
BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR (1914-1918) 

Part I 

The Opening of the Conflict. — By her fateful decision of 4 August, 
1 914, Great Britain plunged into a world war which raged for over 
four and one quarter years, which involved three fourths of the popu- 
lation of the globe, which, first and last, called to arms upwards of 
60,000,000 men, and covered a fighting area which included not only 
considerable portions of Europe, but parts of Asia, great stretches of 
Africa, and remote islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Owing to 
the huge numbers engaged and the increased effectiveness of modern 
engines of war, the destructiveness of life and property has been un- 
paralleled in the world's history. More than 7,000,000 have been 
killed in combat and 6,000,000 permanently maimed, besides some 
14,000,000 less seriously wounded. 1 Of the total forces called to the 
colors on the Allied side, the British Empire contributed 8,654,467^ 
and suffered casualties of 851,117 killed, 142,057 missing, and 2,067,442 
wounded, or 3,060,616 all told. According to a careful computation 
the direct cost alone has mounted to the staggering figure of $186,333,- 
637,097, of which three fourths has been spent for purely military pur- 
poses. The British share in this enormous total has been roughly 
about one fifth. 3 

Resources of the Belligerents. — Although the forces of the Allies 
greatly outnumbered the Central Powers — except for the interval 

1 This is exclusive of civilians massacred or starved or destroyed by air raids, 
to say nothing of millions victims of influenza, an epidemic which war conditions 
contributed greatly to spread. At a conservative estimate, the total war casualties 
must have mounted to far over 40,000,000. 

2 Of these the British Isles contributed 5,704,416; Canada, 640,886; Australia, 
416,809; New Zealand, 220,099; South Africa, 136,070; India, 1,401,350; other 
colonies, 134,837. 

3 The British War debt is £7,435,000,000 (about $35,000,000,000) of which 
£171,000,000 has been loaned to the Dominions and £1,568,000,000 to the Allies. 

832 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 833 

in 1 91 7-1 91 8 between the collapse of Russia and the entrance of the 
United States at any appreciable strength — Germany and her allies 
had many initial advantages. For one thing, she had a superiority 
in trained officers and men quickly available for fighting. The British 
had had little experience in handling large masses of men, and, while 
the French had many brilliant admirably equipped officers, their staff 
organization was nothing like so extensive and complete as Ger- 
many's. Russia had a huge army, which, though it moved more 
quickly than the Germans anticipated, was slow in getting started. 
Then Germany had the further advantage of operating on inside lines 
of communication served by strategic railroads on the western and east- 
ern borders which, under the direction of an autocratic military caste, 
she had constructed in time of peace. In consequence of her central 
position and her superior communications and her ability to choose 
her point of attack, she was able to overrun Belgium, northern France, 
Serbia and Rumania, though, in the first instance, she profited also 
from a shameless violation of her pledge of neutrality. Fear of destruc- 
tion of beautiful cities hastened the surrender of her opponents in 
many cases, while the same fear handicapped the Allies in driving 
her out of places she had once occupied. Modern warfare is a highly 
specialized industry in which equipment counts for much. Here Ger- 
many had another advantage, due to years of preparation and patient 
ingenious application. In rifles, in machine guns, and heavy artillery 
her initial superiority was immense ; furthermore, she had huge stores 
of high explosive shells, and, for a long time, was firing ammunition 
made before the war. The Allies at once started to supplement the 
output of their own inadequate plants by purchases from neutral 
countries like the United States — though they steadily speeded up 
their own production with marvelous rapidity. All these factors — 
together with unity of command in the face of divided counsels and 
carefully worked out plans in which a remarkably elaborate spy 
system played a leading part — combined for over three years to 
counteract the unquestioned superiority of the Allies in numbers and 
wealth, as well as in command of the seas and the consciousness of the 
justice of their cause. 

Innovations in Warfare. — The employment of guns of heavier 
caliber and longer-range guns made the older type of fortress practically 
useless, and demonstrated the superiority of trenches adequately 
manned with troops and guarded with mazes of barbed wire entangle- 
ment, though even barbed wire failed to withstand the persistent 
bombardment from high explosive shells and had to be supplemented 
by shell craters and concrete machine-gun nests, known as pill boxes. 
3H 



8^4 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Poison gas — condemned by the Hague Convention of 1899 — was 
first used by the Germans at the second battle of Ypres in April, 
191 5, and more and more frightful types came to be employed by both 
sides, chiefly in shells. Zeppelins and airships were first employed in 
warfare, though the former proved far from successful. Legitimate 
and effective use was made of these new fighting weapons in scouting 
and destroying railways and munition plants, also as one of the many 
means of combating the submarine. On the other hand, they were 
illegally and inexcusably employed for the bombing of defenseless 
towns and hospitals, though it has been alleged that the Allies occa- 
sionally made use of hospital walls for sheltering ammunition trains. 
The employment by the Germans of such dreadful methods as poison 
gas and the raiding of open towns l recoiled on their own heads and 
provoked furious reprisals. Moreover, the air raids over England, 
though they kept some airplanes at home and destroyed a few muni- 
tion plants, had — like naval raids on undefended towns — the 
unwelcome consequence that they aroused the British from their 
insular security and stimulated recruiting. 2 Submarines were adopted 
some years before the War, though the Germans did not see fit to take 
them up until 1906, long after the British. A perfectly legitimate 
weapon against ships of war, it was cruelly and illegally employed 
against unarmed passenger ships. The tank, which made its ap- 
pearance in the Somme campaign of 1916, was a British invention 
developed from an American farm tractor with caterpillar wheels — 
a movable fortress capable of pushing steadily forward over all sorts 
of obstacles. 

The British War Aims. — The war aims of the British were voiced 
at the start and at intervals throughout the war by their leading 
statesmen with persistent consistency. " We shall never sheath the 
sword which we have not lightly drawn," declared Premier Asquith, 
9 November, 1914, " until Belgium recovers in full measure all and more 
than all that she has sacrificed, until France is adequately secured 

1 Up to March, 1918, the enemy air raids on Great Britain resulted in 4568 
casualties, including the slaughter of 342 women, and 757 children killed or in- 
jured. Throughout 19 14 the British dropped practically no bombs in Germany. 
Gradually reprisals began, and in June, 191 7, British aviators dropped 65 tons of 
bombs on German towns, and in May, 1918, 668 were dropped in a single day. 

2 Righteous indignation rather than fear was the general reaction against the 
German policy of frightfulness. The burning of the university and library of 
Louvain, 26 August, 19 14, for alleged attacks of civilians on invading troops, the- 
execution of Edith Cavell, 13 October, 191 5, for assisting wounded English and 
Belgians to escape to Holland, and the shooting of Captain Fryatt, 27 July, 1916, 
for defending himself against a German submarine are among the outrages which 
symbolize enduringly the German methods. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 835 

against this menace of aggression, until the rights of the smaller na- 
tionalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable foundation, and 
until military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed." 
Such were the aims of the British. It will now be necessary to see 
what they actually did to achieve them. 

The Condition of Great Britain. — The outbreak of the War found 
Great Britain unprepared in all respects save in the strength of her 
navy. In contrast to the navy, the British army was smaller than that 
of any other considerable European Power. At the most liberal 
estimate, it consisted of a highly trained regular force of 233,000 on 
the active list, and 203,000 on the reserve, exclusive of 150,000 Indian 
troops and a body of territorials for Home defense, amounting to 
263,000 at most. Portions of the regulars were distributed in garrison 
duty and other activities in Ireland and overseas, except in the Self- 
governing Colonies which provided their own defense. Of the regulars, 
six divisions — aggregating 60,000 men — were at once sent to Bel- 
gium. Although they fought heroically and stubbornly — between 
the Belgians and the French — to stem the torrent of the German 
invasion, they were largely sacrificed as a penalty for Britain's unpre- 
paredness. For nearly ten years, during which the storm clouds had 
been gathering, a Liberal Ministry had been in power, a Ministry con- 
cerned primarily with domestic political and social reforms. Their 
leaders were on principle opposed to preparedness ; pacific in intent 
themselves they sought to close their eyes to the German menace, 
or at least to avert it by negotiation rather than by armaments. In- 
deed, when Great Britain entered the war, three members of the Cabi- 
net resigned as a protest against the step. The majority of the people 
outside, although determined from the outset to meet their obliga- 
tions, were only gradually awakened to the gravity of the situation. 
With all their fine qualities of courage and steadfastness the British 
were, in general, slow and unimaginative. Unmilitary, unsystematic, 
and liberty-loving, they were constitutionally averse to sacrificing their 
cherished institutions in order to meet the emergency ; skilled labor, 
for example, was reluctant to yield its hard-won privileges ; there was 
a widespread opposition to Government regulation and control of in- 
dustry, to conscription, and to all that would enable those in authority 
to act arbitrarily and effectively. The military efforts of the next 
four years, mingling blunders and costly sacrifice with magnificent 
achievement, show the weakness and strength of democracy and the 
price that the British paid for their unreadiness, due in no small de- 
gree to timid tardiness of their leaders in revealing to their people 
the awful seriousness of the problem confronting them. Eventually, 



836 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

however, a vast army was raised, officered, and equipped, which, with 
increasing effectiveness, contributed gloriously toward the final 
triumph. At the start, England had counted, as so often in the past, 
mainly on the aid which she could give her Allies with her fleet and with 
money and supplies, but necessity compelled her to send a force to 
the western front which came, in course of time, to face fully half — 
and on occasion more than half of the German hordes — to say 
nothing of goodly contingents sent to Italy, to Salonika, to Palestine, 
to Mesopotamia, besides maintaining garrisons in Ireland, Egypt, 
and India. 

German Disappointment at British Entrance into the War. — The 
disappointment at the British entrance into the War and the spon- 
taneous support with which the Dominions rallied to the cause was 
greeted with shrieks of hate in Germany, who accused the British of 
deliberately plotting to destroy a commercial rival, yet professed to 
scorn her "contemptible little army." The extent of the German mis- 
calculation regarding Britain and the British Empire was admitted 
in a striking article in Der Tag a few months after the opening of 
hostilities : 

" We have been mistaken in so many of our calculations ! We expected 
that the whole of India would revolt at the first sound of the guns in Europe ; 
but, behold, thousands and tens of thousands of Indians are fighting with 
the British and against us. We expected that the British Empire would 
crumble away ; but the British Colonies are one with the Mother Country 
as never before. We expected a successful uprising in South Africa ; but 
we see only a fiasco there. We expected disorders in Ireland ; but Ireland 
is sending some of the best contingents against us. We believed that the 
peace-at-any-price party was all-powerful in England; but it has disap- 
peared in the general enthusiasm aroused by the war against England. We 
considered that England was degenerate and incapable of becoming a 
serious factor in the war ; but she has proved oiir most dangerous enemy." 

The Opening of the Campaign of 191 4 and the Sweep through 
Belgium. — The French were strongly fortified on their eastern or 
Alsace-Lorraine frontier from Luxemburg to Switzerland, which was 
guarded by the four great fortresses behind which they massed 
their troops in anticipation of a German attack. On the other hand, 
depending on the Treaty of 1839, they had left their northern or Bel- 
gian frontier weakly fortified. Hence the German plan to sweep 
through Belgium, reduce the two Belgian fortresses of Liege and Namur 
— which guarded the valley of the Meuse as well as the railroad from 
Cologne to Brussels and Antwerp — pour into the plains of northern 
France, envelop and destroy the French army, capture Paris, collect 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 837 

an indemnity and put an end to the war before Russia could strike an 
effective blow in the East and before the British could send effective 
aid. Several factors combined, in spite of many reverses suffered by 
the Allies, to prevent the realization of this ruthless plan. Although 
Liege and Namur were soon reduced by heavy artillery, their defenders 
delayed the German invaders long enough to enable the British 
expeditionary force to arrive and to enable the French commander 
Joffre to send forces to the north. He failed, to be sure, in an attempt 
to menace the German left wing by an abortive thrust toward the 
Rhine country, and the combined Anglo-French force was not suf- 
ficiently large or well equipped to render effective aid to the Belgian 
army — which took refuge in Antwerp 20 August. Indeed the British 
— under General French — and the French contingents sent to sup- 
port them, went so far north as to expose themselves to serious peril. 
Forced to withdraw from Mons on 23 August, the British regulars in 
a five days' retreat manifested a dogged constancy which stands out 
as one of the magnificent feats of history, notwithstanding the fact 
that they gave ground too ..lowly for safety. Yet, while the Anglo- 
French troops were forced back, they were neither encircled nor 
crushed, and the Germans failed to take advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to seize Calais and tl 3 other Channel ports, which would have 
been invaluable to them tor blocking the short line of communica- 
tion from England to France and for hostile bases against Great 
Britain. Joffre had hoped to make a stand north of Paris but did 
not feel himself strong enough, even though the Germans had begun 
to grow weary in their strenuous advance and were outrunning their 
heavy guns. Accordingly, he continued his retreat to the Marne, 
east and south of Paris, where he prepared to give battle. 

"The Miracle of the Marne" (6-9 September, 1014). — On 5 
September Joffre gave orders to his army to stand and advance or die. 
The main battle, lasting four days, involved some 2,000,000 men, 
and was largely fought within a few miles east of the French capital, 
though troops were drawn up along a front of 150 miles from Paris to 
Verdun. The British contingent under General French were contained 
by a German cavalry screen and played no noticeable part in the battle, 
though their belated advance has been attributed to French's rigid 
adherence to orders from Joffre. The miraculous victory of the 
Marne proved to be one of the decisive battles in the world's history, 
for it wrecked the German design of putting the French out of the war, 
forced the invaders to dig in, and took from them the initiative which 
they never thoroughly regained on the western front till the spring of 
1918. 



838 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The Retreat to the Aisne and the Race for the Channel Ports. — 

After their defeat at the Marne, the Germans began, 10 September, 
to retreat to the Aisne, where they were able to check the pursuit of the 
French and British and to secure their position in strong trenches. 
Then began a series of movements on the part of Joffre to outflank 
his enemy on the west, on the Germans' part to extend their line, with 
the twofold aim of frustrating the Allies' design and of securing the 
Channel ports, realizing only too late the chance they had missed 
during their southern advance. Farther north, they succeeded in 
capturing Antwerp, the third and last of Belgium's fortified places; 
but they failed to entrap the Belgian army. Unhappily, however, 
they secured a long stretch of the Belgian seacoast, including Zee- 
brugge and Ostend, which they later used to great effect as submarine 
bases. 

The First Battle of Ypres. — Meantime, early in October, there had 
begun a furious struggle on the part of the Allies, which lasted until the 
middle of November, to prevent the Germans from breaking through 
the forty-mile line between La Bassee and the sea and seizing the 
Channel ports farther south. The conflict is generally known as the 
First Battle of Ypres, from the town about which the fighting centered. 
General Foch, who was in general command of the combined forces of 
the British, French, and Belgians, gave new evidence of his remarkable 
gifts. The supreme heroes of Ypres, however, were the British troops, 
and here most of what were left of French's " Old Contemptibles " 
were practically wiped out. With a total strength of 1 50,000 at most 
— many of them hurried from the farm, the shop, and the factory — 
armed largely with rifles, for they were only inadequately supplied 
with artillery, they valiantly and effectively blocked the attacks of a 
trained army of fully 500,000 Germans, abundantly provided with 
heavy cannon and machine guns. Had the enemy broken through, 
they would again have threatened Paris, they would have secured 
the Channel ports, thus cutting the short line of communications, 
of transport and supply from England to northern France, they would 
have dominated the Channel and have threatened England's very 
existence. 

The End of the Campaign of 1914. — The close of the campaign 
of 1 914 marked the end of the period of preliminary maneuvering. 
The line was fixed from the Flanders seacoast to the Swiss mountains. 
Now began more than three years of trench warfare — with a more or 
less considerable swaying back and forth of the respective forces en- 
gaged — which in a sense must be regarded as one great battle. Not 
till 1 91 8 was there to be any prolonged or extensive open fighting. It 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 839 

was in this third and final stage that the issue was decided. To return 
to 1 9 14, the British had sent all their available forces to help stem the 
invading hordes ; the Germans had failed in their major aim of secur- 
ing Paris and the Channel ports, of crushing the Anglo-French army 
and forcing a decision in the first year of the war ; but they were in 
possession of all of Belgium save a small corner along the southern 
coast, and had torn from France the flower of her mining and industrial 
region. British troops were sent into the trenches between the Bel- 
gians and the French, and, starting with a few miles, came to hold a 
constantly increasing portion of the line. At the same time their 
fleet was commanding the seas while their army was being built up and 
equipped, while the French were developing new manufacturing cen- 
ters and while the Dominions were sending food and troops, and the 
United States and other neutral countries were providing munitions 
and foodstuffs. 

The Eastern Campaign. — Meantime, the Russians — on whom the 
rank and file, at least, in the Allied countries built high hopes — had 
exercised an appreciable influence on the western campaign. Mobil- 
izing more quickly than the Germans had expected, they sent invading 
forces into East Prussia and Galicia. In spite of crushing defeats in 
East Prussia, their activity, together with Serbia's successful defense 
of her territory against the Austrians, diverted enemy contingents 
which the Germans might have used with telling effect in the Marne 
campaign. On the other hand, Turkey's entrance on the side of the 
Central Powers, November, 191. 4, was a decided handicap to the Allies, 
for it cut off the chance of sending, through the Dardanelles and the 
Bosphorus, the munitions which Russia needed for her huge but badly 
equipped forces, and, at the same time, deprived the Allies of Russian 
grain. 

The Campaign of 1915. — Circumstances caused the Germans, 
in the spring of 191 5, to transfer their main offensive from the west 
to the east. Whereas their aim in 19 14 had been to contain Russia and 
to crush France, their aim in 191 5 was, as far as possible, to refrain 
from offensive operations on the western front, and, with relatively 
few men, to hold the line by means of elaborate trenches, protected by 
barbed wire entanglements and by a greatly superior equipment in 
heavy artillery, machine guns, trench mortars, and hand grenades. 
This would leave them comparatively free to concentrate against 
Russia, not only to relieve the pressure on Austria, but, as they hoped, 
to strike the Russians hard enough to force on them a separate and 
disadvantageous peace. Indeed Germany cherished the further 
design of crushing Serbia, bringing Bulgaria and Greece into a pan- 



840 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

German alliance, and thus realizing her ambition of a Middle-Europe 
and a Middle- Asia which would extend from Berlin to the Persian Gulf. 
Although, by the German quiescence on the western front, the British 
were given fifteen more months to prepare, they and the French lost 
many men in a policy of " nibbling " or attrition, interspersed with a 
series of offensives which, although they aroused high hopes in their 
initial stages, regained little territory at great cost, though they 
achieved something in wearing down the enemy as well. 

Russian Reverses. — Before many weeks, the Central Powers gained 
alarming successes in the East. On i May, in the great battle of the 
Dunajec, the Russian advance in Galicia was decisively stopped, and 
by June the invaders were driven from the country. Then the 
Austro- German armies in the south, were able to combine with German 
armies from the north and west against Russian Poland. On 4 August 
Warsaw fell, and the advent of winter found the Russians forced well 
back beyond their border. Woefully lacking supplies and equipment 
and with little enthusiasm for the old regime, they had fought man- 
fully ; but, though they were to return for one more splendid offensive, 
suffering, treachery, and disintegration were at work that were to 
paralyze their efforts early in 191 7. 

Italy in the War. — Already, in May, 191 5, Italy had entered the 
war on the Allied side, an acquisition which brought many advantages, 
together with some complications. She contributed a fine navy, 
closed useful neutral ports to the enemy, and gave the Allies another 
Mediterranean base ; also she protected southern France against an 
Austro- German attack and diverted the energies of Austria on the 
Italian frontier. At the same time she had nationalistic ambitions 
which awakened the apprehension of the Slavs under Hapsburg 
rule, rousing them to fight for a cause toward which they had hitherto 
been lukewarm, and ambitions, too, which crossed with those of Greece 
and embarrassed seriously the Allies in their dealings with the latter 
State. Valiantly as she hurried to the attack, Italy was able to ac- 
complish little during the first year of the war: she was lacking in 
munitions, she had to undertake the almost superhuman task of 
driving her enemy from the passes of the Austrian Alps which projected 
into the plain of northern Italy and threatened her flank and rear, while 
she sought to make head against the Austrian forces dug in on the far- 
ther side of the Isonzo. 

Gallipoli (1915-1916). — Meantime, the British had entered on an 
adventure in the Eastern Mediterranean which proved to be one of 
the most tragic miscarriages in the whole war, though it called forth 
imperishable manifestations of high-hearted courage and self-sacrifice. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 841 

The aim was to force the Dardanelles, guarded on the north by the 
peninsula of Gallipoli, in order, among other things, to open the sea 
route to Russia and to prevent Rumania from supplying the Germans 
with grain and oil. A few obsolete ships might well have been risked 
in an effort to dash through the straits, though, as the event proved, 
success was impossible in view of the strong current, bearing destruc- 
tive mines against the invader, and in view of the hidden fortifications 
equipped with powerful Krupp guns. When the surprise attack 
failed, the attempt should have been given up. The only other 
possibility would have been to refrain from disclosing the design until 
the land forces were ready to cooperate. The British did neither one 
thing nor the other. In February and March, 191 5, assisted by the 
French, they launched a naval attack, and with a loss of two ships, 
beside having two more put out of action, they scarcely managed to 
penetrate beyond the entrance to the straits. Against the protests 
of Marshals Joffre and French, Mr. Churchill — the British First 
Lord of the Admiralty — insisted on sending a land army to cooperate 
with the fleet, and the Secretary for War, Lord Kitchener, yielded. 
The Allied design having already been disclosed, the Gallipoli defenses 
were rapidly strengthened and supported by a Turkish force of 250,000 
men, officered and trained by Germans and operating close to its base. 
Not only did the Allies have to transport a part of their invading army 
and most of their supplies a thousand miles through submarine in- 
fested waters, but the landing places were protected by barbed wire, 
as far as the shallow water reached, and covered by gun fire, while 
farther inland the peninsula was a series of hills rising tier on tier. 
Moreover, the climatic conditions were dreadful — what with the 
withering rays of the summer sun, to say nothing of the searching 
winds of winter — and all water had to be shipped from the subsidiary 
bases of Lemnos and Egypt. The French contributed comparatively 
few to the expedition, chiefly Colonials, while the British used, first 
and last, upwards of 200,000 men, largely Anzacs (Australian and New 
Zealand Army Corps) training in Egypt. 

The first landings were made 25 April, 191 5, by the British on the toe 
of the peninsula and by the Anzacs at a point, farther up on the north 
side, which came to be known as Anzac Beach. The former were to 
march north and the latter east, but, in spite of the furious bravery of 
their assaults, they never advanced more than three miles and one mile 
respectively. In May, after the enemy submarines had destroyed 
three British battleships, the fleet with its supporting guns was with- 
drawn. Sickness, due to the terrible summer heat, swelled the total 
of the killed. The supreme effort came in August with a major attack, 



842 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 



four miles north of Anzac, supported by lesser demonstrations aimed 
to distract the Turks farther south. After a preliminary surprise 
the main advance was unfortunately delayed long enough to repulse 
it absolutely. Finally, in the late winter, the swoop of the Germans 




The Gallipoli Campaign, 1915. 

through Serbia made withdrawal from Gallipoli absolutely imperative, 
an undertaking which was achieved, in December and January, with 
rare skill and comparatively little further loss. All that can be 
said for this glorious but futile sacrifice was that it contained a large 
force of Turks during a critical period in the Russian campaign. 
Otherwise it was costly in many ways. It used up men and muni- 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 843 

tions which were sorely needed on the western front, it lowered the 
prestige of the Allies in the Balkans, determining the course of Bul- 
garia whose King was already bound to Germany, and alienated many 
former Allied supporters among the Greeks. For these reasons, and 
owing to the great losses, the ability to assist Serbia was greatly weak- 
ened. 

The Serbian Tragedy (1915)- — Twice before, the Serbians had 
repulsed Austrian attacks; now the Germans determined on her 
conquest. This would mean control of the Balkans, which would 
facilitate the subjugation of Egypt and India, and help to realize 
the great German dream of mastery of central Europe and western 
Asia. Already, in September, the Serbians begged for permission to 
attack their old enemy Bulgaria and render her harmless before the 
anticipated German attack began, but the British and French Govern- 
ments, nourishing the vain delusion that they could win over Bulgaria, 
refused. Early in October, after Mackensen, the victor of the Dunajec, 
with two armies had crossed the Danube, Ferdinand of Bulgaria, who 
had been deceiving the Allies with false assurances while his troops 
were mobilizing, finally threw off the mask. His armies struck at 
the Serbian flank and rear, and cut the Vienna-Salonika railroad on 
which the Serbians were solely dependent for supplies and an eventual 
line of retreat. Although an Allied army had landed at Salonika 
1 October, it was too weak, and too uncertain of the intentions of the 
slippery Greek King Constantine, to render effectual assistance. The 
poor Serbians, suffering dreadfully from hunger and disease, were 
pushed steadily south and west by the combined Austro-Germans 
and Bulgarians. A fragment of the troops and peasantry managed 
to straggle across the Albanian mountains, and were shipped by the 
Italian navy to the island of Corfu. On 28 November, when the cam- 
paign ended, the Allies, except for the inadequate force at Salonika, 
had no longer a foothold in the Balkans. 

The Campaign of 1915 on the Western Front. — Meantime, while 
Germany was extending and consolidating her power in eastern Europe, 
the Allies were making small gains at a heavy cost on the western 
front, with the threefold design of breaking through if possible, of di- 
verting pressure on the Russian front, and of wearing down the enemy 
forces by attrition. All the while, the British were working to increase, 
train, and equip their army. In the long run they accomplished mar- 
vels ; but it took them a good while to realize the necessity of conscrip- 
tion, and to produce artillery and high explosive shells in adequate 
quantities. Following local offensives undertaken by the French, 
the British launched, 10 March, an attack against Neuve Chapelle, 



844 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

on a four-mile front southeast of Lille. In this attack, preceded by 
heavy drum fire, they cleared the German first line trenches and, to 
some extent, the second ; but, after gaining a mile of ground, they were 
repulsed, having sustained 1 as well as having inflicted heavy casualties. 
The only drive of any consequence undertaken by the Germans on the 
western front, in 191 5, was that resulting in the Second Battle of Ypres, 
which began 22 April. This battle will ever bear an evil memory, 
for it was here that the Germans violated international law and 
roused the fury of the Allies by first using poison gas — a crime which 
was to cause untold suffering to themselves as well as to their oppo- 
nents. The French Colonials broke and fled with terror, leaving dan- 
gerously exposed the Canadians who were ranged next them. With 
rare fortitude the latter hung on, though it cost a third of their contin- 
gent. The struggle lasted five days ; but the Germans, if such was 
their intention, failed to break through to Calais, though they at least 
succeeded in forestalling for a time the Allied offensive. 

Champagne and Loos. — The great Anglo-French effort of the year 
was launched in the autumn. According to the plans, Marshal French 
in Artois was to strike at Loos, north of Lens, while Foch was to move 
on Arras, a few miles south of the great coal mining center. In the 
Champagne area another French army under General Petain was to 
deliver a blow east of Rheims. Thus the German line, in the form of 
a great bulging salient, was to be pressed at three points. The British 
gained such a brilliant preliminary success that the Germans were 
prepared to evacuate Lens ; but reserves were insufficient, the enemy 
counter-attacked and, in the end, Foch had to go to the assistance of 
his ally. It was in Champagne that the real break through was con- 
templated; but, here again, high hopes were at first excited which 
time failed to realize. Both the British and the French had fought 
magnificently, they had gained some territory and had levied a heavy 
toll in lives, but they had been unable to divert the pressure from Russia 
and to save Serbia. Alone, the French were inferior in numbers and 
equipment to the Germans, and the latter calculated rightly that it 
would take months to train and equip Kitchener's million. The Brit- 
ish Commander in the field was seriously handicapped by an inade- 
quate staff of officers, by lack of high explosive shells and by the fact 
that men and material which might to some degree have helped him 
were diverted to Gallipoli. Nevertheless, it was felt that he was too 
slow to handle the vast and complex machine that was in the making ; 
so, before the end of the year, he was sent to command the Home 

1 Some of the British were sacrificed by the improper timing of their own barrage 
fire. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 845 

forces and Sir Douglas Haig replaced him as British Commander on 
the western front. 

The Campaign of 1916. — By the end of 1915 the Germans were 
in a very strong position. While maintaining a practical deadlock 
on the western front, they had achieved a series of striking successes 
in the east. They had forced the Russians out of Poland and Galicia 
and were in occupation of a wide strip of Russian territory, they 
had put Serbia out of the righting, and had brought Bulgaria in on 
their side, while the Greek Government was giving them covert aid, 
and the British, after a costly failure, were on the point of evacuating 
Gallipoli. Having the eastern situation well in hand, the German 
High Command now turned to the west again, and, as the leading 
feature of their campaign in 1916, planned a mighty blow at Verdun 
— the key of the French defenses on the German frontier — with 
the design of crushing France before the British could attain their full 
military strength. The event proved, however, that they had ab- 
solutely miscalculated the magnificent resisting power of the French, 
who, though nearly overwhelmed at first by the deadly thrust designed 
to " bleed them white " which began 21 February, 1916, had valiantly 
realized before the close of autumn their rallying cry — ■ " They shall 
not pass." Also, the enemy had failed to take into account the ability 
of the British to launch a truly formidable offensive, to say nothing 
of the fighting capacity of the Italians and the capability of poor ex- 
hausted Russia to undertake one more redoubtable effort. 

The First Battle of the Somme (1916). — The British Commander, 
Sir Douglas Haig, offered in the spring to hasten his contemplated 
attack along the river Somme ; but since that would play the German 
game of forcing the Allies into another premature offensive, the French 
High Command insisted that he wait till he was ready. Accordingly, 
in the early months of the year, the British rendered aid chiefly by 
taking over more of the line. At length, 1 July, 191 6, began the First 
Battle of the Somme, so called because it was followed in 191 7 and 
again in 1918, by further bloody conflicts in this stricken district. 
The British undertook the major thrust north of Amiens, and had to 
face the main concentration of the Germans, while the French, still 
mainly occupied at Verdun, cooperated in a fine but subordinate offen- 
sive by way of diversion farther south. The chief purposes aimed at 
were to relieve Verdun, to assist the Italians and the Russians, and to 
use up the active forces of the enemy. When the attack opened, Gen- 
eral Haig may have had hopes of breaking through, but if so the heavy 
losses of his men — 50,000 the first day with a gain of half a mile on 
a seven-mile front — forced him to revert to a plan of steady pressure 



846 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and slow advance. This was the first appearance in force of the new 
citizen army ; for the scanty remnants of the " Old Contemptibles " 
who survived the campaign of 19 14 had been wiped out at Neuve Cha- 
pelle and Loos. It was a fiery ordeal for untried men and untried 
officers, and appalling numbers were sacrificed against a huge and won- 
derfully equipped war machine, which the enemy for years had been 
employing all the resources of science to construct. Upwards of 
3,000,000 troops were engaged on both sides : of the casualties, amount- 
ing to 1,000,000, the flower of the young manhood of the British Em- 
pire contributed a heavy toll, and they had gained little more than 
seven miles on a twelve-mile front when the approach of bad weather 
in November brought the fighting to a close. Nevertheless, they had 
served their apprenticeship, they had been fashioned into veterans 
and had proved to the Germans that henceforth, in man power and 
equipment, they were a force to be reckoned with. They had relieved 
Verdun, and they had seized the initiative on the western front which 
they were to retain for over a year, they had inflicted heavy losses and 
captured many guns and prisoners. They had shown the Germans, 
too, that their permanent trenches were no longer wholly to be de- 
pended upon and forced them, like the French at Verdun, to take to 
shallow trenches, shell craters and pill boxes. Finally, by their per- 
sistent hammering they rendered the German positions so untenable 
that they were forced to undertake a so-called " strategic retreat " 
of many miles, early in the spring of 191 7. 

The Italian, Russian and Rumanian Campaigns (1916). — Much 
handicapped by lack of guns and munitions, the Italians were able, 
nevertheless, not only to halt an Austrian attack in the region of the 
eastern Alps but even to secure a commanding through dangerously 
exposed position along the river Isonzo, northwest of Trieste. They 
were greatly aided by a splendid Russian offensive along a three hun- 
dred mile front, the rapid progress of which during the first few weeks 
was later grievously dashed. The Russians, with hopelessly inade- 
quate equipment and transportation facilities and sadly hampered 
by a Government honeycombed with pro-German traitors, were soon 
stopped and forced back by the Austrians, stiffened by German rein- 
forcements. Their brief help to the Allies had been rendered at a 
terrible cost, and hungry, suffering, and discouraged they were ripe for 
a Revolution which broke out early in 191 7. Another disastrous set- 
back for the Allies was the catastrophe that overtook the Rumanians. 
Entering the war 27 August, 191 6, their untried armies fell victim to 
their own rashness, to the impotence of the Western Powers, to de- 
lusive assurances of the Russians, and to the energetic strategy of the 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 847 

Germans. Almost annihilated by heavy casualties, a fragment of the 
Rumanian army succeeded in escaping into Russian territory, leav- 
ing their country with its rich supplies of grain and oil to the enemy. 
Three Russian divisions arrived too late to help them ; also, the Allied 
army in Salonika, who, assisted by a few re-equipped Serbians, 
had been pushed into Serbia and captured Monastir, 19 November, 
were unable to effect a diversion. Venizelos, the pro- Ally Greek 
statesman, had set up a revolutionary government in Salonika; but 
King Constantine was still in the saddle, and the Entente army was 
too weak and too fearful of his intentions to risk going too far north. 

The Peace Drive (1916). — The Central Powers had met with 
serious reverses during the year, though they were far from being so 
exhausted as the Allies supposed. Having little more to fear from 
Russia, Germany, far better informed on the situation than the En- 
tente Powers, now determined to take steps to secure the great Empire 
which she had been building up in the east. Hence the so-called 
"peace offer" that she made on 12 December, 1916, which was, in 
substance, a proposal for a conference for an exchange of views. Her 
design was to set the Powers by the ears, to strengthen herself with 
her own people and to win over the majority in the United States, as 
well as the sentimentalists and defeatists in France and Great Britain, 
by throwing upon her opponents the responsibility for continuing 
the War. However, moral indignation and the realization of the 
German menace was strong enough among the Allied Governments 
and the bulk of their peoples to repudiate the thought of a negotiated 
peace, and to continue righting until they were in a position to insist 
on such terms as would secure from Germany at least a partial com- 
pensation for the havoc she had wrought, and would offer reasonable 
guarantees for future security. 

The Hindenburg " Strategic Retreat" (1917). — The British 1917 
offensive on the western front began in March, on the sector from Arras 
to Soissons. Although the French still held from two thirds to three- 
quarters of the line, fully half the enemy forces were concentrated 
against the British, who were steadily assuming more and more of the 
burden which had pressed so heavily on the French from the Marne 
to Verdun. Partly because his old positions had been dangerously 
dented by the Somme attack of 191 6 and partly to frustrate the for- 
midable Anglo-French drive which he anticipated, von Hindenburg, 1 

1 Although von Hindenburg had become the German popular idol because of 
his achievements against the Russians, the opinion soon came to prevail among 
the initiated that his successes were largely due to von Ludendorff, who became 
his Quartermaster-General. 



848 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

the new German Commander in the West, fell back behind his exposed 
salients to a carefully prepared system of defenses known as the " Hin- 
denburg Line." In spite of the Allied aircraft and other devices for 
obtaining intelligence, he was able to withdraw successfully along a 
sixty-mile front, ruthlessly destroying as he went, and leaving in his 
wake a devastated shell-pitted country, guarded by a comparatively 
few men with machine guns. When, in April, the Germans had reached 
their new positions they took a determined stand, with a strong con- 
centration of artillery between Lens and St. Quentin. Then the Brit- 
ish and the French, in an alternating series of brilliant but costly at- 
tacks, struck at the northern and southern hinges of the enemy defense. 
The Sritish, in the so-called Battle of Arras, made considerable head- 
way, the Canadians with magnificent heroism captured Vimy Ridge, 
an important position commanding Lens, and by June had practically 
surrounded this great coal center of northern France. The French, 
too, by one brilliant stroke, in the middle of April, captured 17,000 
prisoners and 75 guns; but the toll of death among their men 
so appalled the Government that they called off the offensive 
and replaced General Nivelle by General Petain. The action* of 
the French greatly embarrassed the plans of Marshal Haig, who had 
to keep on without their support. Then he struck another blow 
farther north, where he achieved a spectacular success, 7 June, 191 7, 
by blowing up the Messines salient in the German line south of 
Ypres. While this stroke was preparing for nearly two years and 
1,000,000 pounds of explosives were used, the tactical results were 
less than they might have been, owing to unfortunate delays and the 
advent of bad weather. 

The Collapse of Russia (191 7). — Unfortunately, the Allied strategy 
which had contemplated a simultaneous advance on three fronts — ■ 
the western, the eastern, and the Italian — was most gravely thrown 
out of gear by the outbreak of a revolution in Russia, resulting in the 
overthrow of the old regime and the deposition of the Tsar in March. 
Huge amounts of supplies had been sent through Archangel and Vladi- 
vostok, and it was hoped that the Russian army would open the spring 
campaign more fully equipped than ever before; but the rank and 
file were exhausted and discouraged by treachery in high places, and 
they were worked on by German propagandists. The Constitutional 
Democrats, who strove to fulfill their obligations to' the Allies, were 
overthrown, and M. Kerensky, a moderate Socialist who succeeded 
to a brief tenure of power, was unable to cope with the situation. After 
he had gone too far in relaxing the bonds of discipline, he made a vain 
effort to start a new offensive, and in July even went to Galicia to in- 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 849 

spire the troops in person. However, Soviets or councils of workmen, 
peasants, and soldiers were growing steadily stronger and falling more 
and more under the influence of the Bolshevists or extremists. The 
Russian army degenerated into a debating society ; ranks and such 
little discipline as remained were abolished, and, under Lenine and 
Trotsky, the two sinister figures who succeeded Kerensky, an armis- 
tice was concluded with Germany in December, to be followed, early 
in the following year, by a disastrous separate peace. 

The Italian Disaster, and Cambrai. — In the autumn, the Allies 
had to endure another calamity. The Italian line along the Isonzo 
was pierced at Caporetto, their armies were forced to retreat and lost 
the gains of two and a half years, as well as a terrific number of men 
and guns. However, they finally pulled themselves together behind 
the Piave river north of Venice, where they held their ground with 
marvelous heroism, assisted ultimately by British and French con- 
tingents who came to their assistance. In November, Marshal Haig 
sought to create a diversion by a splendid attack on the western front 
at Cambrai, where the Tanks * were used to great effect, in place of a 
preliminary bombardment. Haig made a splendid gain of five miles ; 
but, before he could secure his exposed salient, the Germans replied 
by a surprise counter-attack, took back a portion of the ground they 
had yielded, and prisoners and guns about equal to the number they 
had lost. 

The United States Enters the War (6 April, 1917). — The Germans, 
who had declared unrestricted submarine warfare 1 February, 1917, 
were creating havoc with the Allied shipping ; but the step had 
the advantage of bringing into the War (6 April) the United States 
with her vast potential resources in men, money, and material which 
were to contribute to turn the scale before the end of another year ; 
meanwhile, British successes in Mesopotamia and Palestine tended, 
in some degree, to counterbalance the unfavorable situation in 
Europe. 

The Wonderful Year (1918). — The year 1918 was truly a wonder- 
ful year, crowded with events and amazing contrasts; beginning 
with the most discouraging reverses which the Allies had ever under- 
gone and ending with glorious triumph — with the overthrow of the 
Kaiser and Prussian military autocracy in a series of stupendous 
battles involving men and destructive machinery on a scale hitherto 
unheard of. For months, after the discouraging close of 1917, one 
disaster followed another. On 2 March, 1918, the Bolshevist pleni- 

1 Tanks of a larger size had first been employed, though not with such con- 
spicuous success, in the first battle of the Somme. 
31 



850 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

potentiaries signed the humiliating Treaty of Brest Litovsk, and its 
ratification by the Congress of Soviets, 14 March, definitely elimi- 
nated Russia from the war, with large portions of her territory and 
resources in German hands. Next Rumania was bound hand and 
foot when (6 May) she was compelled to concluded the Treaty of Bu- 
charest. France seemed exhausted, while Italy, grimly holding the 
precarious line of the Piave, was threatened with inundation from 
the mountain passes which commanded the Venetian plain. In spite 
of tremendous and hurried preparations, there seemed little indica- 
tion that the United States would be able to make her power felt to 
any appreciable degree for another year. Great Britain, at last 
thoroughly aroused and equipped, had seen her splendid army thrust 
at Cambrai largely offset by an unexpectedly effective German counter- 
offensive ; moreover, it was evident that she was to bear the chief bur- 
den in a new onslaught, designed to sweep her armies to the sea and 
seize the Channel ports. Yet, in spite of loud clamors from a few 
defeatists and a steadily growing pacifistic element, she was doggedly 
determined, and Mr. Lloyd George reiterated again, in uncompromis- 
ing terms, the war aims which she must realize before she would con- 
sent to peace. 

The Opening of the German Offensive (1918). — Although many 
of the uninitiated thought it might never materialize, the long-heralded 
German attack was launched, 21 March, with unexampled fury, 
clearly a supreme effort to force a decision before the United States 
could come in at her full strength. The chief concentration in the 
first thrust was directed against the British third and fifth armies on 
a front of some sixty miles from the Scarpe to the Oise. This tremen- 
dous major offensive, before it was stopped early in April, drove a 
bulging salient into the British line which, at its blunt tip, marked a 
gain of over thirty-five miles and reached within striking distance of 
Amiens; moreover, another, and perhaps the main objective was 
almost achieved, of breaking through at the junction between the 
British and French forces, rolling up the British right wing, and circling 
round the French, thus opening again the road to Paris. On April, 
the enemy started a second and smaller offensive in the Flanders sector, 
where they pushed the British off the high ground which served as 
the key to their northern defenses and the Channel ports. The com- 
bined effect of these two offensives was to regain for the Germans what 
the Allies had painfully acquired after months of the heaviest fighting. 
Owing to a feeling on the part of the French that the British had not 
been doing enough and that the attack would be divided, Marshal 
Haig had reluctantly extended his line south of St. Quentin. Thus 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 851 

weakened, and exposed to heavy discharges of high explosives and 
poison gas, followed by concentrated attacks of dense masses of troops 
amply supplied with machine guns, the British, though they manfully 
held with their backs to the wall, were only able to make a final stand 
in Picardy and in Flanders. However, reinforcements of upwards 
of 300,000 men were speedily hurried from England. 

The Drives against the French. — Next came the turn of the French. 
The Germans began, 27 May, with a thrust across the river Aisne be- 
tween Soissons and Rheims, which forced a pocket or broad loop from 
Soissons and Rheims down to Chateau-Thierry on the Marne,less than 
fifty miles from Paris. In this fighting, American troops, including 
marines, nobly won their spurs in checking the enemy advance at Cha- 
teau-Thierry, 2 June, and in the capture of Belleau Wood with a nest 
of machine guns, 10 June. This first great offensive against the French 
was followed by a second, 15 July — extending from Rheims to the 
Argonne Forest, north of Verdun — coupled with another subsidiary 
offensive south of the Marne. Irresistible as the torrent seemed, it 
was soon stemmed and turned back with terrible effect. 

The Beginning of the Allied Counter-Qffensive (18 July). — Mean- 
time, the Allies had taken a momentous step which should have been 
taken early in the War — on 29 March a supreme commander had 
been placed over all the forces on the western front. General Foch — 
most properly chosen for the position — had the formidable problem 
of holding the road to Paris without weakening too far the defenses 
in Picardy and Flanders and thus exposing the Channel ports ; indeed, 
while defending these vital points he was obliged to keep his whole 
line strong enough to prevent the enemy, who had the initiative, from 
striking at any particular spot in overwhelming numbers. At first, 
he was hampered by insufficient reserves, but soon the 300,000 British 
reinforcements were available, and the Americans, in response to 
urgent appeals, were hurried across the ocean in constantly increasing 
numbers — 1,000,000, it was announced on 4 July, and by autumn 
2,000,000. Thus supported, Foch began (18 July) his remarkable series 
of counter-attacks which wrested the initiative from the enemy and 
were continued until the whole German army was forced back, over- 
whelmed and compelled to surrender. The German thrusts between 
21 March and the middle of July had resulted in three salients. One 
was between Soissons and Rheims which looped down to and crossed 
the Marne in places ; here a counter-attack was started 18 July by the 
French and Americans with such pressure on the two sides that the 
Germans were forced to withdraw to avoid capture. This was the 
Second Battle of the Marne. 



852 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

The British Counter- Offensive. — The second salient extended over 
an eighty-mile front from Soissons on the south to Arras on the north, 
where Foch launched a second counter-offensive 8 August. In this 
Third Battle of the Somme the British, with the French cooperating 
in the south, dealt a series of terrific blows both at the sides and against 
the front of the salient, with the result that the Germans were driven 
back to the Hindenburg Line whence they had issued for their great 
offensive in March. The third move in Foch's decisive counter- 
offensive was designed to break that line, which consisted of " the most 
intricate and elaborate works ever fashioned by the ingenuity of man." 
Furthermore, by striking north and south, the Allies aimed to cut off 
the German army by the only two lines of retreat open to them, through 
the valley of the Meuse by way of Liege, and through Metz by way 
of the Maubeuge, Mezieres and Metz railway. On the German right 
in Flanders — the area of the third salient — were the Belgians under 
King Albert and a British contingent ; in the center, the British were 
to lead the attack from Cambrai to St. Quentin with more French con- 
tingents from St. Quentin to the Oise; while on the enemy left, in 
the Argonne region threatening Metz, the offensive was intrusted to 
French and American troops. 

The Last Phase. — Late in September, the Anglo-Belgian forces 
began to advance in Flanders, driving a wedge between Ostend, an 
important submarine base, and Lille, " one of the anchors of the Hin- 
denburg Line." About the same time, the Franco-American forces 
struck heavy blows on both sides of the Argonne forest, northwest of 
Verdun. Then, in October, the British began a magnificent and effec- 
tive smash along the front from Cambrai to St. Quentin. North, south, 
and center one telling stroke alternated with another in swift succession, 
city after city and village after village yielded before the determined 
advance of the Allies, until (5 November) the Germans had begun a 
general retreat along the whole line from the Scheldt to the Aisne. 
On 7 November, the Americans, who shortly after the middle of 
October had by terrific fighting forced their way through the Argonne 
wood, pressed up to Sedan, the scene of the French humiliation in 
1870. On 9 November, the abdication of the Kaiser was announced, 
and, on the following day, he and the Crown Prince fled to Holland. 
Two days later, n November, hostilities ceased on the western front 
with an armistice signed at Rethondes near Compiegne. 

The Collapse of the Central Powers. — Germany was the last of 
the Central Powers to yield, and although her power of resistance was 
limited, the surrender of her Allies hastened her inevitable downfall. 
Under the direction of Marshal Foch a series of advances on all fronts 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 853 

was undertaken in August. Following a period of inactivity, which 
had lasted since the capture of Monastir in 1916, the Allied forces in 
the Balkans — strengthened by the accession of Greece, 2 July, 191 7 
— started a drive against the Bulgarians 14 September, 19 18. After 
two weeks of fighting, the Bulgarians asked for an armistice which 
was arranged 29 September. Turkey, the next to yield, finally with- 
drew from the fighting 21 October. Meantime, Italy, who had effect- 
ively halted her pursuers on the Piave in June, was preparing for a 
supreme counter-offensive. With the aid of one French and two 
British divisions they launched their attack, 24 October, the anni- 
versary of the Caporetto disaster. The result was most spectacular ; 
for in three days they took over 400,000 prisoners as well as 7000 
guns, and drove their old enemy in headlong flight across the Austrian 
border, whereupon the Austro-Hungarian Empire sought terms, and 
an armistice was granted 4 November. 

The Causes of Germany's Downfall. — The causes of Germany's 
final collapse, which was only precipitated by the successive defections 
of her Allies, were various. For one thing, owing largely to the rigor 
of the blockade, Germany was reaching the verge of exhaustion as 
regards raw material and suffering from an increasingly serious food 
shortage ; moreover, she had used most of her best shock troops and 
the greater portion of her reserves. The tide was turned by the mag- 
nificent counter-offensive of the French in July, and the last decisive 
effort on the western front was the smashing of the Hindenburg Line. 
Toward this the French, the Belgians and the Americans all contrib- 
uted, though the supreme achievements in this last great work were 
the two great offensives of August and October, in which the British 
played the leading part. While the unity of command and the mili- 
tary genius of Marshal Foch were indispensable for the final victory, 
very great credit is due to Marshal Haig and Generals Plumer, Home, 
Byng and Rawlinson for the splendid war machine which they had 
finally completed. First France and then the British had to bear the 
brunt of the burden. At the most critical stage the Americans began 
to arrive, and the splendid account which they gave of themselves 
against seasoned veterans at Chateau-Thierry, at St. Mihiel and in 
the Argonne, together with the prospect they could offer of endless 
reserves, made the offensive possible which finally turned the scale. 
The legend of Prussian invincibility had been shattered and Prussian 
militarism ceased to menace the world. 

The Armistice. — While the Peace Congress was assembling and 
preparing its terms, the enemy was held down by the drastic provisions 
of the Armistice concluded n November, and subsequently renewed 



854 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

with revisions in the interests of greater security. The Armistice 
provided, in substance, for a cessation of fighting and for the surrender 
of a carefully specified number of heavy cannon, machine guns, air- 
planes, railway engines and other material. Also, the enemy were to 
abandon the invaded countries of Belgium, northern France, Alsace- 
Lorraine and Luxemburg, and all German territories on the left bank 
of the Rhine as well. These were to be occupied by Allied troops who 
were to hold the principal Rhine crossings at Cologne, Coblenz, and 
Mayence with their bridgeheads for a radius of 18/6 miles on the right 
bank, while, for additional security, there was to be a neutral zone 
parallel to the river on this same right bank. In their evacuation 
the Germans were strictly enjoined to spare all inhabitants and property, 
to reveal all mines or time bombs, poisoned wells and other means of 
destruction, and to give up the prisoners which they had captured dur- 
ing the war without any reciprocal assurance that their own would be 
delivered. In addition, they were to return deported civilians, to- 
gether with all stocks, securities and paper money taken from invaded 
countries. They were to withdraw from Russia, Turkey, and Rumania, 
to abandon the treaties of Brest-Litovsk and Bucharest, and to 
restore the gold taken by the former treaty from Russia, which was 
to be held in trust by the Allies. Finally, they were to surrender 
practically the whole of their fleet, to allow freedom of access to the 
Baltic, and to assist in sweeping up the mines which they had indis- 
criminately sown. To help the army of occupation in securing the terms 
of the Armistice, the blockade was to be maintained as long as necessary. 
The preliminaries of peace, including a scheme for a League of Nations, 
were signed by the Congress of the Allies at Paris, 28 June, 1919. 

The British Navy. — While, from the very first, the British, with 
their small expeditionary force, fought manfully to aid France in 
stemming the German torrent, to say nothing of sending contingents 
to protect their Empire in distant parts of the earth, it took them years 
to build up a really formidable war machine. On the other hand, 
their sea power was able to render incalculable service from the out- 
set, in preventing the Germans from securing a military triumph be- 
fore the Allies were sufficiently equipped and organized to prevail 
in land fighting. In view of the crisis, the fleet, assembled in full 
strength for the summer maneuvers of 191 5, was kept mobilized 
pending the outcome of the Aus'tro-Serbian negotiations and all the 
tremendous issues which hung in the balance. This was a significant 
step in securing command of the sea, which was to prove such a de- 
cisive factor in the war. Directly hostilities opened, the greater part 
of the fleet vanished into the mist, concentrating at a station known 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 855 

to few until toward the end of the War — in Scapa Flow, a great land- 
locked body of water in the Orkney Islands off the bleak and rugged 
coast of northern Scotland. Cruising from here as a base and sending 
forth single ships or squadrons as they were needed, the achievements of 
these silent watchers were as indispensable as they were unspectacular, 
except for a few striking engagements. Although no formal blockade 
was at first declared, the Grand Fleet kept the enemy navy bottled 
up in the Kiel Canal, and the enemy merchant marine was prevented 
from leaving home or neutral ports, wherever its ships chanced to be. 
Such commerce as was afloat, or tried the chance, was soon swept from 
the seas, and Germany was more and more crippled in her attempts to 
secure from neutral nations the food supplies and raw materials which, 
though more self-sufficing than England, she sorely needed. More- 
over, 2,000,000 German subjects of military age were prevented from 
returning home to serve in the army, while the coasts of Britain and 
France, as well as the French and British colonies, were kept free from 
invasion. 1 Also the " silent British Navy " kept open the lanes of 
sea communication for the transport of troops, both from the French 
possessions and the British dominions; indeed more than 22,000,000 
Allied soldiers were, during four years, conveyed back and forth across 
the seas with a loss of only 4,391. Furthermore, from England, 
from outlying ports of the Empire, and from neutral countries, all 
sorts of foodstuffs, munitions and equipment were shipped, while 
coal and iron were supplied to France and Italy who stood so woefully 
in need of them. This utilization of colonial and neutral resources 
obviously went a great way toward counterbalancing the German 
grip on Belgium and the French industrial districts. The heroic work 
of British trawlers in mine sweeping, and the increasing effectiveness 
of the convoy system in the face of the growing submarine peril, are 
among the further manifestations of the British sea power. 

Opening Phases of the War on the Sea. — Perhaps the most costly 
blunder which can be charged to the British navy occurred at the very 
start, when the British patrol which was helping to guard the Medi- 
terranean — while the French were engaged in covering the transpor- 
tation of their North African contingents — allowed two German 
cruisers, ordered out of Messina, to escape through the Dardanelles 
into the Black Sea. Failure to pursue them led to serious consequences, 
notably to Turkey's entrance into the war and to the cutting of the 
southern line of communication with Russia. On the other hand, 

1 This was accomplished mainly by bottling up the German High Seas Fleet 
in the Kiel Canal at the very beginning of the War, though something like a 
dozen raids were made on the British coast by small groups of German cruisers. 



856 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

not only was the German High Seas Fleet promptly sealed up in the 
Kiel Canal and the neighboring landlocked harbors, but, within two 
months, 1,000,000 tons of German shipping were captured and the 
rest held idle in home and neutral ports. Moreover, expeditionary 
forces from Australia and New Zealand had been assisted in securing 
all the German possessions in the Pacific south of the equator, while, 
during October and December, Japan, who entered the war, 23 August, 
gathered in those north of the equator and overcame the Germans in 
their Chinese stronghold at Kiao-chau. All the while, the British 
cruisers were relentlessly tracking down and destroying such German 
commerce raiders as escaped, though the Emden, perhaps the most 
daring and destructive of them all, fell to the Australian cruiser Sydney 
off Cocos Keeling, 10 November. 

Coronel. — It was a prodigious task to police the waters of the 
globe and to protect a merchant marine that carried three fourths of 
the world's commerce, and one heroic but rash attempt resulted in 
disaster. Late in the autumn, Admiral von Spee, the German com- 
mander in Chinese waters, made for the South American coast and 
concentrated five powerful cruisers off Valparaiso. At Coronel, near 
the Chilean Coast, the British Admiral Craddock, who was seeking 
to round them up, ventured to attack, 1 November, with three armored 
vessels of an older type and one transformed liner. In a heavy sea, 
exposed to the rays of the setting sun, out-gunned and out-maneuvered 
by the speedier squadron of the enemy, Craddock perished with 1600 
men. One ship succeeded in getting away, and another, on the way to 
the scene of action, escaped by arriving late. This heroic sacrifice, 
due to the British reluctance • — in view of the necessity of Home de- 
fense — to detach and scatter their heavier-armed, faster and more 
modern cruisers, was swiftly and gloriously revenged. 

The Falkland Islands. — Twenty-four hours after the news of the 
disaster of Coronel, Admiral Sturdee had been dispatched with a power- 
ful squadron of seven ships on a mission of vengeance from the British 
Grand Fleet. Joined by the survivor of Coronel and the vessel 
which had failed to arrive, they reached, 7 December, a port in the 
Falklands for which von Spee, quite unconscious of their presence, 
was heading for coal. When he discovered his formidable opponent 
hidden behind a point of land, he made a vain effort to escape, and, in 
a running fight which lasted into the evening, perished with four of 
his ships. One cruiser, the Dresden, together with the Eitel Friedrich 
— an armed liner which had joined his squadron — escaped and roved 
about till the spring of 191 5. The Eitel Friedrich eventually interned 
in an American port, while the Dresden was finally rounded up at 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 857 

Juan Fernandez, where, after a show of fight, she surrendered but was 
so badly damaged that she sank — the last German cruiser to engage 
on the high seas. 

Heligoland Bight. — Some weeks before, the British Admiralty, 
28 August, 1 9 14, had undertaken a sea attack at Heligoland Bight, 
the channel between the island of Heligoland and the mouth of the 
Elbe. Heligoland, which the Germans since its acquisition in 1890 
had thoroughly fortified at a cost of £10,000,000, guarded the western 
exit of the Kiel Canal and served as a wireless outpost and a base for 
submarines, airplanes, zeppelins, and destroyers. The British design 
was to cut off German light cruisers which were patrolling this area, 
and, if possible, to tempt heavier craft to come to their rescue. In 
the skirmish which ensued, while they succeeded — with some damage 
to their own vessels — in sinking three light cruisers and two destroyers, 
they learned that this heavily fortified, mine- and submarine-infested 
area was practically impregnable, that their best policy was to hold 
their fleet in readiness at Scapa Flow, constantly sending out cruising 
parties to defend their coast, to intercept commerce and to seek en- 
gagements with the enemy warships whenever they sjiould come out. 

German Raids. — The Germans, on their part, attempted occasional 
raids with light swift cruisers, hoping to terrorize the English, to cheer 
their own people, and to keep the Grand Fleet on the defensive, while 
they sought to draw small patrolling forces to pursue them, scattering 
floating mines as they fled. The first of these raids, directed against 
Yarmouth, 3 November, 1914, caused little damage; the second, 16 
December, along a coast of undefended towns, resulted in the slaughter 
of a number of civilians, women and children among them, and in 
serious injury to churches and dwelling houses. Instead of terror, a 
fury of resentment was aroused, and many, hitherto apathetic, flocked 
to the colors. A third raid, 24 January, 191 5, was frustrated by Ad- 
miral Beatty. The invaders turned tail when he sighted them, and 
in the running fight, known as the Battle of Dogger Bank, one of the 
slower German cruisers, the Bliicher, was sunk and two others were 
apparently seriously damaged before the invaders reached their mine 
fields. While they injured more than one of their pursuers, and while 
in this form of offensive — just as in attacking transports — the Ger- 
mans had the advantage of choosing their own time and place, they 
attempted no further coast raids for more than a twelvemonth. After 
one German submarine, 21 September, had in half an hour sunk three 
cruisers of one of the older types, two of them in attempting to rescue 
the first, the British learned another lesson — that the most effective 
pa.trol against these undersea pests could only be performed by small 



858 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

high-power craft, and that there was serious danger in slowing down 
for rescue. 

The Battle of Jutland, 31 May, 1916. — In spite of a frequently and 
fervently expressed wish for Der Tag, or the day when their fleet 
might meet that of Great Britain in a decisive struggle for the suprem- 
acy of the seas, the Germans were only willing — and no doubt quite 
naturally — to fight on their own terms, off their own coast, where 
they could retreat and lure their opponents to chase them into shallow 
waters teeming with mines and submarines. " The Day" came, 
whether by chance or design is uncertain, in the stupendous and com- 
plicated engagement known as Battle of Jutland or Skager Rak. In 
the early afternoon of 31 May, 191 6, Admiral Beatty, cruising with a 
squadron off the Danish coast on his way north to join Admiral Jellicoe, 
who, with the greater part of the Grand Fleet, was in the neighborhood 
of southern Norway, received information that the Germans were out 
in full force. In the first stage of the action which followed, Admiral 
Beatty turned south and chased the advance guard of the enemy 
cruisers till they were joined by the remainder of the High Seas Fleet. 
In the second stage, he swung north toward Admiral Jellicoe who, in 
response to signals from his second in command, was hurrying south. 
Making a running fight against superior odds, Admiral Beatty's de- 
sign was to hold the enemy until his chief could arrive and inflict a 
crushing blow. However, the third and final stage proved indecisive ; 
for, when Admiral Jellicoe reached the point of engaging, it was already 
seven in the evening, and von Scheer, with the aid of a deepening North 
Sea mist and heavy smoke screens, succeeded in escaping to his base. 
Cautiously declining to enter the mine and submarine area which 
guarded the entrance to the Kiel Canal, the British hovered about the 
scene of action till the afternoon of the following day ; but the enemy 
never reappeared. 

At Jutland a tremendous issue was involved ; for, had either side 
destroyed the opposing fleet, the War might have been appreciably 
shortened. A German victory would have broken the strangling 
blockade and stopped the transport of troops to the front, while a 
British victory would have enabled the Allies to tear up the mines, 
put an end to the submarine bases and open the German coast to in- 
vasion. By a hasty and premature report the Germans announced 
a remarkable victory, while the British Admiralty announced their 
own losses only, a well-meant but misleading procedure which threw 
their people — among whom the invincibility of the British Navy 
was an article of faith — into a momentary panic. The Germans 
later admitted that, "for strategic reasons/' they minimized their 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 859 

losses, which, in proportion to the number of ships and men engaged, 
were as heavy if not heavier than the British. Indeed, for them the 
battle was substantially a defeat, since they had failed to shake off 
the grip of the blockade or even to interrupt appreciably the normal 
activity of the British Navy. They never sought to risk another sea 
battle on a large scale until the culmination, in the autumn of 191 8, 
when their crews refused to fight. 

Submarine Warfare. — However, Germany's increasingly ruthless 
and effective employment of the submarine was to cause the Allies, 
particularly the British — to say nothing of neutrals — harrowing 
anxiety before means were devised effectively to counteract it. Al- 
ready, by the end of 1914, Germany, disappointed in the hope of a speedy 
victory, had come to realize the handicap of her inferior sea power in a 
long war. Not only had she lost most of her colonies ; but the Allies, 
thanks to the power of the British fleet, were at once steadily cutting 
her off from essential supplies and utilizing the whole world for food, 
equipment and munitions. It was particularly alarming to them 
that the British were determined to disregard the old distinction be- 
tween contraband and conditional or even non-contraband without 
declaring a blockade in the formal way. The British defended their 
action on various grounds, namely, that, with the development of 
new methods of fighting, many products had become contraband which 
formerly had not been classed as such, that, with a whole nation in 
arms, it was difficult to distinguish between purely military and civilian 
needs, and that, with the appearance of the submarine, it was impos- 
sible to station a fleet in front of a port or along a stretch of coast, as 
had once been the procedure. Moreover, they could point to the 
fact that they had recognized the Northern blockade during the Civil 
War before it was fully effective, and, furthermore, had accepted 
the doctrine, formulated by the North, of continuous voyage — that 
goods of enemy destination were liable to seizure, even if they were 
shipped through a neutral country. Finally, they contended that 
while goods in ships violating a strictly maintained blockade were 
actually confiscated, they merely held up and returned or paid com- 
pensation for such goods. Nevertheless, if Germany had confined 
her attacks to belligerents, she might have provoked the United States 
and the other neutral countries to go beyond the mere protests which 
they actually made, and have forced them to the length of declaring 
an embargo. By the wantonly inhuman submarine warfare which 
Germany felt it necessary to adopt, she ultimately brought the United 
States into the War, and many other countries as well. British viola- 
tions of international law, in so far as they are proved to be such, in- 



860 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

volved only property and could be paid for, while the German methods 
cost lives which could not. Moreover, there is no doubt that for some 
time before the United States entered the war, regard for American 
protests appreciably hampered Great Britain in her efforts to stop 
enemy trading. 

The Lusitania and the Sussex. — A few incidents will serve to show 
how inevitably the crisis developed. In the beginning of 191 5 the 
German Government took control of the wheat in their country and 
regulated its distribution. Thereupon, the British declared wheat 
contraband. This prompted the Germans to announce that : "On 
and after 18 February every enemy ship found in the war region will 
be destroyed without its being always possible to warn the crew or 
the passengers of the dangers threatening," whereupon, they proceeded 
to sow mines in British waters, and to sink merchant ships of bel- 
ligerents on sight. Then they decided to extend their nefarious prac- 
tice to Allied passenger ships. Hoping to terrorize their enemies and 
neutrals as well, they sank the Lusitania, 7 May, 191 5, an atrocious 
crime and blunder as well, which, though it was greeted with exulta- 
tion in Germany, thrilled the world with horror and indignation. 
There were intervals, during the following months, when the Germans 
relaxed their submarine outrages, cessations which the British, pre- 
maturely as it proved, attributed to their methods of disposing of 
these pests, although these methods did force the enemy to slacken 
their efforts in the waters about the British Isles and to take to the 
Mediterranean and the high seas. Although President Wilson had 
warned the Germans that they would be held to " strict accountabil- 
ity," American lives and property were, on more than one occasion, 
sacrificed to the German necessity which knew no law; but the next 
acute crisis following the Lusitania outrage came with the attack, 
24 March, 1 916, on the Sussex, a British unarmed Channel steamer. 
Among the list of injured there were two Americans. After a vain 
attempt at denial, the Germans were obliged to admit — when con- 
clusive evidence was pressed home — that one of their submarines 
had done the deed. Thereupon, 18 April, President Wilson issued an 
ultimatum threatening to sever diplomatic relations unless the German 
Imperial Government agreed to abandon its " present methods of 
submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels." 
On 4 May, the Germans replied that, " both within and without the 
naval war zone," such ships will not be sunk without warning and 
without saving human lives, " unless these ships attempt to escape and 
offer resistance." They proposed, however, to couple this agreement 
with the condition that the United States " demand and insist that 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 86l 

the British Government forthwith observe the rules of international 
law universally recognized before the War." The United States re- 
fused to make any but unconditional terms with Germany, who, never- 
theless, since she made no further reply, presumably accepted the 
unqualified agreement and, on the whole, observed it for some months, 
though it was later made clear from a statement of the Imperial Chan- 
cellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, 31 January, 191 7, that, from the first, 
she intended to keep the pledge only so long as it suited her interest. 
" It was never," said he, " a question of Germany keeping faith, but 
what would bring success." 

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare. — On 1 February, 1917, a new 
policy was announced of sinking all ships, neutral as well as belligerent, 
with certain impossibly inadequate exceptions. The plea for this 
increased ruthlessness was mainly necessity, accentuated by the Brit- 
ish extension of the blockade. The purpose was to put Great Britain 
out of the fighting. " Give us only two months of this kind of war- 
fare," the German people were told, " and we shall end the War and 
make peace within three months." Unquestionably, this fatal step, 
which was the final occasion for bringing the United States into the 
War, 6 April, 191 7, was long contemplated and sprung on the world with 
the completion of a number of swifter and larger undersea craft. At 
first there was an alarming increase in sinkings which reached its peak 
in April, 191 7, with a loss during the week 15-22 April of 55 vessels, 
40 of more than 1600 tons, and from 22 to 29 April of 51, of which 38 
were over 1600 tons. Then, with some fluctuations, the losses began 
steadily to decline. The United States speeded up her building pro- 
gram, while Great Britain, heavily handicapped as she was, cooperated 
valiantly, until, by the spring of 1918, building finally increased over 
destruction 1 and submarines were disposed of more rapidly than they 
were produced. In spite of the manifold activities of the British 
merchant marine -and the British Navy, they were able to transport 
more than half the American troops sent across the seas and to furnish 
15 per cent of the convoys. 2 

1 During the War it has been estimated that the British lost 7,756,659 tons of 
merchant shipping by enemy action, together with 1,143,000 by mercantile risk. 
Of this combined loss of 8,899,659 tons, they replaced by rebuilding, from 19 15 
to the autumn of 19 18, nearly 2,900,000 tons. The loss, by Allies and neutrals, 
from sinkings was 12,743,674 from sinkings, exclusive of 2,284,044 from mer- 
cantile risk. Of this total of 15,027,618 nearly 11,000,000 was replaced by new 
construction, and 2,500,000 by captured enemy tonnage, leaving a net loss of some- 
thing over 1,500,000 tons. The estimates are in gross tonnage. 

2 The activity of the British trawlers in mine sweeping was prodigious. It is 
estimated that they steamed 1,132,000 miles, enduring all sorts of dangers and 



862 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Methods of Meeting the Menace. — The submarine menace proved 
to be a very grave problem. No one sovereign remedy was evolved, 
but all sorts of devices were tried, with varying success, until, by the 
spring of 191 8, they began to be destroyed more rapidly than they 
could be built. 1 Ramming and swift zigzag sailing proved of some 
efficacy in attack and escape. Guns on merchant and passenger 
vessels afforded considerable protection. Dense smoke screens were 
also of great value to many a destined victim, while camouflage, or 
painting in dazzling colors, though it did not serve to conceal vessels, 
did cause much deception as to the course in which they were sailing. 
Nets proved wonderfully destructive to submarines at the entrances 
to rivers and harbors, as well as in the waters about the coast, while 
mine barrages narrowed the area of submarine activities in many 
places. Airplanes and hydroplanes and electrical listening devices 
proved more and more effective in detecting enemy undersea craft, 
and, after they were located, depth bombs disposed of great numbers. 
Mysterious " Q " boats, or heavily armed craft disguised as harmless 
merchantmen, lured not a few of the enemy to destruction. One of 
the most adequate means of protection that was evolved proved to 
be the convoy system or sending numbers of merchantmen or trans- 
ports in a group under the escort of fast cruisers well armed with guns 
and depth bombs. The last date in which a ship was sunk by a sub- 
marine was 2 November, 191 8. 

Zeebrugge and Ostend. — During the night and early morning of 
22 and 23 April, 191 8, was executed — after six months of careful 
planning and preparation — what was doubtless the most remarkable 
and heroic among the signal achievements of the British Navy during 
the War — the attempt to block the entrances to Zeebrugge and Os- 
tend, two ports on the Belgian coast which the Germans used chiefly 
as submarine bases. Admiral Keyes was in general charge of the 
operation, while Captain Carpenter in the Vindictive, accompanied 
by two old ferry boats, launched an attack on the mole guarding the 
Zeebrugge Canal and landed a body of bluejackets and marines to 
create a diversion, while three obsolete cruisers filled with concrete 
were sunk in the channel leading from the mouth of the canal. Aided 
by the darkness and a heavy smoke screen, the intrepid little flotilla, 

hardships, and, thanks to their courage and skill, whereas 169 ships were sunk by 
mines in 1916, only 25 perished from that cause in the first nine months of the last 
year of the war. 

1 It is estimated that the Germans built altogether about 360, of which the 
British got, in one way and another, some 150 out of a total of about 200 secured 
by the Allies. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 863 

accompanied by a flock of small destroyers, defied star shells as well 
as a raking fire of machine guns and shore batteries which the surprised 
Germans sought to turn on them when they awakened to the situation. 
Two of the cruisers were successfully placed, but the third had to be 
blown up a hundred yards from the mouth of the channel. Also, an 
old submarine was run into the mole and blew up a long gap near the 
shore end. Motor boats detailed for the purpose took off the crews, 
with comparatively small casualties, before the time fuses exploded. A 
shifting of the wind to the southwest made the operation at Zeebrugge 
very hazardous and prevented the success of the undertaking at Ostend, 
where two destroyers were sunk some four hundred yards from their 
objective. The whole achievement is all the more wonderful from 
the fact that 120 long-range guns were concentrated along the shore 
from Zeebrugge to Ostend. Some weeks later, 10 May, the Vindictive, 
which had figured so gloriously in the earlier expedition, was sent, on 
a moonless night, for a surprise attack against Ostend and sunk across 
the channel. Nine German cruisers, reported to be out on patrol that 
night, never appeared to frustrate the enterprise. 

The Surrender cf the German Fleet. — After the German crews 
refused to come out for a final desperate effort, the whole German 
High Seas Fleet surrendered, in pursuance of the terms of the Armis- 
tice, to Sir David Beatty — Lord Jellicoe's successor as Admiral of 
the Grand Fleet — on 21 November, 1918, off the Firth of Forth. 
Aside from submarines, 9 battleships, 5 battle cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 
and 50 destroyers were given up. After some discussion among the 
Allies, they were interned in Scapa Flow,- where, by a lamentable breach 
of faith, most of them were scuttled by their German crews, under orders 
from the Admiral in charge, 21 June, a week before the Peace Treaty 
was signed. 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

Frank Simonds, The History of the World War (vols. I-IV, 1919). Wm. L. 
McPherson, The Strategy of the Great War (19 19). R. G. Usher, The Story 
of the Great War (1920). C. J. H. Hayes, A Brief History of the Great War 
(1920). A. F. Pollard, A Short History of the Great War (1920). F. W. 
Halsey, cd., Literary Digest History of the War (10 vols., 1920). Sir F. 
Maurice, The Last Four Months: How the War was Won (1919). J. 
H. Boraston, Sir Douglas Haig's Despatches (1919). Sir A. Conan Doyle, 
History of the Great War (vols. I-V, 19 16 ff.). 

For England's effort: Andre Chevrilion, England and the War, 1914- 
1915 (1917) ; Mary A. Ward (Mrs. Humphrey W r ard), England's Effort 
(1916) ; Towards the Goal (1917) and Fields of Victory (1919) ; Mr. Punch's 
History of the Great War (19 19) ; Sir George Arthur, Life of Lord Kitchener. 



864 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

Naval. A. P. Pollen, The British Navy in Battle (1919). A. S. Hurd 
and H. H. Bashford, The Heroic Record of the British Navy, 1914-1918 
(19 19). Admiral Viscount Jellicoe, The Grand Fleet, its Creation, Develop- 
ment and Work (1919) • Sir Henry Newbolt, Submarine and Anti-Submarine 

(1919). 

For German accounts, see: A. von Tirpitz, My Memoirs (Eng. tr. 
1919) ; E. von Falkenhayn, The German General Staff and its Decisions, 
1914-1916 (Eng. tr. 1920) ; and Ludendorff's Own Story, August, 1914- 
November, 1918 (1919)- 









CHAPTER LX 

BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 

(1914-1918) 

PART II 

The British Government on the Eve of the War. — Having consid- 
ered the British military and naval effort in the World War, it is now 
necessary to see how they worked behind the lines, and how pro- 
foundly — for the time being at least — British life and institutions 
were transformed by the war-making machinery devised. Since 1905 
a Liberal Ministry had been in power, interested primarily in improv- 
ing domestic conditions, pacific and inclined to concession in foreign 
policy, opposed to a big army or compulsory military training, and 
only reluctantly agreeing to occasional increases in the Navy. At the 
outbreak of the War there were three leading figures in the Cabinet : 
the Premier, Mr. Asquith, a great reconciler, who favored allowing 
everyone to have his say in counsel and debate and whose policy was 
" wait and see " ; Mr. Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
mainly bent on saving money on armaments in order to apply it to 
his projects for the betterment of the masses ; and Sir Edward Grey, 
the Foreign Secretary, who, while far from oblivious to threatening 
situations on the Continent, hoped to avert trouble by conciliatory 
negotiation rather than by armed preparedness. The British people 
in general were unmilitary, distrustful of change, of system, of Gov- 
ernment encroachment on their individual liberty, and prone to 
muddle through difficulties. Largely unconcerned with foreign affairs, 
they had plenty of disquieting problems at home to occupy their 
attention. Organized labor was striving further to better its position 
by frequent strikes, the militant suffragettes were still on the rampage 
and the Irish situation was acute. In spite of the earnest pleas of 
Lord Roberts for a more adequate army, and the solemn warnings of 
Sir Percy Scott that the submarine would destroy their vaunted naval 
superiority, the great majority of the British people felt complacently 
secure in their island fastness and, even after the War broke out, 
continued for a time to nourish the delusion that they could do their 

3 K 865 



866 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

part to meet the German menace with a small expeditionary force in 
addition to their fleet, and the resources of the Empire which they 'could 
contribute. Gradually they awoke to the situation, which the leaders 
of the dominant party were all too tardy in disclosing to them in its 
full gravity ; there was much faltering and bungling, but their ultimate 
achievement in meeting the crisis was marvelous. Most amazing 
of all was the readiness with which they cast aside their old prejudices 
and cherished individual rights, and submitted to a degree of Govern- 
ment regulation which, hitherto, no one would have believed possible. 

Cabinet and Parties in the First Year of the War. — The first 
innovation in the Cabinet was to appoint as Secretary for War Lord 
Kitchener who, next to the aged Lord Roberts, was England's great- 
est living military hero. Kitchener showed great foresight in insisting, 
against the prevailing opinion, that the War would last at least three 
years ; he achieved much in the way of recruiting and equipment ; 
but he made the mistake of trying to do too much himself, and of try- 
ing to manage, from the hide-bound and torpid War Office, a vast 
complex organization that needed the cooperation of the best civilian 
administrative and business brains of the country. The selection 
of a non-party Secretary for War was quickly followed by a party 
truce, so that for a while the Government had a free hand, except 
for the obstruction of pacifists and a few free lances. Moreover, 
various restrictions which hampered the expeditious action of the 
executive were done away with. 1 Yet, in spite of the party truce, 
dissatisfaction began increasingly to manifest itself with the lack of 
energy, decision, and stability displayed by the Government. The 
authorities were confronted with a stupendous task — to raise an army 
of millions which had to be equipped and munitioned forthwith, and, 
at the same time, to provide for the civilian and check soaring prices, 
to say nothing of helping to supply and finance the Allies; and the 
innate tendency of the British openly to air their grievances, to sub- 
mit all Governmental policy or lack of policy to " pitiless publicity " 
had no little effect in puzzling and misleading neutral countries where 
they were seeking to combat German propaganda. 

The First Cabinet Crisis (May, 1915). — The first crisis came in 
May, 191 5, and was brought to a head by two facts. One was the 
resignation of Lord Fisher, First Sea Lord, in consequence of sharp 

1 The right of private members to introduce bills in Parliament was suspended 
and the whole time was given to the Government ; Ministers accepting new offices 
were exempted from the necessity of resigning and standing for reelection; also the 
life of the existing Parliament, which, by the Quinquennial Act of 191 1, expired in 
1916, was continued by successive measures until the autumn of 1918, 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 867 

differences with Mr. Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, 
over the ill-fated Gallipoli expedition ; the other was the ominous 
outcry against the notorious lack of munitions which was so seriously 
hampering Marshal French on the western front. 1 Since the Union- 
ists refused to refrain further from party criticism, the Cabinet was 
reconstituted, and although Mr. Asquith continued as Premier, 
eight Unionists and one Laborite were admitted in a Cabinet of twenty- 
two. Mr. Lloyd George was transferred from the Exchequer to a newly 
created Ministry of Munitions, where he achieved wonders. Confronted 
by national necessity, and reassured by the admission of a substan- 
tial number of their own party into the Cabinet, the Conservative 
opposition was once more stayed for a time. Yet, while the new ar- 
rangement was far more effective than the old Liberal regime, it too 
proved unequal to the situation. A Cabinet of twenty-two proved 
too large and too unwieldy, while the Prime Minister continued to be 
too indecisive in action. It is true that the determining of significant 
questions of strategy came to be delegated to a War Committee con- 
sisting of half a dozen members of the Cabinet including the Prime 
Minister, and that some fifty other Government committees, re- 
enforced by bus'ness men from the outside, had been set up to deal with 
various phases of war activity. However, there was lack of coordina- 
tion, and sometimes the War Committee did not meet for days together. 
The Lloyd George War Cabinet and Ministry (December, 191 6). — 
Although the Coalition Cabinet hung on for eighteen months, acute 
and growing differences developed over conscription, then, after that 
was carried, over the most effective utilization of man power ; over 
the withdrawal from Gallipoli; over aid to Serbia and pressure on 
Greece. Conditions at home and abroad grew darker and darker: 
the stringency of the food situation; the shipping problem; the 
rebellion in Ireland ; the limited success of the Somme campaign ; 
the collapse of Rumania; and the increasing pro-Germanism and 
defeatism in Russian governmental circles. In the face of all these 
difficulties there was an insistent demand, led by Lord Northcliffe 
, of the London Times, for " a better machine for running the War." 
Mr. Lloyd George, who had done so much to speed up munition pro- 
duction, became convinced that it was beyond the power of any single 
man to perform at once the threefold task of acting as Prime Minister, 
leading the House of Commons and acting as Chairman of the War 
Committee. Feeling that he was best fitted for the latter work, he 

1 It was later (December, 1915) revealed in a notable speech by Mr. Lloyd George 
that, while the Germans, with a huge reserve on hand, were making 250,000 high 
explosive shells a day, the British were making 2500, and 13,000 shrapnel. 



868 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

made various proposals, after consultation with leading Conservatives, 
aiming to secure for himself the active management of the Cabinet 
war policy. When, at the close of hurried and complicated negotia- 
tions, Mr. Asquith finally refused to assent to an arrangement which 
seemed to him to efface himself, Mr. Lloyd George resigned. The 
Prime Minister, certain that he could not get on without him, there- 
upon resigned also. After Mr. Bonar Law, the Unionist leader, 
failed to form a Government, Mr. Lloyd George, on 6 December, 
1 91 6, was invited to assume the Premiership. 

The Government which he formed was marked by many striking 
innovations. In place of the old Cabinet of twenty-two he created 
a special War Cabinet of five. Of these he himself was the only Lib- 
eral, and, originally a Radical, he had come to identify himself with 
the Conservatives in many respects. Another represented Labor. 
Three were Unionists, one of whom, Mr. Bonar Law, became Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons. Ex- 
clusive of the Premier and the Leader of the Commons, the members 
of the new Cabinet had no ministerial duties, the object being to free 
them from administrative routine, in order that they might devote 
their whole time and energy to the War. A few changes were subse- 
quently made, one of the most notable being the admission of General 
Smuts, one of the ex-Boer leaders and a member of the South African 
Cabinet. However, the total number was never increased beyond 
six or seven, though Ministers and experts of all sorts were constantly 
called in for information and advice. Among the other new depar- 
tures was the appointment of a secretary to keep official records of the 
meetings. The Ministry, or outer circle of heads of departments, 
was enlarged eventually to eighty-eight ; in addition to the Ministry 
for Munitions, Ministries were created for Blockade, Pensions, Labor, 
Food Control, Shipping Control, National Service and Reconstruc- 
tion. Outside the Cabinet new boards and committees were con- 
stantly added, until, before the close of the War, there were over 400. 
Inevitably there was much overlapping and confusion ; but the new 
system provided a much more effective engine for the immediate work 
on hand than any hitherto devised. 

Conscription. — For more than a year, the British Government 
relied on voluntary enlistments for supplementing its small expedi- 
tionary force. In spite of a showing that was, on the whole, most 
gratifying — indeed nearly 5,000,000 enlisted from the various parts 
of the British Empire by May, 191 6 — the need was soon realized for a 
better organized and more equable system. Stimulated by posters, 
by public exhortation and private persuasion, pressure of employers 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 869 

and even insult, high-spirited skilled workers left essential industries 
to go to the trenches, while unconscientious and unsensitive slackers, 
who were of no use at home, often refused or evaded enlistment. 
Accordingly, a Bill was introduced, which became law, 15 July, 1916, 
providing for a National Registration of persons between 16 and 65, 
with a view to finding what each was able and willing to do. After 
a further trial of the voluntary system under a Director General of 
Recruiting, a Military Service Bill was carried, which went into effect 
10 February, 1916, imposing compulsory service — with specified 
exceptions and exemptions, particularly for men in essential occupa- 
tions — on all male British subjects, between 18 and 41, who were 
unmarried or widowers without dependent children. By a second 
Bill, which went into operation 24 June, compulsion to serve was 
extended to married men between these ages. Still a third Bill of 9 
April, 1918, raised the age limit to 50 and instituted a more drastic 
combing process of persons hitherto exempted on the ground of physical 
disability or occupation in essential industries. Furthermore, the 
King was authorized, if need arose, to call on men up to 56 years of 
age, and to extend conscription to Ireland. 

Control of Industry. — By means of legislation, — for example, by 
successive Defense of the Realm Acts (popularly known as" Doras ") — 
by royal proclamations, by Orders in Council, the Government assumed 
an increasing control of transportation and communication, industry, 
property, and man power in both military and civil occupations. 
The general principles guiding the Government action were set forth 
in a Defense of the Realm Manual in which it was declared in sub- 
stance that : " the ordinary avocations and the enjoyment of property 
will be interfered with as little as may be permitted by the exigencies 
of the measures to be taken for securing the public safety and the 
defense of the Realm." Whereas, in ordinary times, the British had 
been prone to safeguard individual rights even at the expense of 
governmental efficiency, now, in the face of a crisis greater than the 
world had ever seen, the individual had in many cases to be sacrificed. 
Flence the censorship of the mails, the control of lights and sounds, 
of intoxicants, and places of amusement, internment of suspected 
persons as well as regulation of prices, transportation, occupations, 
and financial transactions. Perforce, there was much vexation and 
ineffectual meddling ; but, on the whole, the new system accomplished 
its purpose uncommonly well. Existing plants were hastily extended 
for war work, others were transformed and coordinated, while new ones 
were constantly built. Not only railways and shipping but various 
industries and commodities were taken under Government control 



870 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

or subjected to Governmental regulation. Profits were restricted, 
wages adjusted; Trades Unions were brought to suspend their 
rules ; skilled labor was diluted by unskilled ; and women, in increasing 
numbers, were employed in occupations hitherto reserved for men. 
While attempts were made to check profiteering, 1 on the other hand, 
minimum prices for various foodstuffs were guaranteed to encourage 
production. Rationing of a few staples such as sugar and meat was 
ultimately adopted, but, long before, distribution was carefully regu- 
lated as to price and quantity. 

Extension of Government Control. — The need for moving supplies 
and troops led to the taking over of the railroads very early in the 
war, though the management was left in the hands of the regular 
officials, working under Government orders. Later, the canals, unable 
to meet the competition of the State-aided railroads, were taken over, 
1 January, 191 7. Export of coal, together with steel, was soon pro- 
hibited except by license, while priority in filling orders with preference 
to munition plants was established. Various attempts were made to 
regulate prices ; but serious strikes forced the Government to take 
over, first the southern Welsh coal mines and finally, March, 191 7, 
all the coal mines of the country, and a rationing system was practically 
adopted. Petrol was among the other necessary products over which 
the Government found that it must assume control. Speculative 
trading in copper, lead and iron was prohibited. Moreover, the pur- 
chase of wool, flax and certain leathers was carefully regulated, with 
priority of military and national over private civilian needs. " At 
the end of 191 7 it may be said that the whole industry of the country, 
production, transport and manufacture, had been brought more or 
less under Government control. The degree of control varied from 
complete ownership, as with the national munition factories and na- 
tional shipyards, to the fixing of the maximum output, as in brewing, 
or, as in the cases of farming, the enforced transfer to public control 
in case of inefficient production." 

Munitions. — Naturally, one of the first essentials was to provide 
war materials. Orders were placed in the United States, as well as 
at home, and the navy was utilized with great effect to keep the ocean 

1 The regulation of prices was a most complex and delicate matter with which 
to deal. There was much outcry against profiteering and some justification for 
the complaint ; but numerous other causes were operative. There were 40,000,000 
men drawn from productive work who were still consumers; the Germans had 
occupied and devastated Belgium and the mineral and industrial regions of France ; 
there was a tremendous diversion to war needs and a frightful destruction of 
cargoes. Prices were inflated by borrowing and paper money; increased wages 
to meet the high cost of living sent up prices still further. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 87 1 

lines open, so that these sinews of war could be delivered to Great 
Britain and Allied countries. During the pre-war days the British 
had concentrated chiefly on naval armaments; indeed, there were 
only three Government factories for manufacture of army ordnance, 
while munitions of war were largely furnished on contract by about 
a dozen large concerns. During the winter of 1914-1915 sub-con- 
tracts were let to 2500 or 3000 establishments which undertook to 
transform their works into munition plants. As time went on, it was 
found necessary to take more energetic steps to mobilize materials, 
machinery and labor. In the spring of 191 5, under Mr. Lloyd George 
— then Chancellor of the Exchequer — as chairman, local committees 
were organized and the country was mapped out into districts to in- 
clude " every available factory and workshop " no matter what it 
had manufactured in the past. 1 Both strikes and profiteering were 
among the problems that had to be faced. Increased cost of living 
had aroused widespread resentment among the workmen, they were 
jealous of their dearly won privileges, most of them had not come to 
realize the danger to which their country was exposed, and not a few 
were inclined to drink and idleness. It was necessary to arouse them 
and at the same time to win their good will by a limitation of employers' 
profits. On 17 March, 191 5, a momentous conference, the so-called 
" Treasury Conference," was held between the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer and the President of the Board of Trade on the one hand, and 
representatives of thirty-five Trade-Unions on the other, at which, 
in return for a promise to restrict profits, the Government secured an 
agreement, known as the " Treasury Agreement," that during the war 
there should be no strikes on Government work, that Trades Union 
rules hampering output — such as forbidding the use of automatic ma- 
chines, the admission of semi-skilled and feminine labor — should be 
suspended, on condition that the wage scale should not be adversely 
affected. This was a tremendous gain, though some refused to be 
bound and strikes by no means ceased. The terms of the Agreement, 
somewhat extended, were embodied in a Munitions of War Act in 
July. Strikes could be declared illegal and strikers could be arrested. 
Further steps were taken, with by no means complete success, to regu- 
late the drink problem. 2 In certain areas public houses were closed, 

1 For example, "In one area alone," after Mr. Lloyd George, on becoming 
Minister of Munitions in May, 1915, divided the country into districts, " shell 
bodies or the components of shells were being made by a music manufacturer, an 
infants' food maker, a candle maker, a flour miller, a tobacco merchant, an adver- 
tising agent, several brewers, a jobmaster, a glazier, and a siphon manufacturer." 

2 For the sake of example the Royal Family, Lord Kitchener, and others in high 
places became abstainers during the period of the War. One of the most interesting 



872 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and, later, hours for the sale of alcoholic beverages were limited 
throughout the country. Most men naturally resented the imputation 
of drunkenness, and, while there was all too much heavy drinking, the 
majority of workmen speeded up, some from real patriotism, others 
under the goad of public opinion. Though there were much discon- 
tent 1 and more than one serious strike, occasioned by misunderstand- 
ings, by claims that the Government evaded its promises, by resentment 
at soaring prices, and insistent suspicion — not wholly unfounded — of 
profiteering, nevertheless, the extension of war production was mar- 
velous. By the summer of 191 8 about 2,500,000 men and 1,000,000 
women were working in munition factories, while, altogether, 4,500,000 
were engaged in the production of war material. The three Govern- 
ment munition factories had increased to over 200, exclusive of more 
than 5000 Government controlled and over 20,000 privately controlled 
factories and workshops. Every two weeks they were producing 
as many shells as they had produced during the whole first year of 
the War, while the output of machine guns was forty times, and that of 
medium guns and howitzers was seventy times as great in the fourth 
as it was in the first year of the War. 

Ships and Shipping. — Dependent as the British were on ocean 
traffic for supplying their own needs and those of the Allies, the ship- 
ping problem was, from the first, of supreme importance. A shortage 
in the world's tonnage was felt at once; for Germany and Austria 
had supplied 14 per cent, and Great Britain had supplied about half 
the rest. Immediately, the Army and Navy requisitioned 20 per cent, 
while 10 per cent was diverted to the use of the Allies. Before the 
close of 1 91 5, all insulated or refrigerating spaces for meats were taken 
over, transatlantic liners were required to devote 50 to 75 per cent 
of their freight capacity to the carriage of foodstuffs, vessels of over 
500 tons were compelled to have a license to trade, and the importation 
of all " bulky, non-essential articles was gradually prohibited." At 
length, in one way or another, 90 per cent of all British shipping was 
more or less under Government control. What with shortage of labor 

steps taken in connection with the Royal Family during the War was the signing 
by the King, 17 July, 191 7, of a Proclamation announcing that for the future the 
Royal House and Family should be known as the "House of Windsor" instead of 
Guelph, and that the use of all German dignities and titles would henceforth be 
relinquished and discontinued. 

1 One serious cause of friction arose over leaving certificates, instituted to pre- 
vent competing employers from drawing workmen from one plant to another by 
promise of higher wages. They were finally abolished in October, 191 7, and, from 
time to time, other concessions were made, in the shape of war bonuses and in- 
creased wages. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 873 

and with the increased submarine sinkings and the increased naval 
and other Government needs, the amount of tonnage available for 
trade purposes steadily shrank. For two years the Board of Trade 
continued nominally in control of the shipping policy ; but its work 
was hampered by various newly created and overlapping committees 
as well as by the conflicting demands of the Admiralty and the War 
Ofhce. The creation of a new department, under a Ship Controller, 
after the advent of the War Cabinet in December, 1916, did much to 
speed up construction and to straighten out complexities, though the 
previous regime deserve much credit for their handling of a vast and 
baffling problem. The bravery of the seamen in the British merchant 
marine was one of the most splendid features of the War. Undaunted 
by submarine or mine they continued steadily at their appointed tasks, 
supplying food, coal, and other material to their Allies. Of the im- 
ports to France and Italy alone, 45 per cent were carried in British 
ships, and 50 per cent of their coal was supplied by Britain in British 
ships, to say nothing of vast quantities of steel. 

Food Control. — Since, at the beginning of the War, Great Britain 
imported about 40 per cent of her meat and 70 to 80 per cent of her 
cereals, the question of food shortage offered the prospect of a grave 
menace. With a steadily decreasing tonnage, it was felt necessary to 
insure economy in the use of foodstuffs and to increase the production 
as well. The effort in the latter direction was of course greatly com- 
plicated by the demand for righting men and for workers in the manu- 
facture of war materials. In order, under these circumstances, to se- 
cure sufficient food for the army and the civilian population all sorts 
of devices were tried. Importation was encouraged and exports 
discouraged; the Government undertook the purchase and control 
of certain food staples ; prices were fixed ; and regulations were framed 
as to the kinds and quality of food that might be used. Only after 
various experiments and much hesitation was a limited system of 
compulsory rationing adopted. Early in the War, price fixing was in- 
troduced in the case of many commodities, and the State undertook to 
purchase sugar l and wheat and to sell to the British consumer. In the 
case of wheat, however, the practice was stopped in April, 191 5, since 
it tended to restrict neutral trade. Early in 191 7, however, a Wheat 
Supplies Royal Commission was set up for the control of grain supplies. 
Meantime, toward the end of 1915, the policy of requisitioning ship- 
ping for the carriage of foodstuffs had been begun, and, in the follow- 
ing January, a joint international committee for Great Britain, France 

1 Normally, two thirds of the sugar, made from beet root, came from Germany 
and Austria. 






874 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

and Italy was created to purchase wheat, flour, and maize. As 
was the case in other fields of activity, numerous committees came into 
being with conflicting proposals and conflicting jurisdictions. There 
were regulations to secure a higher percentage of flour from wheat, 
for the prohibition of wheat in brewing, and for restricting the number 
of courses of meals in public eating-houses. Then, December, 191 6, 
a Food Controller was appointed " to regulate the supply and consump- 
tion of food in such manner as he thinks best for maintaining a proper 
supply of food." Under Lord Devonport, the first Controller, a sur- 
vey of stocks on hand and of the uncultivated acreage of arable land 
in England was undertaken. This was followed by requisitions of 
stocks, restriction on use, and more price fixing. In February, 191 7, 
voluntary rationing of bread, meat and sugar was enjoined, and, in 
April, the Government took over all the flour mills. However, there 
was an increasing shortage of certain staples such as sugar, potatoes 
and margarine, and " lines of purchasers formed in front of dealers' 
premises to secure limited allowances." Early in this same year, 
191 7, a campaign of education was undertaken by war savings com- 
mittees. Yet, in spite of this work and a royal proclamation urging 
economy, the net result was disappointing, for the efforts of the con- 
scientious were neutralized, in no small degree, by the lavishness of 
profiteers and of laborers receiving wages higher than those to which 
they had been accustomed. In June Lord Devonport was replaced 
by Lord Rhondda, whose policy was comprehended under three main 
heads : (1) Elimination of speculation in food by means of maximum 
prices, restriction of profits, and, in a few necessary cases, by Govern- 
ment subsidies. 1 (2) Transference from central administrative de- 
partments to local authorities of much of the work in connection with 
the regulation of prices and distribution of food. (3) Compulsory ra- 
tioning, first, in certain specified districts, of one or two commodities, 
which by the spring of 1918 was extended to the whole country for 
tea, meat, butter, fats and sugar. This belated but necessary step 
caused little irritation and eased the situation greatly. Surplus food, 
sent from the United States, was a great help, and British gratitude 
was profound when they learned that these supplies were the result 
of voluntary effort on the part of the Americans. 

Agriculture. — All this, however, needed careful adjustment in 
order not to hamper the work of the Board of Agriculture in encour- 
aging the farmer to increase his production. Various devices were 

1 For example, the price of bread and potatoes was kept down by means of a 
Government subsidy. A standard loaf was sold for gd., a sum less than it cost, the 
difference being supplied from public funds. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 875 

employed. Waste lands, some of which it did not pay to till in ordi- 
nary times, were brought under cultivation. Fertilizers and agricul- 
tural machinery were freely supplied, war gardens were started and 
worked, in early morning and during the long summer evenings, by 
persons otherwise occupied during the day. City folk were recruited 
to spend their vacations in the country during the harvest season. 
Women, college students, school children, boy scouts, Belgian and 
Serbian refugees, wounded soldiers, and German prisoners (these 
latter with no conspicuous success) were all pressed into service. By 
a Bill, which became law in August, 191 7, minimum prices, in the case 
of certain agricultural products, were guaranteed for five years, an 
Agricultural Wages Board was set up to adjust minimum wages for 
laborers, and " powers of entry upon land " were authorized, " to 
secure better cultivation " if necessary. While there was inevitable 
friction the results were wonderful. In spite of shortage of regular 
hands, due to military requirements, 4,000,000 acres were brought 
under tillage during the period of the War ; 1 ,400,000 war gardens came 
into being, and a grain supply for forty weeks was raised in 191 8, as 
against a twelve weeks' supply in the previous year. 

Britain's Financial Effort. — Britain's colossal financial effort has 
already been touched upon in another connection. As nearly as it 
can be estimated, she contributed over £8,000,000,000 or one fifth 
the total amount expended by the allied and associated Powers, of 
which more than £170,000,000 was loaned to the Dominions and over 
£1,500,000,000 to her Allies. By raising the normal income tax, and 
imposing heavily graduated super-taxes on the great incomes ; by in- 
creasing excess profit taxes first to 60 a.nd then to 80 per cent ; by 
doubling and then quadrupling customs and excises, and by intro- 
ducing various new indirect taxes the revenue receipts, which were 
about £200,000,000 in 1914, were brought up to over £800,000,000 in 
191 8-19 19 ; but, while the annual revenue was increased fourfold, the 
annual expenditure was thirteen times in 191 8 what it had been in the 
last year before the War ; and since three fourths of the amount had 
to be raised by borrowing, the British national debt mounted from 
£700,000,000 to over £7,000,000,000, — in other words, it was swelled 
tenfold. While the British people, in spite of heavy burdens, loyally 
contributed to succeeding loans as they were issued, very considerable 
sums had to be raised in the United States, and American securities, 
held by British subjects, were taken for collateral, the holders being 
compensated with British Government certificates of indebtedness. 
Of all the European Powers involved in the War, Great Britain is the 
only one paying from taxes the interest — and indeed something more 



876 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

— on her debt. In view of the crushing war taxes and the fact that 
prices nearly doubled during the War, the British contributions to 
all sorts of war charities, including some £10,000,000 to the Red Cross, 
are wonderfully gratifying. 

The Labor Problem. — Until recently' the British Trade-Unions 
have been — since their legal recognition in the seventies — the out- 
standing labor leaders, gaining as the results of a long struggle : rights 
of collective bargaining, peaceful picketing, shorter hours and higher 
wages. The chief gains have been secured by the organized skilled 
workers, who, indeed, with the aim of preserving their preeminence 
over the semi-skilled and unskilled, have, in the past, stood out against 
the introduction of automatic labor-saving devices. Formerly the 
great mass of this rather exclusive circle held distrustfully aloof 
from the Independent Labor Party with Socialistic tendencies, from 
the out-and-out Socialists advocating State ownership and control, 
and also from the Syndicalists whose slogan has been ownership and 
control of industry by the workers themselves. While the unskilled 
and unorganized have been the chief sufferers from grinding poverty, 
deplorable living conditions, sweating, and inability to improve their 
conditions, the more favored have also not been without their griev- 
ances : they saw their higher wages neutralized by the steadily soar- 
ing cost of living, though they were by no means the only sufferers ; 
many chafed at the monotony of their daily tasks — an inevitable 
result of modern industrial development — and contrasted their lot 
with ostentatious extravagances of the idle rich ; and complained of 
bad housing and other unpleasant and unsanitary conditions. While 
those who stayed at home suffered far less hardships, to say nothing 
of dangers, than those who went to the trenches, the granting of their 
demands to meet emergencies whetted their appetites for more. Then 
the concessions of the Trade-Union leaders in the Treasury Agreement 
and the Munitions Act caused many to lose confidence in and to re- 
pudiate their leaders. Some were material, no doubt ; others were 
idealistic and began to have visions of a better and fairer world if the 
capitalist were eliminated and the workers or the State controlled 
the mines, the railways and the factories; moreover, they came to 
think that the interests of the plain people all over the world were one, 
and that wars would cease so soon as plain people were in the saddle. 
They began to feel that the existing system of political representation 
gave no adequate voice to labor as such ; not a few began to look 
toward the Soviet for the control of affairs domestic and foreign. 
More and more, the strike, or direct action, extended its appeal as an 
immediate means of gaining what they wanted. As to the ultimate 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 877 

industrial solution, views were vague and conflicting ; but there was 
an increasing agreement that what numbers regarded as industrial 
slavery should cease, that, while reduction of hours and increase of 
wages were an essential, the great industries should be nationalized, 
and labor should have a voice in management. 

The so-called national guild system whereby the State should fur- 
nish the material, and organized labor should control its production 
and distribution, has been strenuously advocated by not a few. Two 
years before the War was over, many sought to realize this second aim 
immediately by an extension of the so-called shop steward movement. 
Repudiating the Trade-Union leaders, partly because they resented 
the tying of the hands of labor by the Treasury Agreement of 191 5, 
particularly the suspension of the right to strike, and partly because 
they felt that the Trade-Unions did not go far enough, even in normal 
times when their rules were operative, they undertook by direct action 
to secure recognition of the shop steward system. The first big move 
was a munition strike at Coventry in November, 191 7, and was fol- 
lowed, during the next year, by more strikes in munition and aeroplane 
plants. While the Trade-Unions aimed to control a particular in- 
dustry and to secure their general policies by legislation, the shop 
steward advocates planned to control each plant by a committee, 
all industries, grouped into districts, by a representative committee 
of the district, and all the industries of the land by a representative 
national committee. In short, they aimed at an industrial political 
Soviet system, arguing that " modern representative government " 
was " merely middle-class government masquerading as democracy," 
and that, even if workmen were better paid, fed and housed, they were 
no better than industrial slaves. 

The Report of the British Labor Committee. — In order the better 
to voice the demands of the industrial classes, the British Labor Party 
appointed, before the close of 191 7, a committee on reconstruction. 
The momentous report which it issued, together with an authorita- 
tive little book on The Aims of Labor by Mr. Arthur Henderson, Secre- 
tary of the Labor Party, and for some months a member of the War 
Cabinet, indicates the extreme lengths to which the Party had pro- 
gressed during the War. In general, Labor now seeks : " to establish 
democratic control over all the machinery of State," and of " all activi- 
ties of society " ; to create a " nation-wide political organization ... in 
which the members will be enrolled both as workers and as citizens " ; 
and to include women as well as men, moreover, workers with the brain 
as well as hand. Their purpose is to do away with the individualistic 
capitalistic system, substituting for it, so far as possible, common 



878 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

ownership of land and capital. As steps to this end they insist that 
the great industries and services — such as the mines and the railroads 
— which had been taken from the hands of private capitalists during 
the War should be retained under Government control. Among their 
other specific proposals are further provisions against unemployment, 
accident, and industrial disease, measures to secure a reasonable amount 
of leisure and an adequate minimum wage for all workers ; x an in- 
creasing share in the management of factories ; taxation on luxuries 
and excess profits, 2 with the provision that the money thus secured 
should be spent on public objects, such as education, museums and 
the like. Finally, they urge that, since wars affect the common people 
more than any other class, the Foreign Office and other administra- 
tive departments should be brought more directly under the control 
of Parliament " to give the people's representatives larger powers of 
criticism in regard to foreign policy." Among their ideals in Imperial 
and Foreign policy are " Home Rule all round " including Ireland, 
Egypt, and India; no increase of territory, no economic wars or 
protective tariffs, abolition of secret diplomacy and the creation of a 
League of Nations, with the ultimate aim of securing a new social 
order based not on fighting but on fraternity. 

The Government and the Labor Problem. — Meantime, with the 
advent of Lloyd George's Cabinet in December, 191 6, a Ministry of 
Labor had been set up ; but, with the pressing problem of employing 
all possible resources of man power and material toward the winning 
of the War, its activities were necessarily hampered. Very early in 
the War, committees were created to consider the various problems 
of reconstruction to be dealt with — some necessarily at the close of 
the conflict — such problems as agricultural policy, coal conservation, 
relations between employers and employed, demobilization, education, 
housing, unemployment, public health, post-war trade, supply of raw 
materials, and various other needs. In July, 191 7, the whole work 
was put in charge of a newly created Minister of Reconstruction. 

One sub-committee — which continued its work under the new 
Ministry — was appointed for " looking toward a more complete 
program of representation and cooperation on the part of Labor 
and Capital " in industry. Its report, known as the Whitley Report, 
from the name of the chairman, the Right Hon. J. H. Whitley, M. P., 

1 They were especially insistent on some scheme being devised to protect the 
workers against unemployment and decrease of wages with the demobilization of 
the Army and the shutting down of the munition plants at the close of the War. 

2 In addition to heavy income and death duties they declared that it might be 
necessary to levy on capital to pay the War debt. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 879 

recommended joint industrial councils in industries and trades — one 
for each plant and factory, one for each district, and one for the whole 
nation, each containing representatives of employers and workmen. 
This was only one of various committees appointed to survey the 
situation. However, the British Labor Party, with their demand for 
nationalization of industry and ultimate abolition of private capital, 
have gone beyond what these committees have to offer, and it remains 
to be seen whether extreme or moderate views will prevail in the ulti- 
mate settlement. 

The Education Bill. — One result of the War and the movement 
for reconstruction was to precipitate an excellent Education Bill. 1 
In the Lloyd George Ministry, a novel step was taken when the posi- 
tion of President of the Board of Education was filled not by a polit- 
ical leader but by a professional teacher, — Mr. H. A. L. Fisher, one 
of England's foremost historians, successively tutor at Oxford and 
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield. His final Bill — em- 
bodying some of the recommendations of a committee appointed by 
the Board of Education as early as April, 191 6 — which became law 
in 1 91 8, was one of the few plans of reconstruction brought to a head 
before the close of the War. Reforms had been considered and dis- 
cussed for years, and, among other organizations, a Workmen's Edu- 
cational Association had been active in emphasizing the value not 
only of special technical instruction but of liberal studies for the chil- 
dren of working folk. There was much in the existing situation that 
cried for betterment : recent reports of the chief medical officer to the 
Board of Education revealed the alarming facts that out of 6,000,000 
in school, 600,000 were unclean ; about the same proportion were in- 
sufficiently fed; 3,000,000 suffered from bad teeth, and 500,000 from 
weak sight. The conditions relating to employment of children of 

1 The immediate effect was greatly to disturb the normal educational life of 
the country. The higher institutions of learning were depleted to a striking degree. 
Within two years it was estimated that, from the 54 universities in the Empire, 
70,000 students were in service. Oxford, the most ancient and famous, was reduced 
from 3181 in 1014, to 491 in 1917. And the depletion extended to the secondary 
schools, among girls as well as boys. So great were the needs for agriculture and 
other forms of war work that the Board of Education, 12 March, 1915, issued a 
circular, authorizing the suspension of the by-laws enforcing compulsory attend- 
ance ; while a few large cities declined to act on this authorization, the number of 
children under 14 who were employed in some form of work increased from 500,000 
to i,too,ooo in three years of the War. Necessary occupation of school buildings 
for public purposes also had an effect on the normal course of teaching. Among 
the earliest attempts to counteract juvenile unrest and delinquency was the ex- 
tension of the Boy Scouts and Girl Brigades, but various committees were soon at 
work on the whole problem. 



880 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

school age were equally disquieting. Of those under 14, 35,000 put 
in only half time at school and 250,000 were casually employed from 
10 to 40 hours outside school time. Out of 3,000,000 between 14 and 
18, some 2,000,000 received no systematic instruction. In some dis- 
tricts great improvements were effected through the " efforts of en- 
lightened school authorities and medical officers " ; in others the cen- 
tral authorities were hampered by obstruction. By the terms of the 
new Bill, the expenses were divided equally between the central and 
local governments ; all children between 5 and 14 were compelled to 
attend school and none under 12 were to be employed for wages; 
children between 12 and 14 could only work outside school hours, but 
not after 8 p.m. or before 6 a.m. Day continuation schools were 
provided for all who should leave the regular schools before the age 
of 16, while, after seven years' time, the age was to be extended to 18 ; 
one reason for the delay being the inability to secure at once a sufficient 
number of trained teachers. Provision was made for better salaries ; 
for nursery schools for children under 6 ; for special schools for defec- 
tives ; and for adequate medical inspection, school playgrounds, baths 
and physical training for all. Moreover, the instruction was not to 
be vocational in the narrower sense. 

The Franchise Act. — One of the most significant reforms during 
the War period was the Franchise Act of February, 191 8. As the re- 
sult of previous legislation, all male subjects with a fixed abode had 
secured the vote except domestic servants, and bachelors, lodging with 
their parents, who paid less than £10 annual rent. Nevertheless, 
complexities of registration and qualification still existed which ex- 
cluded many, while the survival of plural voting gave a substantial 
advantage to property. Moreover, women were still denied the vote. 
Although, for a decade previous to the War, the militant suffragette 
group had played into the hands of the conservatives and discredited 
the cause by their extreme violence, they had the wisdom and patriot- 
ism, once the conflict opened, to throw themselves unreservedly into 
war work. More than a million went into munition factories ; but 
all sorts of occupations, at the front and at home, were filled with busy 
and effective workers; they served not only as nurses, but as post- 
men, drivers of omnibuses and coal teams, as policemen, and as agri- 
cultural laborers. The Prime Minister recognized their indispensable 
services with a warm tribute of gratitude, the British Labor party in- 
cluded the enfranchisement of women in their platform; indeed, 
there was a general turn of the current of public opinion strong enough 
to include them in the Franchise Act. By the terms of the Act, the 
right to vote was extended to all men over 21, having a fixed residence 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 88l 

or occupation of business premises for six months ; also to all women 
over 30, hitherto entitled to vote in local elections or the wives of 
men so entitled. 1 Thus 8,000,000 voters, including 6,000,000 women, 
were enfranchised, and where 1 in 24 of the population could vote in 
1832, now the proportion is 1 in 3. Plural voting was practically done 
away with, though in a few cases, notably graduates of certain uni- 
versities, two votes are allowed. The House of Commons was en- 
larged from 670 to 707, of which number England has 492, Wales 36, 
Scotland 74, and Ireland 105. 

The General Election (December, 1918). — In the autumn of 1918 
Mr. Lloyd George appealed to the country on the following main 
issues : that the Coalition had won the War and deserved to be trusted 
to deal with the problems of peace to follow ; that the Kaiser and others 
responsible for the War and its accompanying atrocities should be 
called to account ; that Germany should be made to pay for the havoc 
she had created ; that industries essential to national security should 
be protected ; that dumping goods produced by foreign cheap labor 
should be prevented ; that a policy of Colonial preference should be 
adopted ; that the land system should be reformed ; that the principle 
of a minimum wage should be established ; that housing and labor 
conditions should be improved ; and that, in the settlement of the Irish 
question, there should be no coercion of Ulster. The old party lines 
were practically re-formed, and the main fight was between the Coali- 
tion of the former Conservatives (or Unionists as they were generally 
called) and Liberals on the one hand, and the Labor Party on the 
other. The final step in ending the party truce, which nominally pre- 
vailed during the War, was taken when, by a vote of 2,117,000 to 
810,000, the latter definitely withdrew from the Coalition, though 
eight of their leaders refused to go with them and the head of the Mer- 
chant Seamen's League made a ringing appeal to patriotic labor 
against Bolshevist, defeatist and pacifistic influences. In an elec- 
tion manifesto entitled " Labour's Call to the People," the majority 
flung " a challenge to reaction " ; for the Coalition policy was far from 
going to the lengths they desired. They demanded a peace of " in- 
ternational cooperation " ; declared against secret diplomacy and any 
form of economic war, and insisted, as an essential part of the Peace 
Treaty, on an International Labor Charter " incorporated in the 
very structure of the League of Nations." They warned the Coali- 
tion that opposition to the " young democracies of Europe " and in- 
tervention on the side of European reaction would be disastrous. 

1 This was a six months' ownership or tenancy of land or premises, lodgers in 
furnished rooms not included. 
3L 



882 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

They called for immediate withdrawal of the Allied forces from Russia, 
for freedom for Ireland and India, and the extension to all subject 
peoples of the right of self-determination within the British Common- 
wealth of Free Nations. They stood for the destruction of all war- 
time measures in restraint of civil and individual liberty; the com- 
plete abolition of conscription, and the release of all political prisoners. 
They demanded land nationalization ; a substantial and permanent 
improvement in the housing of the whole people, with at least one mil- 
lion new homes built at the State expense and let at a fair rent. They 
insisted on a really compulsory Health Act. They stood for free 
trade, and denounced protective tariffs and attempts to levy burdens 
on the poor by indirect taxes. In paying the War debt they were for 
placing the weight " on the broadest backs," by a special tax on capi- 
tal, i.e., heavy graduated direct taxes, with a raising of the exemption 
limit. They contemplated an " industrial democracy," with im- 
mediate nationalization and democratic control of " vital public serv- 
ices," such as mines, railroads, shipping, armaments, and electric 
power. Further, they called for the doing away with the menace of 
unemployment ; the recognition of the universal right to work ; better 
pay ; the legal limitation of the hours of labor, and drastic amendment 
of the Acts dealing with factory conditions, safety of the employed, 
and workingmen's compensation ; equal rights and equal pay for both 
sexes ; and the organization of both men and women in one Trade-Union 
movement. Such was their sweeping program. The two great 
surprises in the election of December, 191 8, were the overwhelming 
victory of the Coalition over the Labor party, 467 to 63, 1 and the swamp- 
ing of the Irish Nationalists by the Sinn Feiners, 73 to 5. Very likely 
the Labor Party ;s bound to grow stronger ; much Government regu- 
lation that was fashioned to meet the War emergency has come to 
stay, more may follow, but whether, in the long run, the liberty-loving 
Briton is going to tolerate State socialism, with all the restrictions on 
individual initiative which it involves, is a question as uncertain as 
it is momentous. 

The Irish Problem Again. — The Home Rule Bill which for the 
third time passed the Commons in May, 19 14, was formally placed on 
the Statute Book following the signature by the King, 17 September, 
1914; but successive suspending bills postponed its operation until 
the conclusion of the War. Moreover, the Ulster] minority, which 
bitterly opposed being included in its provisions, were promised an 
amending bill by Mr. Asquith, to offset which, John Redmond — 

1 Outside the Coalition, 23 Unionists and 28 Liberals, exclusive of 25 Irish 
Unionists, were elected. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 883 

who actively promoted voluntary recruiting — secured a promise that 
the Registration and Military Service Acts should not be extended 
to Ireland. All together, some 170,000 Irishmen volunteered; while 
small in point of numbers as compared with the other parts of the 
Empire, especially in view of the fact that nearly half of the recruits 
were Ulstermen, the Nationalist contingents fought with notable gal- 
lantry. But seeds of trouble began to germinate rapidly. Already 
on the last Sunday in July, 19 14 — nine days before Great Britain 
entered the War — an attempt, on the part of the Irish Nationalist 
Volunteers, to repeat the Ulsterite gun-running activities of the pre- 
vious spring resulted in an unfortunate collision with the British 
troops in which three civilians were killed. German intrigue, backed 
by Irish extremists in the United States, began to work effectively 
on a fertile soil. The experience of crises in the past and the strategic 
importance of the country were well calculated to arouse the gravest 
apprehension. Ireland in enemy hands, in the event of a war with 
Germany, offered a serious menace to British security — as abase from 
which cruisers and submarines could be employed with deadly effect 
to intercept or destroy sea-going commerce on which Great Britain's 
very existence depended. 

The Elements of Discontent. — As early as 1906, the military corre- 
spondent of the London Times pointed out the danger of an " exposed 
coast, a watchful enemy and such smoldering elements of discontent 
as might always be found to exist in certain parts of Ireland." Chief 
among these elements was an organization which took the name of 
Sinn Fein, meaning literally " Ourselves alone," an organization that 
aimed to cut loose from all connection with England. Founded about 
1905 by Mr. Arthur Griffith, it repudiated the parliamentary methods 
of. the Nationalists, and ultimately an extreme group, like the earlier 
Fenians, set as their goal an Irish republic to be established by direct 
action. 1 Also there was the Gaelic League, which, although originally 
established (in 1892) by Dr. Douglas Hyde for the revival of the ancient 
Irish language and literature, gradually became dominated by Sinn 
Fein and came to nourish separatist ambitions. A third center of 
disaffection was to be found among the labor agitators and their fol- 
lowers in Dublin. Their grievances, substantial enough — miserable 
housing conditions, insufficient wages and frequent unemployment — 
were largely economic. Not only did they have nothing in common 
with the Nationalist parliamentary party, whom they regarded as 
capitalistic in sympathy, but they were not recognized by the orthodox 
Trade-Unionists because of their radical syndicalistic views. For 

1 The Irish Republican Brotherhood came to comprise the most extreme element. 



884 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

some years their most effective leader was James Larkin, an uncom- 
promising foe of capital, who organized a formidable transport strike 
and an armed force known as the Citizen Army, but who subsequently 
went to America. While wedded to Marxian internationalism which 
aims at the ultimate ascendancy of labor throughout the world, many 
of this labor element curiously enough joined forces with Sinn Fein 
whose primary aims were political and national. 

Sir Roger Casement. — By the autumn of 1914 the crisis began to 
develop and the play of German intrigue on Irish grievances began 
to bear fruit. An active agent in fomenting strife was Sir Roger Case- 
ment, a north of Ireland man and a retired official in the British con- 
sular service who had earlier distinguished himself in exposing the 
rubber scandals in the Belgian Congo and in Putomayo. Already 
in 1 913 he was prominent in the councils of the Irish Nationalist Vol- 
unteers; in 1914, before the outbreak of the War, he went to the 
United States, and, in spite of the fact that he was in receipt of a 
British pension, identified himself closely with the Clan-na-Gael, the 
physical force party of the Irish-American Nationalists, and entered 
into a close working alliance with the German agencies operating in 
the United States. As early as August, 1914, he began a series of 
letters to Irish papers protesting against Redmond's recruiting Irish- 
men for the British army and advocating Ireland's entrance into the 
War on the German side. In November, 19 14, as self-styled " Irish 
Ambassador," he proceeded to Germany by way of Scandinavia, and, 
under the aegis of the German Foreign Office, sought to recruit an 
Irish Brigade from the German prison camps. It should be said, 
however, that his efforts were usually scornfully repulsed and that 
he gained few adherents. 

The Crisis Draws to a Head. — Meantime, the postponement in 
putting the Home Rule Bill into force, and resentment against the 
recruiting campaign of the Nationalist leaders, had resulted, during 
the autumn of 1914, in a secession of the Sinn Fein extremists from 
the ranks of the Irish National Volunteers over whom the Redmond 
influence was strong. The seceders took the name of the Irish 
Volunteers, and with them the Citizen's Army joined forces in the 
spring of 191 5. Those who remained in the old organization took 
the name of the National Volunteers. Various causes contributed 
further to inflame the extremists. War taxes were greatly increased 
beyond the expenses incurred by Ireland, and there was a cry that 
the surplus was going into the pockets of the munition manufacturers, 
though Irish farmers soon began to reap rich profits from soaring 
prices. Moreover, the arch-enemy of the Nationalists, Sir Edward 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 885 

Carson, who had once defied the British Government, was taken into 
the Coalition Cabinet in the spring of 191 5; though here it should 
be said that Redmond might have had a seat had he chosen. There 
were now four main parties in Ireland : the Unionists, concentrated 
chiefly in Ulster, but with a sprinkling in the three other provinces, 
stanchly insistent on the maintenance of the English connection ; the 
old Nationalists, or parliamentary Home Rule party, steadily losing 
ground ; the Sinn Feiners looking toward separation ; and the Dublin 
Labor party which had thrown in its lot with the Sinn Feiners, though 
the combined forces of the extremists remained in a minority until 
the summer of 191 6. Most disquieting was the fact that each of the 
four parties was organized into an army. While it must be admitted 
that the Ulster Volunteers had set the perilous example of creating 
an army and gun-running in defiance of the law, their action was 
taken in the interest of maintaining Imperial unity, and, what is more 
to the point, when Great Britain was threatened by no external danger. 
German intrigue continued busily, and a still small body of extremists 
saw in Great Britain's absorption in the furious struggle on the Con- 
tinent what seemed to them a providential opportunity to strike a 
decisive blow for Irish independence. The activity of Redmond and 
other prominent Nationalists in recruiting despite the fact that the 
prospect of securing Home Rule seemed as far off as ever, the suspicions 
that Ulster was receiving undue consideration, the grievances of labor 
and the dreams of a few enthusiasts for a revival of Ireland's ancient 
glories in language and literature — though no obstacles were put 
in the way of its teaching in the schools — all contributed to precipi- 
tate a crisis. Drilling and arming among opposing factions proceeded 
unchecked, and lawlessness increased alarmingly. The Government, 
confronted by a world menace of unparalleled magnitude, took no 
steps to hasten a settlement which would have to reckon with the 
resolute opposition of Ulster, while its Irish representative, the Chief 
Secretary, from undue optimism or lack of decision, hesitated to inter- 
vene and put down the bodies of armed men " openly declaring their 
hostility to the British Government and their readiness to welcome 
and assist England's enemies." His hesitation was natural, but con- 
cession or firm suppression were the only alternatives. For failing 
to do one or the other the authorities paid the penalty. On the other 
hand, the Irish missed a great opportunity. To be sure, only the seces- 
sionist minority were actually disloyal ; but, though it was much to 
expect, if the great majority had responded more generally and en- 
thusiastically to assist the Allies in defending the cause of civilization 
they would have won such claim to gratitude that world opinion, to- 



886 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

gether with the English sense of justice and fair play, would have de- 
manded a speedy settlement of their problem at the close of the War. 
Thus was the magnificent loyalty of the militants rewarded by the 
granting of women's suffrage. 

The Sinn Fein Rebellion (April, 1916). — While the Government 
delayed to frame a policy of concession and at the same time regarded 
it as " safer and more expedient " to leave the law against bearing 
arms " in abeyance," and while the Royal Irish constabulary vainly 
sought to keep order, the Sinn Fein and other extremists, financed to 
considerable degree by Germans and a radical element of Irish 
Americans, 1 through vehement speaking and an active distribu- 
tion of propagandist literature contributed considerably to check 
Redmond's campaign of recruiting, which at first had met with reason- 
ably enthusiastic response. All the while, the Irish Volunteers and 
the Citizen Army were entering into closer communication with Ger- 
many and preparing to revolt. Their plan was to proclaim a general 
rising throughout Ireland, and, while the British troops quartered in 
the country were occupied in attempting its suppression, to seize Dub- 
lin. To assist the rising, the Germans were to land arms and muni- 
tions in Ireland and to send an expedition to attack the east coast of 
England. Practically all these plans miscarried. Casement, with 
two companions, was conveyed by submarine to the neighborhood 
of the Kerry coast, and, in a small boat, effected a landing on Good 
Friday, 21 April, 1916. Casement and one of his companions, Bailey 
by name, were promptly discovered and taken into custody. Also, 
a steamer, with arms and munitions, sent from Wilhelmshaven disguised 
as a Norwegian trader was intercepted by the British and blown up by 
its own crew who took to their life boats and surrendered. The con- 
templated German attack on the English coast amounted to no more 
than a fleeting and belated raid by swift cruisers after reinforcements 
of British troops had already been sent to Ireland. The general rising 
which had been planned to include the whole Irish countryside and 
timed to take place on Easter Eve (22 April) was prematurely exposed 
by the capture of Casement, and confined, by prompt and resolute 
action of the British troops, to a few sporadic though ugly outbreaks 
and put down within a week. 

The attempt to seize Dublin proved to be the most formidable fea- 
ture of the whole rebellion. Professor John MacNeill, the nominal 
commander of the Irish Volunteers, disappointed in his expectation 
that a German contingent of at least 40,000 men would be dispatched 

1 Though the great majority in the United States were extremely loyal to the 
Allied cause. 






BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 887 

to aid the insurgents and discouraged by the news of Casement's arrest, 
sought to draw back at the last moment, and, late Saturday night, 
issued an order that there should be " no parades, marches, or other 
movements " on Easter Sunday. But bolder spirits took the control 
from his hands, among them James Connolly the commander of the 
Citizen Army, the Countess Markiewicz, the Irish wife of a Polish 
nobleman, and Padraic Pearse, the founder and principal of St. Enda's 
School. An Irish Republic was proclaimed, and Pearse, 1 who an- 
nounced himself as Commander-in-Chief of the army of the Irish Re- 
public and President of the Provisional Government, boasted that they 
" had written with fire and steel the most glorious chapter in the history 
of Ireland." The insurgents seized the general post office and various 
public buildings and barricaded the streets, and much looting, shooting, 
and bloodshed followed. The unarmed Dublin police were forced 
to withdraw, troops were rushed in from neighboring garrisons, by 
Monday night reinforcements began to arrive from England, on 
Tuesday martial law v/as proclaimed ; but it was Saturday (29 April) 
before Pearse and Connolly surrendered, and 1 May before the formal 
announcement was issued that " all the rebels in Dublin have surren- 
dered and the city is reported to be quiet." Efforts to put down the 
insurrection without unnecessary destruction of life and property 
were complicated by the difficulty of distinguishing actual insurgents 
from the mass of the population, 2 and by various fires due to malice 
or carelessness, which the firemen were hampered by snipers in ex- 
tinguishing. 3 

The Bitter Aftermath. — About 1000 prisoners were taken, fully 
half of whom were sent to detention camps in England. 4 After speedy 
trials all seven of the signatories to the rebellion manifesto, including 
Pearse and Connolly, together with seven others who participated 
in the rebellion, were convicted and shot. Fifty-five more, the Coun- 
tess Markiewicz among them, were sentenced to death ; but the sen- 
tence was commuted to life imprisonment or penal servitude for 
shorter periods. On 15 May, Sir Roger Casement was tried and con- 
victed, in London, for traitorously adhering to the country's enemies 

1 Though he too might not have gone to the extreme limits had he not been 
pressed by rasher spirits. 

2 There was much looting by the poor and miserable who were not actually 
insurgents. 

3 One regrettable incident was the fate of Francis Sheehy Skeffington, an ad- 
herent of the Irish Republic but a pacifist opposed to violence, who, while at- 
tempting to stop looting, was shot by an officer later proved at a court martial to 
be insane. 

4 Many of the interned were released at Christmas. 



888 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

beyond the seas in time of open and public war. 1 His execution, and 
those of the other Sinn Fein leaders as well, were furiously resented 
by the majority of the Irish people. It should be borne in mind that, 
while hatred " and distrust of the British connection " was widespread, 
the rebellion — or, as they chose to put it, the effort to " expel a foreign 
Power (England) with aid of gallant Allies in Europe (Germany) and 
exiled children in America " — was the work of a violent and wrong- 
headed minority. Indeed, the fact that the bulk of the citizens were 
against the Sinn Feiners materially hastened the collapse of the rising. 
Redmond denounced the whole enterprise as insane and unpatriotic. 
Many of the less extreme Nationalist Volunteers loyally supported the 
Government, regarding an outbreak so ill-timed as an insult to the 
Irish fighting abroad, while the unexampled prosperity which the 
farmers were enjoying was no doubt a' factor in holding many to their 
allegiance. The executions and the establishment of military law 
produced the sudden reversal of opinion; but certainly a combina- 
tion with " gallant Allies " who were menacing the existence of civil- 
ization, and at the very moment that France was being " bled white " 
from the Verdun drive, deserved exemplary punishment of those 
responsible for it, and, while the War lasted, military precautions were 
necessary. A legend grew up that " a few harmless idealists, fighting 
heroically for their ideal, had been butchered in cold blood by an over- 
whelming and vindictive army " ; but it is largely a legend. Ireland 
deserves such a settlement as will enable her to realize her best political 
and economic ambitions ; but it should come in spite of the intrigues 
of Casement and the extremists. 

The Convention and Conscription. — As the War progressed, dis- 
content and lawlessness increased in Ireland to an alarming extent ; 
indeed, so bitter was the feeling that even American soldiers and sailors 
were hooted and pelted by some of the more unruly, apparently, to 
some extent, because they appeared in uniform as allies of Great 
Britain. The Home Rule Bill, the putting into operation of which 
had been so long delayed by the inability of Sir Edward Carson and. 
Redmond to come to terms over the exclusion of the Ulster counties, 
had ceased to satisfy the great majority, and finally, 16 May, 191 7, 
Mr. Lloyd George sent a letter to the Nationalists and Unionists 
proposing, as one of two possibilities, a convention of representa- 
tives of the various Irish parties and interests to frame a plan of 
adjustment. This Convention sat from July, 191 7, to April, 1918, 
under the able presidency of Sir Horace Plunkett; but the Sinn 

1 Bailey, who testified against Casement, was acquitted on his plea that he had 
only accompanied him to escape from a German prison camp. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 889 

Feiners, who soon came to call themselves the Irish Republican 
party, refused to send delegates, on the ground that the Convention 
was summoned by the British Government and was to consider only 
a form of " constitution for the future government of Ireland within 
the Empire," thus excluding any discussion of Ireland's independ- 
ence. Although the Ulster Unionists sent delegates, they were almost 
equally uncompromising at the other extreme. The delegates were 
empowered only to consider proposals, and those who sent them 
had a pledge from the Government that no settlement would be forced 
on them without their consent ; apparently they were unwilling to go 
further than Home Rule with the exclusion of Ulster or possibly some 
form of ultimate federation of the United Kingdom. The Southern 
Unionists, one wing of the Nationalists, and the Labor representatives 
were willing to agree on a modified Dominion system which might 
be adjusted to an eventual federation of the British Isles, while the 
extremer Nationalists wanted to go to the length of a full Dominion 
status enjoyed by the Self-governing Dominions beyond the seas, a 
system which involved complete control of taxes, tariffs and armies, 
and withdrawal of Irish representatives from the Parliament at West- 
minster. The majority of the Nationalists were willing to concede 
at least temporary control of the army, to continue membership in 
the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to guarantee free trade 
with England ; the Southern Unionists were willing to allow Irish con- 
trol of direct taxes, but balked on the question of the customs duties. 
At that point the Prime Minister intervened, delegates from the Con- 
vention held a conference with the Cabinet in February, 1918, as a re- 
sult of which it agreed that the question of the customs would be post- 
poned until after the War. The Convention came to an end in March, 
and in April its Report appeared. But the scheme of government 
which the majority sought was practically still born ; for the British 
Government insisted on imposing conscription as a condition of prom- 
ising legislation of a nature recommended in the Report. 

The Problem. — The situation bristled with difficulties. The Ul- 
sterites could contend that the Nationalists had increased their de- 
mands beyond the Home Rule Bill of 1914, while the latter could point 
to the sudden growth of Sinn Fein, with its demand for an independent 
republic, and argue that some concession was necessary to meet these 
increased demands. The majority had favored recruiting and con- 
demned the rebellion ; they had failed to get their Home Rule into op- 
eration, and now there were few whom it would satisfy, while they were 
at last threatened with conscription from which they had been prom- 
ised exemption. The British Government had this justification, that, 



890 SHORTER HISTORV OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

in the spring of 191 8, the Germans had launched the most formidable 
drive in their whole terrible series, every available man was needed, 
the age limit in the rest of the United Kingdom had been raised to 
fifty, with a provision for going to fifty-six, and there were ominous 
murmurings in England, Wales, and Scotland against the apparent 
favor shown to Ireland. Moreover, Protestant progressive Ulster 
was set against being cast adrift with a majority of Roman Catholic 
agriculturists, safeguarded only by guarantees in which they had scant 
confidence. Even a modified Dominion system involved possibilities 
of control over taxes and commercial policy, to say nothing of religion 
and military forces, which aroused their gravest apprehensions. On 
the other hand, aspirations for independence, the legend of the Sinn 
Fein martyrs, and labor unrest, had drawn the most diverse elements 
together — including pacifists, conscientious objectors and increasing 
numbers of the Roman Catholic clergy. This formidable if ill-assorted 
alliance shattered the Nationalists, and — though conscription was 
never enforced in Ireland — swept the country in the autumn election 
of 191 8. Meantime, a provisional Republic had been organized, with 
De Valera — a man of Spanish origin and American birth and a par- 
ticipant in the Rebellion — as President. Refusing to attend the 
Parliament at Westminster to which they had been elected, the Sinn 
Fein representatives proceeded to set up an assembly in Dublin, known 
as the Dail Eireann, which for some months the British allowed to 
sit undisturbed. All the while, discontent and disorder and terrorism 
goes on increasing, and the situation clamors for some form of settle- 
ment, but what? Out of five possible forms three may be dismissed 
forthwith. Home Rule apparently is obsolete as a possible solution, 
so is a federation of the various Self-governing Dominions of the Brit- 
ish Empire — Ireland included — and apparently few would go to 
the lengths of an independent Irish Republic. Many of those who 
voted for the Sinn Feiners in the last election would no doubt be con- 
tent with a less radical departure. The choice seems to lie between 
a modified Dominion system and a federation of the British Isles. It 
may be necessary to concede the former, though, owing to the close- 
ness of Ireland's situation to England and the conflicting interests of 
her agricultural and commercial classes, difficulties concerning the 
army and commercial policy are bound to arise ; while the attitude 
of the Ulster Unionists is a serious obstacle. Could the separatists 
forget their animosities, a federation with one or more Parliaments 
for England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and one Parliament for 
matters of common concern would seem to be an experiment decidedly 
worth trying. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 891 

The Dominions in the War. — Counting not only on the split in 
Ireland but on disaffection in India and Egypt and racial discord in 
Canada and South Africa, Germany " had hoped to disrupt the British 
Empire." Conditions seemed favorable for striking vital blows at 
many points. There was no Imperial Army, and, while small con- 
tingents of British troops were quartered in India and Egypt, they 
were outnumbered by native troops ; and, except for South Africa, 
there had been no British armies in the Self-governing Dominions for 
years. Even the Crown Colonies were very scantily supplied with 
British troops; for the Mother Country relied mainly on the fleet 
for the protection of the Empire. Nor was there any common mili- 
tary policy ; since the Committee of Imperial Defense established in 
1894 and reorganized in 1904 1 was a purely advisory body. Each 
Dominion met the problem in its own way. Canada, which had ceased 
to fear military aggression on the part of the United States and was 
only remotely apprehensive of far-off Japan, was content with a small 
militia force, and, owing to political differences, had failed to pass, in 
1913, the Borden Naval Bill to build three Dreadnoughts for the Im- 
perial Navy. On the other hand, Australia and New Zealand, lying 
in an exposed position and fearful of the yellow peril, had recently 
adopted compulsory military service : the former country had begun 
to build a fleet, while the latter had presented one ship to the Mother 
Country. Also South Africa, where the whites were so greatly out- 
numbered by the blacks, had resorted to compulsory registration to 
supply a possible lack — which had never occurred — of volunteers 
for military training. In lieu of constructing ships, the South African 
Government had contributed annually toward the upkeep of the Im- 
perial Navy. 

Thus there were great differences of method and policy in various 
parts of the Empire, and nothing could be done without the consent 
of Governments responsible to the people in the various Dominions ; 
moreover, there had been a general desire for a free hand in military 
policy, lest a common army and navy might involve them in enterprises 
of which one or another might not approve. Nevertheless, the out- 
break of the War fired them with a common purpose and a high resolve 
to prevent the Empire from being burst asunder. The offers of the 
Self-governing Dominions to place their lives and their resources at 
the disposal of the common cause were prompt and spontaneous, while 
men and money poured in from British colonies and possessions in 

1 It was under the presidency of the British Premier and included various mem- 
bers of the Cabinet, together with naval and military experts, as well as certain 
high officials from the Dominions who were occasionally called in consultation. 



892 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

every part of the globe. One Basuto chieftain cried : " Why stand we 
idle," and the Cayman Islands gave according to their capacity — £210. 
Truly King George could declare : "lam proud to be able to show to 
the world that my people overseas are as determined as the people of 
the United Kingdom to prosecute a just cause to a successful end." 

Canada. — The British declaration of war found Canada with a 
permanent militia — in training all the year — of 270 officers and 
2700 men, reenforced by a so-called active militia — in training about 
two weeks annually — of a nominal strength of 3850 officers and 
44,500 men. Straightway the Government offered 20,000 men, at 
the same time placing her two cruisers at the disposal of the Admiralty 
for commerce protection. Before instructions could be issued by the 
military department for the first contingent, 100,000 had volunteered. 
Foodstuffs and provender, including 1 ,000,000 bags of flour, were among 
the earliest contributions. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, leader of the Opposi- 
tion, gave assurances of support from the Liberal party, and, except 
for a group of French nationalist extremists, the unanimity was striking. 
As the Duke of Connaught, then Governor General, announced: 
" Canada stands united from the Pacific to the Atlantic in her deter- 
mination to uphold the honor and tradition of our Empire." By 
the end of September, the first contingent of the Canadian expedi- 
tionary force — 31,500 men and 7500 horses — was transported to 
England, and, after a course of training there, gave a magnificent ac- 
count of themselves in the Western Campaign of 191 5. About 60 
per cent were British or Irish born, but it is curious to note that, so 
late as March, 1916, out of a total of 350,000 volunteers only 16,000 
were French Canadians. This aloofness was due partly to anti-Eng- 
lish feeling and political opposition to the party in power, partly to 
religious animosity to France for her anti-clerical legislation a few 
years previous to the War. Ultimately, however, wise and far-sighted 
bishops prevailed on zealous and prejudiced priests to cease obstruc- 
tion on the latter ground. In order to distribute the burden of service 
effectively and fairly, Sir Robert Borden, in the spring of 191 7, came 
out for conscription. In the election fought on that issue, the Unionist 
or Coalition Government was victorious and proceeded to the draft. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the original enthusiasm had gradually 
spent its force, 448,063 had volunteered by the time the new Parliament 
had met — 18 March, 1918. Laurier, in spite of his assurances of 
support at the beginning of the War, opposed the Military Service 
Act — passed as a result of the Unionist victory — on the ground that 
to approve it would destroy his influence in Quebec and possibly lead 
to a revolution of the extremists. As a matter of fact there were 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 893 

riots in that Province, during the spring of 191 8, against enforcing the 
draft ; but they never attained serious dimensions. Food regulation 
was difficult for many reasons — the great extent of the country and 
the sparse population in many areas, together with the impatience of 
control felt by a young self-reliant people. Apparent plenty, suspicion 
at first that the aim was to reduce the cost of living rather than to 
save food, as well as the difficulties of distribution in the thinly popu- 
lated districts helped explain wiry no rationing system was adopted; 
but various measures were taken in 191 8 to control the food supply — 
among them licensing of wholesale and retail dealers, and an Order 
in Council, supplementing existing Provincial legislation, prohibiting 
the manufacture of intoxicants, in the interest of food economy. All 
together, Canada x like all the Self-governing Dominions 2 made a 
splendid showing. 

Australia. — Formerly, like most folk of English stock, Australians 
and New Zealanders felt that " compulsory service was a form of 
slavery unworthy of free Britons." The outcome ofthe Russo-Jap- 
anese War, however, opened their eyes, and, for reasons already 
stated, led to its adoption. On the outbreak of the Great War this 
Dominion, too, was swift to demonstrate its loyalty to the Empire. 
Her army consisted of a citizen force of 50,000 and 85,000 cadets ; but, 
since her Defense Acts made no provision for service abroad, volunteers 
were necessary, and they were quickly forthcoming. For the first 
expeditionary force 20,000 were called for ; but, by November, 1914, 
165,000 were under arms. Before the year was over, Australian and 
New Zealand forces had assisted in the capture of various German 
possessions in the Pacific ; but the bulk of the Anzacs were sent to 
Egypt for training. Owing to the free life to which they had been 
accustomed, they were inclined to be restive under restraint ; but at 
Gallipoli and on the Western front they showed the splendid stuff of 
which they were made. In spijte of the fine spirit manifested by the 
volunteers, it ultimately became clear to the Government that regular 
supply of wastage and fairness in distribution of burdens required 
conscription. 3 Yet, when the issue was referred to the people in a 

1 The total in arms furnished by Canada, including those conscribed, was 640,886 
out of a population of not much more than 8,000,000 all told; casualties have 
been estimated at 205,675, including 55,175 killed. Canada's direct war expenses 
amounted to about £335,000,000, raised by taxes and loans. 

2 Newfoundland, where the population was only 250,000, very soon had 12,000 
volunteers. Finally a legislature which met 23 April, 1918, passed a conscription 
bill which was signed by the Governor, 11 May. ^ 

3 Following the lead of New Zealand they had already adopted compulsory 
registration, for all between 17 and 60, in September, 1915. 



894 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

referendum, it was decisively defeated 28 October, 1916. In May, 
191 7, a coalition of the Liberals and National Laborites was elected, 
not on the conscription issue, but with an assurance on the part of the 
leaders that, in case of necessity, another referendum on the subject 
would be taken. As a matter of fact, the question was once more 
referred to the country and was again defeated, largely through the 
efforts of the extreme labor element of the I. W. W. type, the Sinn 
Feiners and the conscientious objectors. It is true that the Labor 
Party have had some legitimate grounds for criticizing the Government ; 
yet, while this may explain, it by no means excuses the obstructive 
tactics of the extremists while their country was striving to put its 
full weight in the War. Nevertheless, after all has been said, Aus- 
tralia can be proud of her record. 1 

New Zealand. — When the declaration of war came, New Zealand 
was just recovering from a syndicalist strike which began in October, 
1913, and was only practically broken in February, 1914. Yet she 
nobly fulfilled her promise that she was " prepared to make any sacri- 
fice to maintain her heritage and her birthright." As early as 10 June, 
1 91 6, a bill for compulsory overseas service had been passed, and some 
220,000 were recruited, 91,000 of whom were volunteers, and this out 
of a population of less than 400,000 males over 15 years of age. She 
lost 56,886 in casualties and expended nearly £80,000,000 for war 
purposes. 

South Africa. — Like Canada, South Africa had to contend with a 
race problem from which Australia and New Zealand were free. There 
was a strong Dutch Nationalist element, led by General Hertzog, in 
Parliament, who complained that the Crown Government discrimi- 
nated against the Boers in administrative appointments as well as in 
various other ways, and who, adopting as their motto " South Africa 
first," vociferously opposed all contributions for Imperial purposes. 
In spite of their attitude, in spite of unsettled labor conditions, and 
the fact that the blacks so overwhelmingly outnumbered the whites, 
General Botha, the Premier, and his Cabinet colleague, General Smuts, 
at once offered to assume the defense of South Africa, which set free 
6,000 regular troops for active service. Here was a great opportunity 
for malcontents : Hertzog himself was not prepared to go the length 
of armed revolt ; but there were rasher spirits. Chief among them were 
two veterans of the Boer War — Beyers, a Commander of the Active 
Citizen Force created by the Defense Act of 191 2, and the famous 

1 She raised, paid and equipped an armed force of 416,809 men, she suffered 
casualties aggregating 209,951, and, up to June, 1918, she had expended — ex- 
clusive of £10,000,000 raised for various patriotic funds — nearly £250,000,000. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 895 

guerilla leader De Wet. The most sinister figure, however, was 
Colonel Maritz, who had fought on the Boer side, had later served with 
the Germans, and who subsequently took a command under Beyers 
on the South African border. 

The South African Rebellion. — Existing elements of discontent 
were sedulously played upon by German propaganda, and in October, 
1 9 14, a revolt of the disaffected broke out which threatened serious 
consequences. The immediate occasion for the rebellion was an order 
to invade German Southwest Africa. Many who insisted that they 
were not pro-German were certainly ignorant or willfully regardless 
of the German militaristic designs in Africa, and declared that they 
were averse to mixing in European quarrels in which they had no con- 
cern. The signal of revolt was an ultimatum from Maritz who had been 
in communication with the Germans for weeks. The Government 
acted promptly, martial law was proclaimed, and, 26 October, Maritz 
was defeated and forced to flee across the border. Meantime, Beyers 
had risen in the Transvaal and De Wet in Orange River Free State. 
The backbone of the rebellion was broken before the end of the month ; 
but the two Boer leaders were not disposed of for some weeks to come. 
De Wet was finally captured, 1 December, and was later tried and 
sentenced to six years' imprisonment. Beyers was drowned in attempt- 
ing to escape after defeat. The last episode in the rebellion was 
an unsuccessful attempt at invasion from German Southwest Africa, 
24 January, 191 5. 

The Conquest of German Southwest Africa. — Under the personal 
command of General Botha the conquest of German Southwest 
Africa was seriously undertaken directly the end of the Boer rebellion 
was in sight. The territory to be invaded — barren and inaccessible 
— had been regarded as under British influence until 1882 ; two years 
later, following sudden activity of a horde of German missionaries 
and traders, it was formally annexed by Germany, except Walfisch 
Bay, the only good harbor on the coast. According to Botha's plan, 
attacks were made both from the west by sea and by land forces 
marching across the South African border from the east and south- 
east. In the final attacks the Premier commanded the sea contingents 
and his colleague General Smuts the land forces, and, before the close 
of spring, the conquest was practically complete, though the last Ger- 
man force did not surrender till 9 July, 191 5. South Africa was never 
free from race dissension and nationalistic obstruction throughout 
the War, yet never again was there serious danger of armed revolt. 1 

German East Africa. — German East Africa, the largest and most 
1 Her contributions for war expenses have amounted to over £60,000,000. 



896 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

important of Germany's overseas possessions, proved the most diffi- 
cult to overcome. Here Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, who by Octo- 
ber, 1914, had an army of 4000 whites and 30,000 natives, more than 
held his own for a year and a half. The Allied initiative was taken in 
the autumn of 1914 by an Anglo-Indian force, and the coast was block- 
aded in the following February. Early in February, 191 6, an expedi- 
tionary force from South Africa arrived, under General Smuts, who was 
placed in supreme command. At the time of his arrival the enemy 
not only held all of German East Africa practically intact but was in 
possession of a bit of British East Africa as well. The Allies had a 
difficult problem. In a trying climate, with a very defective system of 
transportation, they had to maintain long lines of communications 
and to coordinate forces cooperating at widely separated points — 
the main force working down from the north, Congo negroes under 
Belgian officers pushing in from the west, and a Rhodesian contingent 
starting from the south. Before General Smuts was called to England, 
January, 191 7, he had achieved about two thirds of the conquest, which 
was only slowly completed by his successors. In November, 191 7, 
Lettow-Vorbeck was driven to take refuge in Portuguese East Africa, 
whence he subsequently recrossed the border and finally retreated to 
northern Rhodesia, where he surrendered, 14 November, 191 8. 

The Other German Possessions. — Meantime, Germany had lost 
all her other colonial possessions, most of them, indeed, before the close 
of the first year of the war. In Africa, Togoland was conquered with- 
in three weeks, before the close of August, 1914, by Anglo-French and 
Belgian forces, while the Kamerunfell to the French and Belgians. Both 
sides used native negroes in the fighting. In the Pacific, Japan played 
a large part in the conquest of the islands north of the equator, and, 
November, 19 14, took Tsingtau and Kiao-chau in the Chinese Shan- 
tung peninsula. 

Egypt in the Early Stages of the War. — In spite of the achievements 
of the British administration in Egypt, there were abundant elements 
of discord for enemy intrigue to work on. The Turkish Sultan was 
under German control, and the Khedive, his nominal vassal, who had 
been educated in Vienna, was in sympathy with the Central Powers ; 
certainly he had been very restive under British advisers, particularly 
Lord Cromer. ■ There was a group of educated Nationalists who were 
demanding enlarged powers of self-government ; the student body was 
truculent and dissatisfied ; the moneyed class resented the checks on 
graft and oppression which the British imposed ; the lower urban ele- 
ment were poorly off and uneasy, the Bedouins were lawless, while the 
peasantry, who had profited so greatly under the British regime, were 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 897 

ignorant and apathetic. 1 On the eve of the War, landlords were hit 
by the failure to finance the cotton crop, industries were dislocated — 
with consequent unemployment which gave splendid opportunities 
for German, Turkish, and Nationalistic agitators ; and the Ministry 
of Finance was slow in rising to the situation. In the interests of the 
masses and the security of the Empire, the British Government, re- 
gardless of the strict letter of the law, took possession. The army of 
occupation was replaced by detachments from the Indian Expedition- 
ary force, and, in November and December, Anzacs began to arrive. 
The Khedive, who was in Constantinople when the War broke out, 
was advised not to return ; enemy aliens were registered, and deported 
or placed in concentration camps ; and ships, which refused to leave 
the Suez Canal, were removed outside the three-mile limit and taken 
possession of there. Finally, 5 November, 1914, war was declared on 
Turkey, and 19 December, since the Turks were massing troops in 
Syria, and since the Khedive was stirring up the Senussi — a reformed 
Mohammedan sect on the western border — the British proclaimed a 
protectorate, which was the only alternative to annexation or inde- 
pendence. 2 No military aid was required of the Egyptians. 

Turco-German Attacks on Egypt. — It was clear that the Turks, 
under German direction, would strike an early blow at Egypt ; conse- 
quently, British ships busily patrolled the coast and the Suez Canal 
was speedily blocked and fortified. The first Turkish advance, which 
started in January, 1915, across the Sinai peninsula, was quickly re- 
pulsed in February; indeed, the invaders fled so precipitately that 
few prisoners were taken in the counter-attack which followed. While 
the enemy were engaged in preparing to try again, Egypt was exposed 
to danger from a new quarter. The Senussi, whose apprehensions 
against the territorial advances in northern Africa of the French and 
the Italians — British allies — had been cleverly worked upon, rose 
in revolt and, late in 1915, invaded western Egypt, where they were 
joined by some Bedouin tribes. By the summer of 1916 the British 
had the situation well in hand, though the Senussi remained a factor 
to be reckoned with, if not a very serious one. In August, the Turks 
made their second unsuccessful attack on the Suez Canal. 

The Syrian-Palestine Campaign. — After the second repulse of the 
Turks, the British finally took the offensive, and, during the interval 

1 According to the estimate of an Oriental, rather more than 10 per cent of the 
population were actively for the British, rather less than 10 per cent opposed, and 
about 80 per cent were indifferent, so long as they and their religion were left alone. 

2 Hussein Kamil, uncle of the deposed Khedive, was set up as Sultan. He died, 
October, 191 7, and was succeeded by his brother Ahmed Faud. 

3M 



SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

from December, 1916, to February, 1917, succeeded in clearing the 
Sinai peninsula of the enemy. The Commander-in-Chief, General 
Murray, next planned to conquer southern Palestine, but receiving 
decisive checks, was replaced by General (now Field Marshal) Allenby, 
who, in October, 191 7, opened a strong offensive, broke through the 
Turkish lines from Gaza to Beersheba, and took Jerusalem, 11 Decem- 
ber. Meantime, he had obtained a powerful ally in Hussein, Sherif 
of Mecca. Hussein, who claimed descent from Mohammed, had in 
June, 1 91 6, declared himself independent of the Sultan, under whom 
he had served as Governor and, in November, took the title of King 
of the Hedjaz — from a strip of country skirting the Red Sea. Cooper- 
ating with an Arab army led by one of the sons of the Sherif with 
whom he advanced in parallel columns, Allenby swept from victory 
to victory. By the capture of Jericho, 21 February, 191 8, he com- 
pleted the conquest of Southern Palestine. Then, with reinforcements 
of infantry, cavalry, airplanes and armored cars, he started a final 
stage of the campaign, 18 September, 191 8, and within two weeks had 
forced the collapse of an army of 110,000 Turks and 15,000 Germans. 
By 26 October the conquest of Syria was complete. The achieve- 
ments of Allenby and the army of the King of the Hedjaz, together 
with the advance of the Allied Balkan army toward the Turkish front 
near Adrianople, as well as of another British force under General 
Marshall in Upper Mesopotamia, resulted in the collapse of Turkey, 
who entered into an armistice, 30 October. 

The Mesopotamian Campaign. — The British, who had been estab 1 
lished for three centuries in the Persian Gulf, undertook very early in the 
War, a campaign in Mesopotamia for a combination of strategic, politi- 
cal, and economic reasons; namely, in order to cooperate with the 
Russians coming down from the Caucasus, to divert the threatened 
Turkish concentration against Egypt and to guard against a possible 
menace to India; to block the completion of the German Bagdad 
railway project ; 1 to guard the Persian oil wells and to oust the Turks 
from the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates where they had turned 
an ancient paradise into a desert. Operating from the Persian Gulf 
they occupied Basra, 14 November, 1914, whence, by December, they 
had penetrated fifty miles inland, to the junction of the Tigris and the 
Euphrates. In April, 191 5, General Sir John Nixon was placed in 
command, and in May, under the immediate command of General 
Townshend, a fan-shaped drive was launched into Mesopotamia, the 
cradle of civilization. After a brilliant engagement, one of Townshend 's 
columns captured, 29 September, Kut-el-Amara, a Turkish stronghold 
1 This was a war measure. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 899 



on the Tigris. Next, against his better judgment, Townshend was 
obliged to execute an order to advance to Bagdad. The stakes were 
the moral effect of capturing the capital of the Khalifs and securing 
an important base against the Turks ; but, with insufficient forces and 
equipment and a perilous line of communications, it was a hazardous 
proceeding. On 22 November the invaders were repulsed at Ctesiphon 
and had to retrreat to Kut where, besieged by a strong force of Turks, 
Townshend held out for five months, and only surrendered, April, 
191 6, after three attempts to relieve him had failed. The disaster 
was rendered all the more deplorable by the woeful defectiveness of 
the British artillery, transport, and medical supplies, deficiencies so 
serious that a Royal Commission of investigation was appointed. 




The British Advance in Asiatic Turkey, 19 18. 

However, contrary to their policy after the Gallipoli failure, the 
British persisted. During the summer and autumn of 1916 they re- 
organized their transport system, and started again, under the effect- 
ive leadership of General Maude, who, 24 February, 191 7, recaptured 
Kut, and, 11 March, penetrated into Bagdad. The pressure of Allen- 
by's campaign farther west prevented the Turks this time from under- 
taking a serious counter-attack. Unhappily, General Maude died 
suddenly of cholera, 19 November, 191 7; but the command passed 
to the competent hands of General Sir William Marshall, while the 
work of civil administration was ably carried on by Sir Percy Cox. 
The late General Maude, on the capture of Bagdad, had issued a proc- 
lamation expressing sympathy with the national aspirations of the 
natives, and various efforts were made to gain their confidence, efforts 
which had at first been hampered by the military reverses of the British, 



goo SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

though the work of the redemption of the country had begun with the 
occupation of Basra in the autumn of 19 14. In the work of winning 
over the Arabs — many of whom were already anti-Turkish — the 
British were greatly aided by the new Sultan of Egypt, so long as he 
lived, and by the^King of the Hedjaz, while the process was greatly 
fostered by the extensive material improvements introduced by the 
new regime. Railroads were extended, new lines of steamers were 
started, new irrigation projects were launched, fair rents were adjusted 
and new markets were set up, 1 and the lawless tribes of the marshes 
were conciliated. Nevertheless, the whole situation in the Near East 
is not without very disquieting features. The problem of adjusting 
the conquered areas of Syria and Palestine to the satisfaction of France 
and Great Britain, while, at the same time, giving due recognition to 
the nationalistic aspirations in those territories and in the new king- 
dom of the Hedjaz, is a complicated and baffling one. 2 Furthermore, 
the War aims of the Allies, particularly Mr. Wilson's emphasis on 
democracy and self-determination, the example of Bolshevist Russia, 
the scarcity and high cost of food, together with the agitation on the 
part of Nationalists, supported by the unruly city elements and the 
lawless Bedouins, have led to grave disturbances in Egypt, and in 
India as well, where many of the same causes have been operative. 

India in the War. — India's first reaction to the British declaration 
of war was one of intense loyalty, greatly to the disappointment of 
Germany, who had counted on fomenting rebellion there. For the 
moment, seditious native agitators and German propagandists were 
inundated in a general wave of enthusiasm for the Allied cause. Num- 
bers of native rulers freely and spontaneously contributed troops, 
treasure, and private jewels, while not a few volunteered personally 
to go to the front. Indeed, all sorts of associations, classes, and creeds 
eagerly offered help. • Stocky Gurkha riflemen, Hindus who set little 
store by caste ; tall, clean-cut bearded Sikhs, the backbone of the In- 
dian army; Marathas; high-caste Brahmans and Rajputs; various 
Mussulman folk, Punjabi and Pathans from the Northwest Provinces 
among them, were hurried into action and rendered valiant service 
on every front. All together, exclusive of 239,561 troops in the Indian 
army at the outbreak of the hostilities, 1,161,789 were recruited dur- 

1 Bagdad, for instance, was quite transformed by June, 1918, what with a police 
system, a fire department, schools, and electric lights. 

2 Moreover, a recent agreement between Great Britain and Persia, by which 
the former guarantees a large loan and undertakes the training of the latter's army 
and police, has aroused a strong suspicion in many quarters that the British have an 
eye on the Persian oil fields. Early in 191 8 Trotzky announced the repudiation of 
the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 respecting Persia, see above pp. 793, 808. 






BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 901 

ing the War, though these huge numbers were only a small proportion 
of her teeming population of 315,000,000. More striking, considering 
the poverty of the country, were the generous subscriptions to War 
loans, her total contribution to the War expenses amounting to over 
£120,000,000. Thus the effective, honest administration of the British 
had borne good fruit. 

Manifestations of Discontent. — Nevertheless, as the first wave of 
enthusiasm spent its force, evidences of unrest began to manifest them- 
selves here and there. In a laudable but perhaps mistaken attempt 
to keep the country contented, Great Britain had failed to call forth 
India's best efforts, and the ardor of many volunteers was dampened 
which might have been kept afire by continued sacrifice. The small 
group of educated malcontents, working hand in hand with German 
intriguers, began to raise their heads once more. Revolutionary doc- 
trines were persistently preached by well-organized bands of plotters 
operating from various centers l — California, Japan, China, Manila, 
Siam, Burma, and even Berlin. As a result, there occurred murders 
and dacoities (organized lootings) in Bengal and the Punjab, and even 
a few armed risings, of which one that broke out 15 February, 191 5, at 
Singapore created the greatest stir. 

The Grievances. — Much of the money alleged to have been 
" drained " from India has gone to pay the interest on foreign capital 
necessary to develop the country. Excessive rents have been held 
in check by Government intervention, and, if unsanitary conditions 
are all too prevalent and illiteracy is lamentably high, the cost, and the 
opposition of many of the natives themselves, present formidable 
obstacles to rapid improvement. 2 Moreover, the transition to indus- 
trialism presents new complications. Whatever the cause, misery, 
poverty, and disease are grim and appalling realities — the cities are 
congested and masses of operatives are worked long hours and scantily 
paid ; yet, whether conditions can be improved under another system 
is questionable ; for the British officials are honest and generally com- 
petent, and strive valiantly to administer a poor country, to introduce 
western improvements with Oriental revenues. On the other hand 

1 Much capital was made of the discrimination against the coolies in South 
Africa — which as a matter of fact had called forth protests from the Viceroy, 
Lord Hardinge — and of the turning back of a shipload of Hindus from British 
Columbia just before the War. Then agitators like Lajpat Rai have written books 
in which they pictured, fondly but erroneously, a golden age existing before the 
British occupation. 

2 Complaints are often heard, too, of the disproportionate expense for military 
establishments ; but the danger, first from Russia and then from Germany, justify 
what has been done. 



9 02 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

they are too prone to hold aloof from the natives and to underestimate 
the aspirations of the intellectuals, even though the latter do not realize 
the difficulties of thrusting Home Rule on a vast, inert population, 
held back by prejudice, ignorance and caste. While it is true that 
the Indian National Congress and the All India Moslem League have 
made demands beyond what is practicable, it became clear early in the 
War that more would have to be conceded in the way of self-govern- 
ment. The Morley-Minto reforms, of 1909, by which two Indians 
were appointed to the Secretary's Council in England, and one Indian 
to the Viceroy's Executive Council in India, and by which the natives 
were given enlarged representation in the Legislative Councils, both 
central and provincial, had ceased to satisfy. The franchise was on a 
narrow basis, the elections were indirect; furthermore, the official 
appointed members outnumbered the elected, who, while they had 
opportunities for discussion and criticism, had no real power and re- 
sponsibility. They could carry through nothing which the Govern- 
ment might be pleased to oppose, nor could they stop supplies. Lord 
Hardinge, who was Viceroy from 1910 to 1916, advocated provincial 
autonomy and increased devolution of powers from the central Govern- 
ment ; but the Secretary of State for India failed to indorse his pro- 
posals. As time went on, an advanced section of the " Young " 
Mohammedans drew closer to the Hindus, in spite of the many points 
of friction that had hitherto kept them at odds. British support of 
the French in Tunis and Morocco, of the Italians in Tripoli, the Anglo- 
Russian agreement, and the pressure on Turkey for reform led the 
Mohammedans to assume the existence of a growing hostility to those 
of their faith, suspicions that were diligently fostered by the " Young " 
Turks and the German. Nevertheless, the land-owning and other 
conservative elements were soberly distrustful of this alliance, resting 
on no common ground except opposition to the British regime. 

The Demand for Home Rule. — While mcderate loyal counsels 
prevailed in the 1914 session of the Indian National Congress, the 
radical element had grown decidedly stronger by the following year. 
Lord Chelmsford, who arrived in India, 4 April, 1 9 1 6 , as Lord Hardinge 's 
successor, was, as events proved, inclined to concession; but the 
military crisis in Mesopotamia and the need of acting in harmony with 
the Home Government led him to ignore a project of reform sub- 
mitted by nineteen " elected " members of the Legislative Council. 
This gave a handle to the extremists, who captured the Indian National 
Congress at its Christmas session of 191 6, and under the lead of Mrs. 
Besant, a restless visionary, and Mr. Tilak, a seditious journalist, de- 
manded large powers of self-government. In conjunction with the 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 903 

All India Moslem League they drafted a scheme calling for control 
over financial, legislative, and administrative affairs. Further en- 
couraged by the Russian Revolution and the evidence disclosed of the 
British inefficiency against the Turks in Mesopotamia, they sent a 
delegation to present their draft to Mr. E. S. Montagu, who had suc- 
ceeded to the office of Secretary for India 1 in July, 191 7. About this 
time Mrs. Besant and Mohammed Ali, the leading Moslem agitator, 
were interned for inflammatory utterances. Mrs. Besant, who was 
subsequently released, was elected President of the Indian National 
Congress for 191 7 ; Mohammed Ali was chosen to the same office by 
the Moslem League, a mere demonstration of their attitude as it proved, 
since, refusing to give requisite assurances, he was held in confinement. 
Yet, in spite of disorders, of German intrigue, and the vociferousness 
of the extremists, the majority continued loyally to support the War, 
and, what with good rains and a fine market for Indian wares, there 
was a relative degree of prosperity. Very wisely the Government, 
while determined to put down all sedition and to refuse all imprac- 
ticable demands, decided to offer a far-reaching concession. 

The Montagu- Chelmsford Report. — On 20 August, 191 7, the mo- 
mentous announcement was made in the House of Commons of a defi- 
nite policy " of the increasing association of Indians in every branch 
of the administration, and the gradual development of self-governing 
institutions with a view to the progressive realization of responsible 
government in India as an integral part of the British Empire." In 
spite of the distraction of the War, Mr. Montagu went to India, and, 
with Lord Chelmsford, made an exhaustive investigation lasting six 
months, the result of which was a report of 300 octavo pages, which was 
signed by the Secretary and the Viceroy, 22 April, 1918, and shortly 
afterwards presented to Parliament. ' ' The proposals include a great ex- 
tension of local self-government, so as to train the extended electorates, 
a substantial measure of self-government in the Provinces ; develop- 
ments for better representation of Indian needs and desires in the 
Government of India and an all-India Legislature; machinery for 
fuller knowledge in Parliament ; and means for continuously enlarging, 
in the light of experience and at regular stages, the element of respon- 
sibility to the Indian electorate." In submitting the report, the Govern- 
ment invited reasoned " criticism both in England and in India, official 
and unofficial alike." It announced that in the place of the old system 

1 Under his predecessor two important steps in advance had been taken. Three 
members for India, two of them natives, were called to the Imperial War Conference 
which assembled in March, 1917, and, early in the summer, a third native member 
was admitted to the Secretary's Council. 



904 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

of " benevolent despotism (tempered by a remote and only occasionally 
vigilant democracy in England) " the British Government had " de- 
cided on a new policy of marching by successive stages, as fitness de- 
velops, to Indian self-government within the Empire." At the same 
time, it declared its disapproval of the scheme of the National Congress 
and the Moslem League, which was based on executive responsibility 
to the Secretary of State and legislative responsibility to the elector- 
ate, on the ground that it involved an unworkable authority. 1 In 
general, the Montagu-Chelmsford plan contemplates, " the eventual 

1 The Report, published 6 July, 191 8, grouped its proposals under four main 
heads. I. With the aim of insuring as much Provincial autonomy as was con- 
sistent with efficiency, the Provincial executive was to consist of two Councils : 

(a) the Governor and an Executive Council of two (one European and one Indian) 
to deal with "reserved subjects," i.e. those reserved from legislative control; 

(b) the Governor and one or more members chosen by him from the elected members 
of the Provincial Council, to hold office during the lifetime of the Legislative Coun- 
cil, and to deal with subjects "transferred" to legislative control. The right of 
deciding whether a subject was reserved or not was vested in the Governor. The 
Provincial Legislature was to be elected on a broad franchise and by direct elec- 
tion, except for a few appointed members and some community representatives to 
protect the rights of minorities. II. In matters of finance the demands of all 
India should be the first charge; except for this, and for "reserved" subjects, the 
Legislature would control the Provincial budget. III. The Indian central Gov- 
ernment should remain wholly responsible to Parliament; but the Legislative 
Council was to be enlarged and made more representative "and its opportunities 
for influencing the Government increased." To this end, the old body was to be 
made over into two new ones. One, called the Legislative Assembly, was to con- 
sist of 100 members, of whom two thirds should be elected, and one third nominated 
by the Viceroy, of the latter only one third could be officials and another third 
should represent special interests, European, commercial and land-owning. The 
other, called the Council of State, was to consist of fifty members — exclusive of 
the Viceroy — of whom 29 were to be nominated, 21 elected. Each body was to 
be chosen for five years, though the power to dissolve at any time was lodged in 
the Viceroy. Moreover, the Council of State was to have final legislative authority 
in matters which the Government might regard as essential ; thus certain matters 
could be passed in spite of the Assembly. Finally, to the Viceroy's Executive 
Council one new Indian member was to be added. Two new bodies were set up : 
an Indian Privy Council for advisory purposes, to which appointments were to be 
made by the King-Emperor for life; and a Council of Princes, a permanent con- 
sultative body to consider questions affecting Native States generally. IV. In 
proportion as the foregoing changes take effect, the control of Parliament over the 
Government of India and the Provincial Governments must be relaxed. Meantime, 
in each session of the House of Commons, a select committee on Indian affairs is 
to be chosen to give special attention to this important subject. In five years the 
Government of India is to consider proposals from the Provincial Governments or 
the Provincial Legislatures for a modification of the list of reserved and transferred 
subjects, while, in ten years, a committee is to be appointed to re-survey the whole 
existing system of government. Thus the aim is to attain complete responsi- 
bility where possible and as early as possible. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 905 

future of India to be a sisterhood of States, self-governing in all matters 
of purely Provincial interest and presided over by a central Govern- 
ment, increasingly representative of, and responsible to the people of 
all of them, dealing with matters, both internal and external, of com- 
mon interest to the whole of India." 

The Situation at the Close of the War. — At first, the extremists 
were inclined to reject these moderate proposals forthwith, while the 
special interests, European and others, were disquieted that they went 
as far as they did. Moreover, the triumph of the Allies, who had been 
professedly fighting for self-determination — though that did not 
apply to internal arrangements in the countries of their constituent 
members — the ravages of influenza and other diseases, the scarcity 
of food, and the general high cost of living have led to serious rioting, 
further accentuated by the so-called Rowlatt Bills, providing drastic 
means for suppressing and punishing sedition. However, while the 
Government aims to hold down anarchy with a strong hand, there 
are hopeful indications that its reasonable concessions are to be con- 
sidered on their merits. 1 

The Dominions and Great Britain. — While the Self-governing 
Dominions for some years have had practically complete control of 
their internal affairs, even to the extent of controlling their own trade 
and tariffs, their defense and their immigration, and while — after 
laissez-faire had been followed by a new enthusiasm for Empire — 
their desire for closer cooperation in matters of common Imperial 
concern has been partially realized through periodic Conferences, 
nevertheless, the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible 
only to the electorate of the British Isles, continued, even so late as 
the first months of the third year of the War, to regulate the foreign 
and military policy of the Empire. To be sure, there had been, since 
1904, a Committee of Imperial Defense, to which officials from the 
Dominions had been summoned on occasion, but its functions were 
solely advisory. There were various reasons why the Self-governing 
Dominions were, on the whole, content to acquiesce in this continu- 
ance of British control. 2 Each had its peculiar problems and did not 
want to be entangled in European complications, and, at least before 
the world menace was fully realized, they were reluctant to assume 
the burden of a great Imperial armament. Yet, when the crisis came, 

1 A Government of India Act based on the Montagu- Chelmsford Report re- 
ceived the Royal assent in December, 1919. 

2 It should not be forgotten, however, that one step in advance had been taken 
in 191 1, when it was announced that henceforth the Dominions would be consulted 
"automatically" as far as. possible in international agreements which affected their 
interests. 



9 o6 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

in spite of Prussia's unsubstantial dream of lack of cohesion among 
the Dominions, one and all took up the struggle in which Great Brit- 
ain had become involved as their own, and bent their best efforts to 
maintain the integrity of the Empire. Gradually, however, in con- 
sequence of the Gallipoli campaign — in which the Anzacs paid such 
a heavy toll — and, among other things, in view of the fact that the 
higher commands, even over the Colonial troops were intrusted to 
British officers, 1 the feeling grew stronger and stronger that Dominions 
should have a voice in the conduct of Imperial war policy. 2 

The Imperial War Conference and War Cabinet. — Little by little, 
the Government began to see the light. In July, 191 5, Sir Robert 
Borden attended a meeting of the Cabinet, and Mr. W. M. Hughes, 
Premier of Australia, did the like in March, 1916 ; but the first decisive 
step came 25 December, 1916, when Mr. Lloyd George invited the 
Dominion Prime Ministers and other delegates to a special War Con- 
ference of the Empire. Of more immediate importance, however, 
was the fact that the overseas delegates began, almost directly on their 
arrival, 2 March, 191 7, to hold meetings with the British War Cabinet, 
presumably for the discussion, of problems of pressing military and 
naval importance, though naturally, the deliberations of this Imperial 
War Cabinet — which came to supersede the Committee of Imperial 
Defense — have not been disclosed. On 21 March, the Imperial War 
Conference, for dealing with questions reaching far beyond those of 
the immediate conduct of the War, was formally opened. Hence- 
forth, the bodies met usually on alternate days. Aside from the na- 
ture of the business transacted, the Cabinet and the Conference dif- 
fered in more than one respect. The former was an executive body 
and its proceedings were secret, while the latter was an advisory body 
and its proceedings were published. Moreover, at the Imperial War 
Conference the Secretary for the Colonies presided, and the Premier 
and the War Cabinet did not, as a rule, attend. In addition to various 
officials of the British Government, there were present from overseas, 
the Premiers from three self-governing Dominions — Canada, New- 
foundland, and New Zealand, together with two additional delegates 
from Canada and one from New Zealand. The Secretary of State 
for India appeared in behalf of that great dependency, accompanied 

1 Since then, Canadians and Australians have been placed in command of their 
respective contingents. 

2 A suggestion to this effect was made in 1915, when the next Imperial Con- 
ference was due to meet; but the Secretary for the Colonies, who could or would 
not distinguish between such a special and a normal meeting, waved aside the 
proposal, on the ground that the British Government was too preoccupied to hold 
a regular Conference. 



BRITAIN AND GREATER BRITAIN IN THE WORLD WAR 907 

by three advisers from India itself, two of them natives. General 
Botha, the Premier of South Africa, was represented by General Smuts, 
who, in June, was invited to remain in England as a member of the 
War Cabinet. Australia, in the throes of a general election, sent no 
delegates. The result of a series of meetings of the War Conference, 
concluded 1 May, was embodied in a series of resolutions which 
recommended that: (1) an Imperial Cabinet should be held every 
year, consisting of the Premier of the United Kingdom and such of 
his colleagues as deal specifically with Imperial affairs, of the Premiers 
of the Dominions, or of some specially accredited alternatives, and of 
a representative from India ; (2) a special conference should be sum- 
moned after the War for readjusting the Constitutional relations of 
the Empire ; (3) a principle of reciprocity of treatment of Indians in 
the Self-governing Dominions should be adopted ; (4) the Admiralty 
work out a scheme of Imperial Naval defense, and special considera- 
tion be given to the production of naval and military materials in all 
parts of the Empire ; (5) special encouragement be given to the de- 
velopment of Imperial resources in respect to food supplies, raw ma- 
terials and essential industries. 

In accordance with the first resolution — proposed by the Premier 
• — a second Imperial War Cabinet was held in June, 1918. Thus the 
Conference of 191 7 " created an executive authority for the war pur- 
poses of the Empire, while the constitutional issue was in abeyance." 
Yet, although leaving the definitive settlement to more auspicious 
times, the Conference went so far as to recommend : " that any such 
readjustment, while thoroughly preserving all existing powers of self- 
government and complete control of domestic affairs, should be based 
upon a full recognition of the Dominions as autonomous nations of 
an Imperial Commonwealth and of India as an important portion of 
the same ; should recognize their right to an adequate voice in foreign 
policy and in foreign relations ;• and should provide effective arrange- 
ments for continuous consultations in all important matters of common 
Imperial concern and for such necessary concerted action, founded 
on consultation, as the several Governments may determine." While 
the final settlement awaits adjustment, this resolution indicates in 
a general way the desires of the Dominions for the future of the 
British Commonwealth of Nations which they have fought so heroically 
and devotedly to preserve. 1 

1 For this cause the Empire, outside the British Isles, furnished nearly £1,000,- 
000,000 for direct war expenditure and about 3,000,000 men, of which the Self- 
governing Dominions contributed almost £800,000,000 and 1,500,000 men, not far 
from 25 per cent of their white male population. 



9 o8 SHORTER HISTORY OF ENGLAND AND GREATER BRITAIN 

FOR ADDITIONAL READING 

J. A. Fairlie, British War Administration (1918). H. L. Gray, War 
Time Control of Industry (1918). F. L - McVey, The Financial History of 
Great Britain, 1914-1918 (1918). Joseph R. Smith, The Influence of the 
Great War on Shipping (1918). E. L. Bogart, Direct and Indirect Costs of 
the Great World War (1920). A. F. Pollard, The Commonwealth at War 
(1918). Sir W. Raleigh, England and the War (1919). A. Gleason, Inside 
the British Isles (191 7). T. W. Wile, Explaining the Britishers (1919). 
Viscount Bryce, Democracy (19 19). 

Labor. Arthur Henderson, The Aims of Labor (1918). P. W. Kellogg 
and Arthur Gleason, British Labor and the War (1919). S. G. Hobson, 
Guild Principles in Peace and War (19 18). A. R. Orage and S. G. Hobson, 
National Guilds (1918). Sidney and Beatrice Webb, A History of Trade 
Unionism (new ed., 1919). Bertrand Russell, Proposed Roads to Freedom 
(1919). 

Biography. "An independent Liberal, " Lloyd George and the War (19 18). 
Walter Roch, Mr. Lloyd George and the War (1920). H. Spender, The 
Prime Minister: an Authoritative Biography (19 17). 

David Lloyd George, The Great Crusade (1918), a collection of speeches 
during the War. Jan C. Smuts, War Time Speeches (191 7). 

Ireland. Barker, Turner and Hackett as above. In addition to the 
works in Turner's bibliography the following may be consulted: James 
Connolly, Labor in Irish History (1919) ; George Creel, Ireland's Fight for 
Freedom (1919) ; F. P. Jones, A History of the Sinn Fein Movement and the 
Irish Rebellion of 1916 (1916) ; Sir Horace Plunkett, Ireland in the New 
Century (1904) ; W. B. Wells and N. Marlowe, A History of the Irish Con- 
vention and Sinn Fein (1919) ; Rev. Walter McDonald, Some Questions of 
Peace and War with Special Reference to Ireland (1920) ; Stephen Gwynn, 
A History of John Redmond's Last Years (1919). 

For the Dominions and the War and India, see ch. LVTI. See also 
J. C. Hopkins, Canada at War (1919) ; Eleanor Egan, The War in the Cradle 
of the World (1919) ; Edward Daines, The British Campaigns in the Nearer 
East (19 1 9) and The British Campaigns in Africa and the Pacific (19 19). 
The Round Table is particularly valuable for war time conditions in the 
Dominions and throughout the Empire. 

The Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defense has pro- 
jected a history of the Great War in all its phases, based on official docu- 
ments ; vol. I, by Sir Julian Corbett, on Naval Operations (to the Battle of 
the Falkland Islands) with accompanying maps, has already appeared. 



INDEX 



Aberdeen, Lord, Foreign Sec- 
retary and Premier, 673, 682, 
683, 685 

Abhorrers, the, 381 

Abjuration Act, the, 443 

Aboukir Bay, 597 

Abraham, the Plains of, 501 

Acadia, see Nova Scotia 

Accession Declaration Act, the, 
757 

Acre, 81, 597 

Adams, John, 540 

Adams, John Quincy, 628 

Addington, Henry, Lord Sid- 
mouth, 599, 601 

Addison, Joseph, 559 

Addled Parliament, the, 292 

Admiralty, Court of, 708 

Admonitions to Parliament, 256 

Adrian IV, Pope, 74 

Adrian VI, Pope, 197, 198 

Adullamites, the, 696 

/Ethelbert, 22, 23, 31 

/Ethelfrith, 23 

/Ethelred, 20 

^Ethelred, the Redeless, 35, 36 

Afghanistan, 673, 786, 787, 792 

Africa, British advance in, 774 

Africa, German East, 896 

Africa, German Southwest, 895- 
896 

Africa, see South Africa 

African Slave Trade, 578 

Agincourt, 165 

Agitators, the, 338, 341 

Agricola, 13 

Agriculture, in the thirteenth 
century, 109, no; in the 
fourteenth, 142 ; in the fif- 
teenth, 187, 188; in the 
sixteenth, 270, 271; in the 
seventeenth, 403, 404, 406; 
in the eighteenth, 554, 555; 
in the nineteenth, 616, 635, 
741-743; during the World 
War, 874-875 

Ahmed Faud, 897 note 

Aidan (I'dan), 25 

Aids, feudal, 59 

Aims of Labor, The, 877 

Air raids, 834 and note 

Aix-la-Chapelle, the peace of, 
489, 492 



Alabama Claims, the, 710 
Alabama, the cruiser, 692 
Alaska boundary, the, 766 
Albemarle, Duke of, see Monck, 

George 
Albert, Prince Consort, 664, 679, 

680, 691, 692 
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, 

see Edward VII 
Albert, King of the Belgians, 

828, 829 note, 852 
Alberta, province of, 766 
Aldermen, 85, 659 
Alehouses. 50, 146, 296, 405 
Alexander III, King of Scotland, 

H3 
Alexander of Parma, 254, 257, 

259, 260 
Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, 599, 

602, 606, 612, 626 
Alexandra, Queen, 694 
Alfred, the Great, King of the 

West Saxons, 30-32, 50, 51 
Algeciras Conference, the, 808 
Alien Bill, the, 584 
Ali, Mehemet, 629, 780 
Allegiance, oaths of, 289, 379, 

425, 624 
Allenby, General (later Marshal, 

Viscount), 898, 899 
Allotments Acts, 742, 743 
Alva, Duke of, 250, 251, 253, 

258 
Alverstone (awl'verston), Lord, 

767 
American Civil War, the, 690- 

692, 698, 702 
American Colonies, the, begin- 
nings of, 300, 312 ; separation 

of, from Great Britain, 512 ff. 
American Revolution, the, causes 

of, 512-529; chief events in, 

529-541 
Americans, in the World War, 

see United States 
Amherst, General, 503 
Amicable Loan, the, 198 
Amiens, the peace of, 599 
Anesthesia, discovery of, 739 
Angevin (an'jevin) dynasty, the, 

beginning of, 71 
Angles, their invasion of Britain, 

21 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the, 32, 

48,49 

909 



Anglo-Saxon period, the, revived 
interest in the study of, 738 

Anglo-Saxons, the, conversion of, 
22; manner of living among, 
42-51 

Aniline dyes, 740 

Anjou, 69, 91 

Annapolis (Port Royal), 458 

Annates, 101 ; Act of, 208 

Anne of Bohemia, Queen of 
Richard II, 151, 157 

Anne of Cleves, 217, 219 

Anne of Denmark, 286 

Anne, Princess, 396, 431, 435; 
see Anne, Queen of England 

Anne, Queen of England, reign 
of, 443-401 

Annual Parliaments, 667 

Anselm, Saint, 62, 63, 64 

Anti-Corn Law Movement, the, 
666, 668, 670 

Antiseptic surgery, 739 

Antrim, 758 

Antwerp, fall of, 838 

Anzacs, the, 841, 893 

Apology of the Commons, 289 

Appeals, Act of, 208 

Appellant, see Lords Appellant 

Apprentices, 409, 411, 706; 
statute of, 274 

Appropriation of supply, 299, 
370, 426 

Arabi, revolt of, 781 

Arbitration, 710, 767 

Arbuthnot, John, 442 

Architecture, Anglo-Saxon and 
Norman, 49; Anglo-Norman, 
61 ; in the thirteenth century, 
107 ; in the fourteenth century, 
146, 147; Elizabethan, 276, 
277; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury. 420 

Arc lights, 740 

Area, the, of the British Empire, 
761 

Areopagitica, the, 418, 437 

Argyle, see Campbell 

Arimathea, Joseph of, 15 

Arkwright, Richard, 550 

Aries, Synod of, 15 

Armada, the Spanish, 259-261 

Armagh (ar'mah'), Archbishop 
of, 380; county of, 758 

Armed neutrality, 535, 598 

Argonne Forest, 851, 852, 853 



910 



INDEX 



Armenian massacres, 818 

Armistice, in the World War, 
852-854 

Arms, Assize of, 78 

Army, the parliamentary and 
royal, in the Civil War, 329, 
330; struggle with Parliament, 
338-340; under Charles I, 
362; reforms in 1904, 754; 
crisis in Ulster, 759, 760, see 
also New Model and Standing 
Army 

Army Act, the, 424 

Army Council, of the New 
Model, 338; of 1904, 754 

Army officers' commissions, 707 

Army plots, the, 322, 323, 324 

Arnold, Matthew, 732 

Arras, battle of, 848 

Art, Anglo-Saxon, 49; seven- 
teenth century, 420; Vic- 
torian, 743; see also Painting 

Art of Colonization, the, 763 

Artevelde, van, Jacques, 128 

Arthur, legendary, British king, 
61, 129, 148, 192 

Arthur, Prince, nephew of John, 
89, 90 

Arthur, Prince, son of Henry VII, 
186, 203 

Articles of Faith, the Ten, 213; 
the Six, 216, 219; the Forty- 
two, 234; the Thirty-nine, 
249, 729 

Aryan "race," 9 

Ascham (as tarn) Roger, 227, 
228, 278 

Ashbourne Act, 715 

Ashburton boundary treaty, 675 

Ashley, Lord, 656, 657, 670, see 
Cooper 

Aske, Robert, 214 

Asiento, 459, 478 

Asquith, Herbert Henry, Prime 
Minister, 755, 756, 757, 759! 
assumes the Secretaryship of 
War, 760; declaration regard- 
ing Balkan states, 821 ; states 
British War aims, 834-835; 
his policy, 865; admits Con- 
servatives to Cabinet, 867; 
resignation of, 867-868 

Assandun, 37 

Assize, meaning, 77; Courts, 
268; the Bloody, 387 

Assize of Arms, 78 

Assuan dam, 784 

Astrology, 277 

Atheists admitted to Parliament, 
712 

Athelstan, King, 33 

Atlantic cable, 740 

Atlantic fisheries, 767 

Attainder, Bills of, against More 
and Fisher, 209; against 
Thomas Cromwell, 217; 



against Thomas Seymour, 233; 
against Strafford, 322; against 
Fenwick, 434; against Boling- 
broke, 465 

Audit of Accounts, 134, 163, 
37o, 576 

Auerstadt, battle of, 602 

Augusta, Princess, 507, 508 

Augustine, 23 

Austen, Jane, 639 

Australia, 682, 768-771 ; military 
system of, 891; in the World 
War, 856, 893-894 

Austria, in the Seven Years' 
War, 495, 496, 503, 504; in 
the French Revolution, 583- 
585 ; in the French and Napo- 
leonic wars, 588, 589, 591, 
592, 597, 598, 601, 605, 607; 
in Italy and Quadruple Alli- 
ances, 612, 613; aids in 
suppressing revolutions, 626, 
627; in relation to Crimean 
War, 684, 686; and the War 
for Italian unity, 688-689*, 
in the Danish War, 693, 694; 
defeated by Prussia, 700; in 
the League of the Three 
Emperors, 800; in the Russo- 
Turkish War, 801-804; in 
the Triple Alliance, 804 ; seizes 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, 820; 
in the Balkan War settlement, 
822-823; demands of, on 
Serbia in 1914, 824-827; in 
the campaign of 1914, 839; 
in 1915, 839-840, 843; in 
1916, 846; surrender of, 843 

Austrian Succession, the War of, 
480, 482-484, 489, 490 

Austro-Prussian War, 700 

A vice, see Isabel 

Avignon, 150 

Avranches, 75 



B 

Babington's plot, 259 

Bacon, Francis, 279, 296, 297, 
416, 737 

Bacon, Roger, 106, 107 

Baden-Powell (bay 'den po'ell), 
Colonel, 778 

Bagdad, 899-900; railway, 819, 
820 and note, 898 

Bakewell, Robert, 555 

Balaclava Bay, 685 

Balfc, Michael, 744 

Balfour, Arthur, Irish Secretary, 
717; Prime Minister, 753-755 

Balkan Wars, 821, 822 

Ball, John, 154, 155 

Balliol, Edward, King of Scot- 
land, 126 

Balliol, John, King of Scotland, 
113 



Balliol College, 106 

Bank of England, 436, 437, 590 

Bank Charter Act, 669 

Bannockburn, 122 

Barber Surgeons, 146 

Barbon, Nicholas, 416 

Barebones Parliament, 349 

Baring, Evelyn, Lord Cromer, 
782-784, 896 

Barnet, battle, of, 177 

Barons, conflicts with John, 93- 
97 ; with Henry III, 100-103 J 
with Edward II, 121, 122 

Barrier treaty, 459 

Barrows, 9, n 

Batavian Republic, 589 j 

Bate case, 290 

Bath, health resort, 412 

Batta. 785 

Battle, trial by, 78 

Bayeux Tapestry, 41 

Beachy Head, battle of, 427 

Beaton, Cardinal, 232, 241, 242 

Beatty (be'ty), Admiral Sir 
(later Lord David), 858, 863 

Beaufort (bo'fort) Edmund, 
Duke of Somerset, 170, 171, 
172 

Beaufort, Cardinal Henry, 170 

Becket, St. Thomas, 72-74, 145. 
149, 215 

Bedchamber question, 663, 664 

Bede, the Venerable, 26, 48 

Bedford, Dukes of, see John and 
Russell 

Belfast, 6, 758 

Belgae, 10 

Belgium, 630, 631, 823; British 
support of, against German 
violation, 827-830, 834; in 
the campaign of 1914, 835- 
839; in the campaign of 
1918, 850, 852; in the Armis- 
tice, 854; see Ostend and 
Zeebrugge 

Belgrade, bombarded, 825-826 

Bell, Andrew, 706 

Bell, Henry, 634 

Belleau Wood, 851 

Bellerofhon, the, 612 

Benares, the Raja of, 572 

Benedictine Order, 26 

Benefit of Clergy, 75 

Benevolences, 180, 267, 292, 306 

Bengal, 502, 503, 571, 788 

Bentham, Jeremy, 636, 645, 646 

Bentinck, Lord George, protec- 
tionist leader, 672 

Bentinck, William, Duke of 
Portland, 570 

Bentinck, Lord William, reforms 
in India, 785 

Bentley, Richard, 556 

Benzene, 740 

Beowulf, 48 

Berchtold, Count, 826 



INDEX 



911 



Berkeley (bark'ly), George, 557 

Berlin, Congress of, 803 

Berlin Decree, 602, 60.3 

Bernhardi, General von, 816 

Bernicians, 21 

Berwick (ber'ik), Duke of, 534 

Besant (Be-sant/), Mrs., 902, 903 

Bethmann-Hollweg, Von, 814, 
827-829, 861 

Beyers, General, 894-895 

Bible, translations, 151, 152, 216, 
288 ; views of Puritans on, 303 

Bill of Rights, 381, 425 

Bishops, method of appointing, 
55, 64; character of, in early 
nineteenth century, 727 

Bishops' War, first and second, 
315, 3i7 

Bismarck, his policy, 693, 700, 
709, 710, 800-803, 817; his 
death, 723 ; his social insur- 
ance, 746; his fall, 804, 805 

Black Death, 129-131, 142, 146, 
153, 187 

Blackmore, Richard, 737 

Black Mountains, 5 

Black Prince, see Edward 

Black Sea, 629, 684; neu- 
tralization of, 686; Russian 
ships again admitted in, 710 

" Black Year," 742 

Blake, Admiral, 347, 352 

Blenheim, 449, 450 

Blockades, 535, 599, 603, 687; 
see Navy, British, and Sub- 
marine Warfare 

Blockade running, 691 

Bloemfontein (blom'fontln), 777, 
779 

Bloody Assize, 387 

Bloody Clavers, see Graham, 
John 

Bliicher, Marshal, 611, 612 

Blue Coat School, 255 

"Blue Stockings," 568 

Boadicea or Boudicca, 13 

Board schools, 706, 707 

Boccaccio, 149, 200 

Boer War, 775~ 778 

Boleyn (bul'len), Anne, 203, 208, 
212 

Bolingbroke, see Henry of Lan- 
caster and St. John, Henry 

Bologna, University of, 77 

Bolshevists, 849, 850, 881 

Bonaparte, Joseph, King of 
Spain, 603, 604 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, at Toulon, 
588; defeats Austrians, 590; 
in Egypt, 592, 597; First 
Consul, 598; designs in 1803, 
600; crushes Third Coalition, 
601 ; victories at Jena and 
Auerstadt and agreement with 
Alexander I, 602; his Con- 
tinental System, 602, 603; ris- 



ing in Spain against, 603, 604; 
victory at Wagram, 605; 
Russian Campaign, 606, 607; 
first abdication, 608; escape 
from Elba, 610; Waterloo 
and final overthrow, 611- 
612; buys English goods, 
633-634; canal project, 780 

Bonar (bon'ner) Law, Andrew, 
759, 868 

Boniface VIII, Pope, 116 

Bonner, Edmund, Bishop of 
London, 231, 239 

Book of Rates, 290 

Books of Beauty, 730 

Borden, Sir Robert, 891, 892, 
906 

Boroughs, origin and characteris- 
tics, 43, 44; after the Con- 
quest, 60; in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, 85; 
under the Tudors, 266; at 
the eve of the first Reform 
Bill, 648, 649; franchise in, 
under the Reform Acts of 
1832 and 1867, 683, 699; 
under the Municipal Reform 
Act of 1835, 659 

Bosnia, 801, 802, 820 

Boston, massacre, 526; "Tea 
Party," 527; Port Bill, 528; 
siege of, 531 

Boswell, James, 561 

Bosworth, battle of, 180, 181 

Bot, 44 

Botha (bo'ta) General, 777, 779, 
894-895, 907 

Bothwell, see Hepburn, James 

Boulogne (booloin'), 601 

Boulton (bol'ton), Matthew, 522, 
553 

Bourbon, Isle de, 493 

Bourbons, the, 608, 630 

Boxer Rebellion, 807 

Boxley, the rood of, 215 

"Boy Patriots," the, 480 

Boy scouts, 778, 879 note 

Boyle, Robert, 416 

Boyne, battle of the, 427 

Brachycephalic skulls, 9 

Braddock's defeat, 404 

Bradlaugh (brad 'law) case, 712 

Braganza, House of, 603 

Brahmans, 788, 794 

Brandy wine, 532 

Brass money, abominable pro- 
ject of, 317 

Brazil, 627 

Breda, Declaration of, 357, 
361-363; peace of, 368 

Brest, 432 

Brest-Li tovsk, treaty of, 850, 
854 

Bretigny, peace of, 132, 133 

Bribery, in Parliament, 472, 
650, 651; in elections, 649 



Bridewell, 235 

Bridgewater canal, 551 

Bright, John, 668, 698, 699, 716, 

„ 7I - 7 

" Bright Clauses," 705 

Brindley, James, 551 

Bristol, 4, 652 

Britain, races in, 8 ff.; extinct 
men and animals of, 8, 9; 
paleolithic and neolithic age 
in, ib.; Celtic invaders in, 
9 ff.; Roman occupation of, 
12-18 

British and Foreign School 
Society, 706 

British Columbia, 766 

British East African Co., 774 

British Empire, 761-763, 795- 
797; Dominions of, in the 
World War, 891 ff.; present 
problems, 905-908; sec 

Australia, Canada, South 
Africa, New Zealand, Egypt 
and India 

British Isles, physical char- 
acteristics of, 1-7 

Broad Bottom Ministry, 742 

Broad churchmen, 729 

Bronte, Charlotte, 735 

Bronze age, in Britain, 10 

Brougham, Henry, Lord, 640 

Browne, Sir Thomas, 417 

Brownists, the, 255 

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 
733 

Browning, Robert, 733 

Bruce, David, King of Scotland, 
126 

Bruce, Robert, claimant to 
Scottish throne, 113 

Bruce, Robert, King of Scotland, 
117, 122, 126 

Brunnanburh, 33 

Brussels, 611, 630 

Brut, Layamon's, 84 

Brythons, the. 10 

Bucharest, treaties of, 822, 850, 
854 

Buckingham, dukes of, see 
Villiers 

Buckle, Thomas, 737 

Budgets, Peel's, 668, 669; Glad- 
stone's, 682, 689, 690; Mr. 
Lloyd George's, 755 

Bulgaria, 801-804, 820-822, 843, 
846, 847, 853 

Bull, see John Bull 

Bull baiting, 642 

Buller, General, 777 

Bunker Hill, battle of, 531 

Bunyan, John, 417 

Burgh, de, see Hubert 

Burghley (bur'ly), Lord, see 
Cecil, William 

Burgoyne, General, 532, 533 

Burgundy, 178 



912 



INDEX 



Burgundy, dukes of, see John, 
Philip and Charles, see also 
Margaret and Mary 

Burh, see borough 

Burke, Edmund, views on Amer- 
ican taxation, 515; character 
and policy, 519, 520; con- 
ciliation plans, 529; work on 
India Bill, 572; in trial of 
Hastings, 579; attitude to- 
ward French Revolution, 5S1, 
582, 585, 586 

Burke, Thomas Henry, 714 

Burne-Jones, Edward, 744 

Burney, Fanny, 563 

Burns, Robert, 636 

Burton, Robert, 417 

Bury St. Edmunds, 93 

Bushel's case, 437 

Bute, Earl of, see Stuart, John 

Butler, James, twelfth Earl and 
first Duke of Ormonde, 335, 
336, 345 

Butler, James, second Duke of 
Ormande, 458 

Butler, Samuel, 418 

Butt, Isaac, 712 

Byng (bing), Admiral George, 
Viscount Torrington, 427 

Byng, Admiral John, 495, 498 

Byng, General, 853 

Byron, Lord, 637, 638, 732 



Cabal Ministry, 372-375 

Cabinet system, beginning of, 
359, 438, 439, 543-545; weak- 
ness of, under Anne, 454; 
checked by George III, 506; 
becomes a reality, 604 ; changes 
in, during World War, 866-868, 
906-907 

Cable, the Atlantic, 740 

Cabot, John, 186, 191, 200, 272 

Cade's rebellion, 171 

Cadiz, expeditions against, 262, 
304 

Csdmon, 48 

Caesar, Julius, his Commentaries, 
10, 18; his invasions of Britain, 
12 

Calais, made a staple, 139; 
capture of, 128, 129; use of 
cannon at, 144; retained in 
1453. 172; lost by English, 
240, 245 

Calcutta, 402, 493, 502 

Caleb Williams, 639 

Caledonians, 11 

Calendar, reform of, 491 

Calvinism, 231, 241, 242 

Cambrai, 849 

Cambrian mountains, 5 

Cambridge, University of, 84, 
227, 746 



Cambridge Platonists, 413, 414 

Camden, Earl, see Pratt, Charles 
Campbell, Archibald, Eighth 
Earl, and Marquis of Argyle, 
346, 386 

Campbell, Archibald, ninth Earl 
of Argyle, 386 

Campbell, Archibald, Marquis 
and first Duke of Argyle, 429 

Campbell. John, second Duke of 
Argyle. 465, 466 

Campbell, Sir Colin (later Lord 
Clyde), 790 

Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 
754, 755 

Campeggio, Cardinal, 294 

Camperdown, 591, 592 

Campion, Edmund, 255 

Campo Formio, peace of, 591, 
592 

Camulodunum, 13 

Canada, British conquest of, 501, 
503; cession of, to British, 
509; effect of cession, 514, 
515; Quebec Act for govern- 
ment of, 528, in War of 
181 2, subsequent history of, 
763-767; in World War, 
891-893 

Canal transportation, 551 

Canning, George, Foreign Sec- 
retary and Leader of the Com- 
mons, 620; Ministry of, 622, 
623; foreign policy of, 627- 
629; joins in founding the 
Quarterly Review, 640 

Canning, Viscount, 788, 789, 791 

Cannon, first use of, 144 

Canon law, 77 

Canterbury, founding of Arch- 
bishopric of, 23, disputed 
election, 91 

Canterbury Tales, 149 

Canton, 674 

Cape Breton, 509; see also Louis- 
burg 

Cape Colony, 772 

Cape of Good Hope, 272, 599, 
612 

Cape St. Vincent, battle of, 
590, 59i 

Capitalist class, rise of, in Eng- 
land, 533 

Caporetto, 849 

Caracalla, decree of, 14 

Card playing, 567, 568 

Cardinal's College (later Christ 
Church), 196 

Carlyle, Thomas, 731, 732 

Carmarthen, Marquis of, see 
Osborne, Sir Thomas 

Carnarvon, 112, 121 

Carnatic, the, 493, 503 

Carnot, 588 

Caroline of Anspach, Queen of 
George II, 475, 476 



Caroline of Brunswick, Queen of 
George IV, 619, 620 

Carpenter, Captain, 862 

Carr, Robert, successively Vis- 
count Rochester and Earl of 
Somerset, 294 

Carson, Sir Edward, 757, 758, 
884, 885 

Cartagena, 480, 481 

Carthusians, the, 210 

Cartwright, Edmund, 550 

Casement, Sir Roger, 8S4, 886, 
887, 888 

Castles, Anglo-Norman, 61 ; in 
the thirteenth century, 107; 
in the fourteenth century, 146, 
i47 

Castlereagh (castleray'), Vis- 
count, later Marquis of Lon- 
donderry, in Ireland, 595, 596; 
Secretary for War, 604; at 
Congress of Vienna, 610; death 
and estimate of, 620; foreign 
policy of, 626, 627 

Catesby, Robert, 288, 289 

Catharine of Aragon, Queen of 
Henry VIII, 186, 198, 202- 
204, 208, 210 

Catharine of Braganza, Queen of 
Charles II, 366, 379, 380 

Catharine Howard, Queen of 
Henry VIII, 2r9 

Catharine Parr, Queen of Henry 
VIII, 219 

Catharine de' Medici, 253 

Catharine II, Empress of Russia, 
535 _ 

Catholic Emancipation, 624-626 

Catholic League, the, of 1609, 
295 

Catholics, see Roman Catholic 

Cattle Act, Irish, 363 

"Cautionary towns," the, 257 

Cavalier Parliament, temper and 
work of, 363, 364; beginning 
of bribery in, 376, 377; dis- 
solution of, 380 

Cavalier ports, 417 

Cavaliers, 325, 353 

Cavendish, Lord Frederic, 714 

Cavendish, Henry, 735 

Cavour, Count, 688, 689 

Cawnpore, 789 

Caxton, William, 192 

Ceawlin, 21 

Cecil, Robert, successively Vis- 
count Cranborne, and Marquis 
of Salisbury, his first Ministry. 
715, 716; his second Ministry, 
720; third and last Ministry, 
723-725; retirement and death, 
753; his foreign policy, 799; 
his negotiations in the Russo- 
Turkish War, 801-802; his 
famous declaration, 818, 819 

Cecil, William, Lord Burghley, 



INDEX 



913 



successively Secretary of State 
and Lord Treasurer, 244, 261, 
274 

Celts, the, 9-12, 18, 21-22 

Censorship, see Press 

Ceorls, 47 

Cerdic and Cynric, 21 

Ceylon, 599, 612 

Chaise, Pere la, 378 

Chalgrove Field, 332 

Chalmers (chah'mers) Dr., 730 

Chamberlain, Joseph, enters 
Cabinet as Colonial Secretary, 
723; advocates tariff reform, 
753; relations with South 
Africa. 775, 776 

Champagne, the, drive, 844 

Chancellor, the Lord High, 65, 
72, 100, 132, 267, 625 

Chancellor, Richard, 271 

Chancery, court of, 708 

Channel ports, the, 838, 839, 850 

Chantries, 227, 231, 235 

Chapman, George, 278 

Charles, Prince, 294, 298, 299; 
see Charles I 

Charles I, King of England, 
character and problems, 301, 
302 ; his advisers, 303 ; his 
first Parliament, 303; dis- 
solves his second, 304; his 
financial exactions, 304, 305; 
war with Fiance, 305; signs 
Petition of Right, 306; at- 
tempts to collect tonnage and 
poundage, 307 ; dissolves third 
Parliament, 308; his eleven 
years of personal government, 
308-316; summons Short 
Parliament, 316, 317; further 
devices for raising money, 
317; summons Great Council 
and another Parliament, 317; 
consents to Strafford's exe- 
cution, 322; journey to Scot- 
land, 324; rejects the Grand 
Remonstrance, 325; attempts 
to arrest the five members, 
325, 326; withdraws from 
London and sets up standard 
at Nottingham, 326; as com- 
mander of the royal forces, 
329-335; flight after Naseby, 
335 ; intrigues with the Irish, 
335. 336; surrender to the 
Scots, 336; handed over to 
Parliament, 337 ; seized by the 
Army, 338; his "Engage 
ment" with the Scots, 340 
his trial and execution, 341, 
342; regulation of trade and 
manufactures, 401 ; as an art 
collector, 420 

Charles II, King of England, pro 
claimed in Ireland and Scot 
land, 345, 346; flight after 

3N 



Worcester, 347 ; results of his 
French policy, 352; recall to 
England and Declaration of 
Breda, 357; character and 
policy, 360; his revenue, 
362; failure to secure tolera- 
tion, 362-366, 374; foreign 
policy and marriage, 366; 
second war with the Dutch, 
366-368; throws over Claren- 
don, 368, 369; seeks to make 
himself absolute, 372; nego- 
tiates secret treaty of Dover, 
373-374; third war with the 
Dutch, 374, 375; turning 
point in his policy, 375, 376; 
his tortuous foreign policy, 
377; attitude toward the 
Popish Plot, 377-380; vain 
effort to save Danby, 380, 381 ; 
his triumph over the Whigs, 
381-383; his death, 383; 
compared with James II, 
385; beginning of bribery 
under, 649 

Charles Edward, the Young 
Pretender, 484-487 

Charleston, siege, of, 531 

Charter, confirmation of, 103, 
116, 117 

Charter, the Great, see Magna 
Carta 

Charter of Liberties of Henry I, 
63, 64, 93 

Charterhouse, the, 210 

Chartism, 667-668, 678 

Chateau-Thierry, 851, 853 

Chatham, Earl of, see Pitt 

Chatterton, Thomas, 564 

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 149, 192, 200, 
277 

Chelmsford, Lord, 902, 903 

Chester, 23, 54 

Chester castle, 703 

Chesterfield, Earl of, see Stan- 
hope, Philip Dormer 

Chevalier de St. Georges, see 
James Francis Edward 

Chichester, Sir Arthur, 291 

Child, Sir Josiah, 415 

Child labor, 656, 657, 670 

Children in the Middle Ages, 143 

China, opium war with, 673, 674; 
war with, in 1856, 787, 789; 
see Boxer Rebellion, Kiao- 
Chau, and Manchuria 

Chinese coolies, 754 

Chivalry, 144 

Christ Church, see Cardinal's 
College 

Christian LX, King of Denmark, 
693, 694 

Christianity, British, 15; con- 
version of Anglo-Saxons to, 
23 

Christian Socialism, 749 



Christmas, Old Father, 148 

Christ's Hospital, 235 

Chroniclers, see William of 
Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Mon- 
mouth, William of New- 
borough, Matthew Paris, 
Froissart 

Church, the English, beginnings 
of, 23, 24, 25 ; organization and 
extension of, 25 ; influence of, 
26, 27, 29; attitude of William 

I to, 54, 55; struggle of 
William II against, 62, 63; 
concessions of Henry I to, 
63, 64; gains of, under 
Stephen, 70; conflicts of Henry 

II with, 72-74; secular charac- 
ter of, under Henry II, 82, 83 ; 
concessions to, in Magna 
Carta, 95 ; condition of, under 
Henry III, 99, 105, 106; 
Statute of Mortmain against, 
119; declining power of , in the 
fifteenth century, 183, 184; 
see Church of England, Church 
of Rome, Reformation, Ox- 
ford Movement, Anselm, 
Becket, Wiclif, Laud, Wesley 

Church, the Scotch Irish, 15, 
24, 25 

Church of England, separation 
from Rome, 207-210; sup- 
pression of the monasteries, 
211-212, 214-216; articles 
of faith under Henry VIII, 
213, 216, 217; Protestant 
excesses, 231; Acts of Uni- 
formity and the Forty-two 
Articles, 231-232, 234; coun- 
ter-Reformation under Mary, 
237-240; the Elizabethan, 
245, 246, 248-250, 254-257, 
265-266; policy of James I 
toward, 287, 288, 289; parties 
in, under Charles I, 301, 303; 
Declaration of Charles I, 307; 
Laudian policy, 509-313; split 
over reforms of, 323; attitude 
of Cromwell toward, 350, 351; 
ceases to be a national body, 
357; failure to secure tolera- 
tion in, under Charles II, 362, 
364-366, 374-376; aims of 
James II to, 385, 386, 388-390, 
392-394; the clergy of, in the 
seventeenth century, 407 ; 
Latitudinarian movement in, 
413, 414; toleration granted, 
424, 425; establishment guar- 
anteed in Union, 453 ; Sachev- 
erell's defense of, 455, 456; 
rationalism in, in the eight- 
eenth century, 556; reforms 
in, under William IV, 660; 
disestablished in Ireland, 703, 
704; control of, in education, 



914 



INDEX 



705-707; condition of, in the 
nineteenth century, 727-729 
Church of Rome, introduced into 
Kent, 23; triumph of, at 
Whitby, 25; organization and 
extension of, 25, 26; English 
fear of, in 1850, 678-679 
Church of Scotland, see Scotland 
Church courts, from William I 
to Henry II, 72-73; under 
Elizabeth, 265, 266 
Church, rates, compulsory, abol- 
ished, 660 
Churchill, John, later Earl and 
Duke of Marlborough, deserts 
James II, 396; dismissed by 
William III, 431; betrays 
expedition to Brest, 432; 
takes up William's work, 443 ; 
character of and relations to 
parties, 447-44S; his cam- 
paigns, 448-451, 453-455, 457; 
granted Blenheim, 450; his 
removal and achievements, 
457-459; retires temporarily 
to Continent, 460; mention 
of, 490 
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 716 
Churchill, Winston, 814, 841, 

867 
Cibber, Colley, 565 
Cinque (sink) Ports, 108, 139 
Circulation of the blood, see 

Harvey 
Cistercians, 67 
Cities, 44; see Boroughs 
Citizen Army, Irish, 884, 887 
Civil List, of William III, 425, 
of Victoria, 662, 663; of 
Edward VII, 753 
Civil service, 682, 707, 792 
Civil War, the American, 690- 

692 
Civil War, the Great, 327-336; 

the second, 340-341 
Clan-na-Gael, 884 
Clarence, Duke of, see George 
Clarendon Code, 364-366 
Clarendon, Constitutions of, 73 
Clarendon, Earl of, see Edward, 

and Villiers, George 
Classes, Presbyterian, 241 
Classicism, revolt against, 564 
Claudius, Roman Emperor, 12 
Claverhouse (clavers) see Gra- 
ham, John 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 768 
Clement VII, Pope, 198. 204, 207 
Clergy, condition of, in the tenth 
century, 35; in the thirteenth 
century, 105, 106; in the seven- 
teenth century, 407; in the 
eighteenth century, 556 ; in the 
nineteenth century, 727-728; 
see also Church 
Clergy reserves, 764, 765 



Clericis Laicos, 116 

Clerkenwell, 703 

Clermont, the, 634 

Clinton, General, 534-53° 

Clive, Robert, later Baron Clive, 
493, 502-503, 571, 785 

Closetings, the, of James II, 392 

Clubs, London, 452 

Cluniac reforms, 35 

Clyde River, 3, 6 

Cnut, King of England, 36-3S 

Coal, 401, 551; strike, 757; 
German and Biritish produc- 
tion of, 810; British supply to 
Allies, 855 ; wartime control of, 
870 

Coalition, against France, first, 
587-592; second, 597, 598; 
third, 601-602 ; Ministries, 498 
ff., 682-685, 866 rf., 881, 882 

"Coat and conduct" money, 317 

Cobbett, William, 617, 618 

Cobden, Richard, 668 

Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of 
Gloucester, 170 

Cockfighting, 642 

Codrington, Admiral, 629 

Coercion Bills, for Ireland, 655, 
656, 673, 677, 713, 718, see also 
Ireland 

Coffeehouses, 411, 412 

Coinage, British, 11; under the 
Edwards, 139 ; debasement of, 
224; restoration of, under 
Elizabeth and William III, 
270, 434, 435 ; see Brass money 

Coke, Sir Edward, 293, 306 

Cole, Old King, 148 

Coleman, Edward, 378, 380 

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 636, 
637 

Colet, John s 200, 226 

Coligny, Admiral, 253 

Colley, Sir George, 773 

Collier (colyer), Jeremy, 420 

Collins, Wilkie, 736 

Colonial conferences, 796, 906- 
908 

Colonial preferences, 753 

Colonies, see American Colonies 

Colonies, British, Huskisson's 
policy regarding, 621; aboli- 
tion of slavery in, 656, 663, 
772; Durham's Report on, 
772; Disraeli's Imperialistic 
views concerning, 701, 799; 
England's growing interest 
in, 662, 719, 762; effect of 
inventions on, 740, 741; sys- 
tem of government of, 761, 762, 
905-908; in the World War, 
891-908; see Australia, Canada, 
New Zealand, South Africa, 
Empire, Imperialism 

Colonies, German, 774, S05, 807, 
8s6 



Colonies, Portuguese, 627, 774 

Colonies, see also under Dutch, 
France, Germany, Portugal, 
Spain 

Columba, Saint, 25 

Columbia River, 675 

Columbus, Christopher, 200 

Comet, the, 634 

Co mites, 20 

Commander-in-Chief, of the 
British Army, office of, 686, 754 

Commerce, see Trade 

Commercial treaties, see Bur- 
gundy, France, Ireland, and 
Intercursus Magnus 

Commissioner, Lord High, see 
Durham 

Committee of Both Kingdoms, 
329, 334 

Committee of Imperial Defense, 
see Imperial Defense 

Committee of Safety, the, in the 
Civil War, 329 

Common Law, the, 77 

Common law courts, see Courts 

Common Prayer, Book of, 216, 
231, 232; revisions of, 234, 
245, 364 

Common Sense, Paine's, 531 

Commons, House of, first sep- 
arate session of, 115; initia- 
tive in legislation, 137 ; money 
grants originate in, 163; com- 
position of, under Henry VIII, 
222, 223; Roman Catholics 
excluded, 249; Elizabeth's 
control of, 266; privileges 
gained under James I, 289, 
290, 297-299, 330; gains in 
appropriation of supply, audit 
of accounts, and recognition of 
sole right to initiate money 
grants, 370; struggle over ex- 
clusion of Wilkes, 510-512, 
522; theory and practice of 
representation in, 512, 513; 
Grenville Act relating to dis- 
puted elections and struggle 
over reporting debates in, 
525,526; contractors excluded 
from, 537; condition of, on 
eve of first Reform Bill, 647- 
651; reform of, by Bill of 
1832, 653; by Bill of 1867, 
699-700; by Bill of 1885, 714- 
715 ; by Bill of 1918, S80-881 ; 
Jews admitted to, 688; prop- 
erty qualification for, abol- 
ished, ib. ; atheists admitted 
to, 712; increase of powers of, 
and payment of members of, 
in 191 1, 756; see Corrupt 
Practices Act, Quinquennial 
Act 

Commonwealth of Australia, 770, 
771 



INDEX 



915 



Commonwealth, the English, 

344-340 
Communion in both kinds, 216 
Comperts, 211 

Compound householders, 699 
Compton, Spencer, successively 

Marquis of Hartington and 

Duke of Devonshire, 717, 723, 

753 
Comus, Milton's, 418 
Confederacy, the Southern, 691 
Conferences, see Colonial and 

Imperial 
Confirmaiio Cartarum, see Char- 
ters 
Congregation, Lords of the, 242, 

246 
Congregationalists, 255, 350 
Congresses, European, 613, 626, 

627 
Connaught, Duke of, 892 
Connaught, Irish Province of, 

316 
Connolly, James, 887 
Conscription, British, in the 

World War, 868-869, 883, 889, 

890, 892, 893 and note 
Conservative party, 654, 701, 

710, 711; sec Unionists 
Consolidated fund, Pitt's, 576 
Consols, 815 note 
Conspiracies to Murder Bill, 688 
Constable, John, 640-641 
Constantine, king of the Greeks, 

843 
Constantinople, 199, 821 
Constitutional Information, Eng- 
lish Society for, 583 
Constitutional royalists, the, 320, 

325 
Constitutions of Clarendon, see 

Clarendon 
Consubstantiation, 151 
"Contemptible little armv," the 

World War, 836, 838, 846 
Continental Congress, 528, 530 
Continental system, Napoleon's, 

602-603, 606, 608, 615, 633 
Continuous voyage, doctrine of, 

859 
Contraband, 535, 687, 859 
Conventicle Act, 365 
Convention, the Irish, 888-889 
Convention Parliament, the, of 

the Restoration, 356-357, 361- 

363; of William of Orange, 

398-399, 424-425 
Convocation, beginning of, 115; 

under Henry VIII, 208; under 

Elizabeth, 265 
Cook, Captain James, 553, 554, 

769 
Coolies, see Chinese 
Cooper, Sir Anthony Ashley, 

first Earl of Shaftesbury, in the 

"Cabal," 372-375; organizes 



the Country party in the 
Lords, 372; activity in the 
Popish Plot and the Exclusion 
struggle, 377, 382; flight and 
death, 382, 383 

Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third 
Earl of Shaftesbury, 557 

Cooper, Anthony Ashley, seventh 
Earl of Shaftesbury, 656, 670 

Cooperative movement, the, 748 

Coote, Colonel Eyre, 503 

Cope, Sir John, 485 

Copenhagen, bombardments of, 
598, 599, 602 

Copernicus, 200 

Corn laws, 187, 623, 666; repeal 
of, 671-673; see Chamberlain 
and Tariff Reform 

Cornwall, Duchy of, 662 notes 

Cornwall, tin mines of, n; re- 
bellion in, 232 

Cornwallis, Lord, in the Amer- 
ican War, 535-536; in Ireland, 
595-596 

Coronel, 856 

Coroners or crowners, 82 

Corporation Act, 364; repeal of, 
624 

Corporations, municipal, war on 
charters of, 383, 393; reform 
of, 659 

Correspondence Society, the Lon- 
don, 583 

Corrupt Practices Act, 715 note 

Corsned, 45 

Cotters, 43 

Cotton, manufacture, 549, 633; 
famine, 692 

Council, see Privy 

Council of the North, 268 

Council of Wales and the 
Marches, 268, 323 

Councilors, town, 85, 659 

Councils, county, 719; district 
and parish, 15, 721 note 

Count of the Saxon Shore, 14 

Counter-Reformation, the, 249; 
see also Mary 

Country gentry in the seven- 
teenth century, 406 

Country party, 376 

County franchise and representa- 
tion, see Commons, House of 

County councils, see Councils 

Courts, of Appeal, 708; of Com- 
mon Law, 118; see Supreme 
Court of Judicature Act 

Covenanters, the, 341, 346, 391 

Covenant, the bond or, 242; 
Scottish National, 314-315; 
the Solemn League and, 332; 
the Ulster, 758 

Cowper (coo'per), William, 636 

Cox, Sir Percy, 899 

Craddock, Admiral, 856 

Craft gilds, see Gilds 



Craftsman, the, 476 

Cranborne, Viscount, see Cecil, 
Robert 

Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop 
of Canterbury, enters service 
of Henry VIII, 206; made 
Archbishop and pronounces 
sentence of divorce, 208; 
his Bible, 216; his Prayer 
Books and Articles, 227, 231- 
232, 234; his martyrdom, 239 

Crecy fcraysee or cressy), 128, 
144 

Creeds, the three, 213 

Crete, 822 

Crew, Chief Justice, 312 

Crime, in the eighteenth century, 
567 ; in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, 642, 643, 744 

Crimean War, the, 682-687 

Criminal code, reform of, 642-643 

Criminous clerks, 72, 73 

Cromer, Lord, see Baring, 
Evelyn 

Cromwell, Oliver, early parlia- 
mentary career of, 320; opin- 
ion of first recruits, 329; his 
"Ironsides" and New Model, 
33i, 334, 335; at Marston 
Moor and Naseby, 333, 335; 
development of his political 
and religious views, 336, 338, 
339; crushes second Civil 
War, 341 ; takes lead in pro- 
ceedings against the King, 
341, 342; as a preserver of 
order, 345 ; his conquest of 
Ireland and Scotland, 345, 
346; his victory at Worcester, 
347; dissolves Rump, 348,349; 
as Lord Protector, 349-354; 
death and estimate of, 354- 
355; French policy, 366; 
commerce and agriculture un- 
der, 402, 404; attitude toward 
the arts, 420, 421 

Cromwell, Richard, 355, 356 

Cromwell, Thomas, enters serv- 
ice of Henry VIII, 206, 207; 
suggestion regarding the di- 
vorce, 207 ; activity in sup- 
pressing the monasteries, 210- 
212; nobles jealous of, 213; 
his fall, 217; management of 
Parliament, 222 

"Cromwellian settlement," 346 

Cronje, General, 777 

Crown, lands, 267, 764; pleas, 
76, 82 ; revenues, see Revenues 

Cruelty to animals, prevention 
of, 642 

Crusades, the first, 63 ; the third, 
80, 81; influence of, 104 

Culloden (ciil-lo'den), 486, 487 

Cumberland, see William Au- 
gustus 



oi6 



INDEX 



Cumbrian Mountains, 3 
Curia Regia, the, 59, 65, 78 
Customs duties, 138, 139; see 

also Chamberlain, Huskisson, 

Peel, Pitt 
Cynewulf, 48 
Cyprus, 803 note 



Daguerre, 739 

Dail Eireann, 890 

Dalhousie (dalhoo'zie), Earl, later 
Marquis of, 785 

Dalrymple (dalrim'ple), John, 
Master of Stair, 429, 430 

Dalton (dol'ton), John, 635 

Danby, Earl of, see Osborne, 
Sir Thomas 

Danegeld, 36, 59 note, 78 

Danelagh, 31 

Danes, see Northmen 

Dante, 149 

D'Arc, see Jeanne 

Dardanelles, 687, 802, 841, 855 

Darien Company, 452 

Darlington, Counters of, see Kiel- 
mannsegge 

Darnley, Earl of, see Stewart, 
Henry 

Darwin, Charles, 737, 738, 815 

Davis, Jefferson, 690, 691 

Davy, Sir Humphrey, 635 

Debasement, see Coinage 

Debates,, struggle over reporting, 
525, S26 

Debt, see National Debt 

Declarations, of Breda, see 
Breda; of Charles T concern- 
ing religion, 307; of Independ- 
ence, 531; of Indulgence, 374, 
392, 394J of James II, 431; 
of Monmouth, 386; of Paris, 
687; of the Rights of Man, 
581; of Sports, 310; of 
William of Orange, 396 

Decorative Art, Victorian, 743 

De donis condilionalibus, see 
Entails 

" Defender of the Faith," 194 

Defense, Imperial, see Imperial 

Defense of the Realm Acts, 869 

Defense of the Seven Sacraments, 
Henry VIII's, 194 

Defoe, Daniel, 561, 562 

De Grasse, Admiral, 538, 539 

De haeretico comburendo, 164 

Deists, the, 557 

Delbriick Law, 809 

DelcassS, M., 806 

Delegates, High Court of, 265 

Delhi, 493, 788-790 

Democracy, awakening of, 697- 
698; effect on literature, 730 

Democratic Federation, 749 

Denmark, 299, 598, 599, 602, 



721; see also Schleswig-Hol- 
stein 

Deorham, battle of, 21 

Depositions, see Edward II, 
James II, Richard II; papal 
bulls of, 92, 208 note 

De Quincey, Thomas, 630 

Derby (dar'by), Earls of, see 
Stanley 

Derby, races, 412 

Derbyshire insurrection, 617 

De religiosis, see Mortmain 

Desmond, House of, 254 

Despensers, the, 122, 123 

Devereux (dev'erroo') Robert, 
second Earl of Essex, 244, 
261, 262 note 

Devereux, Robert, third Earl of 
Essex, 320, 321 ; Commander of 
the Parliamentary forces, 326, 
330-332, 334 

Devolution, 722 note; see Federa- 
tion 

Devonport, Lord, 874 

Devonshire, Duke of, see Comp- 
ton, Spencer; Duchess of, see, 
Georgiana 

De Wet, General, 777~778, 895 

Dialogue of the Exchequer, 83 

Diaz, Bartholomew, 272 note 

Dickens, Charles, 734-735 

"Die-Hards," the, 756 

Diocletian, Roman Emperor, 14 

Direct Action, 876 

Director General of Recruiting, 
869 

Directory, in France, 581 note, 
589, 59o, 598 

Disarming Act, in Scotland, 488 

Discovery, under the Tudors, 
191-192, 271-272 

Disestablishment, of the Irish 
Church, 703-704; of the Welsh 
Church, 757 

Dispensing power, 398; abol- 
ished, 425 and note 

Disraeli (disray'ly or disree'ly), 
Benjamin, struggle for pro- 
tection in Commons, 669, 672- 
673; abandons protection, 
682; pronouncement on coali- 
tions, 16.; passes Reform Bill 
of 1867, 698-700; first Minis- 
try and estimate of, 700-701; 
comment of, Gladstone's first 
Ministry, 708; second Minis- 
try, 710-711; his novels, 734; 
purchase of Suez Canal shares, 
781; policy in Russo-Turkish 
War, 801-804 

Dissenters, the Protestant, after 
the Restoration, 357; after 
Clarendon Code, 365-366; 
attitude of Charles II toward, 
360, 362, 363. 365, 372, 374; 
efforts of James to win over, 



392, 394; gain toleration, 
424, 425; repeal of Test and 
Corporation Acts favor, 624; 
measures in relief of, 660; 
status of, at Victoria's acces- 
sion, 661 

Dissolution of the monasteries, 
210-212, 214-216; effect of, on 
the poor, 225 

Divine Right of Kings, views of 
James I on, 287; of Charles 
II, 360; blow at, 399; de- 
cline in belief in, 473 

"Divorce" of Henry VIII and 
Catharine, 198, 203-204, 206- 
208; see also Anne of Cleves 

Divorce, law of, 491-492; court, 
708 

Dock strike, 767 

Dolichocephalic skulls. 7, 9 

Domesday Survey, 56 

Domestic system, 189-190, 552 

Dominican friars, 104, 105 

Dominion, of Canada, 765; of 
New Zealand, 772 

Dominion system advocated for 
Ireland, 889-890 

Don Pacifico case, 680, 681 

Donne, John, 417 

"Doras," see Defense of the 
Realm 

Douay, college at, 254 

Dover, the treaty of, 373-374, 
378 

Drake, Sir Francis, 258-259, 
272 

Drama, beginning of the, 148- 
149; Elizabethan, 280-283; 
Jacobean, Caroline and Res- 
toration, 419-420; under Anne 
and the Georges, 564-565; 
Victorian, 733 

Drapier Letters, Swift's, 472 

Dreadnaught type, 813 

Dress, Elizabethan, 275-276; 
Restoration, 412; eighteenth- 
century, 568; early nineteenth 
century, 641 

Drinking, in the fourteenth 
century, 143; in the eighteenth 
and early nineteenth cen- 
turies, 641-642; wartime con- 
trol of, 781 and note, 872 

Drogheda, massacre of, 345 

Druidism, 10-12 

Dryden, John, 419 

Dudley, Dud, 401 

Dudley, Guilford, 234, 237 

Dudley, John, successively Earl 
of Warwick and Duke of 
Northumberland, 233-236 

Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leices- 
ter, 244, 257, 262, 275 

Dueling, 410, 642 

Dumping, 810, 881 

Dunajec, 840 



INDEX 



917 



Dunbar, battle of, 346 
Duncan, Admiral, 592 
Dundee, Viscount, see Graham, 

John 
Dunstan, St., 33 _ 35 
Dunwich, borough of, 648 
Dupleix, 493 

Duquesne, Fort, 494, 499 
" Durham letter," the, 479 
Durham, palatinate of, 54 
Durham, Lord, 764-765; his 

Report, 763, 765 
Dutch, the, as trade rivals of 
the English, 272, 312, 402, 547; 
at Beachy Head, 427; in 
the War of the Spanish Suc- 
cession, 443, 446-451, 453- 
455, 458, 459J in the Triple 
Alliance, 17 17, 467; send 
auxiliaries to Great Britain 
in 1715 and 1745, 466, 486; 
in the Triple Alliance of 1788, 
582, 583; in the Great French 
War, 583-585, 588-592, 599, 
610-612; Belgians rebel 
against, 630-631 
Dutch Wars, the first, 347- 
348, 351; the second, 366- 
368; the third, 375 
Dynamiters, the Fenian, 703, 714 
Dykevelt, his mission to Eng- 
land, 392-393 



Eadgar the .Etheling, 39, 40, 53 

Ealdormen, ss> 36, 46; see also 
Earl 

Earls, Anglo-Saxon, 37, 47; after 
the Conquest, 54 

East Africa Company, the Brit- 
ish, 774 

Eastern Association, army of 
the, 321, 329 

East India Company, the Dutch, 
272, note; the English 
founded, 272, 273; growth of, 
493; condition of, at Seven 
Years' War, North's Regu- 
lating Act, Warren Hastings, 
'and Fox's India Bill, 570-573; 
Pitt's India Bill, 575; reduc- 
tion of privileges of, 785, 786; 
powers of, transferred to the 
Crown, 791; the French, 
493, 503 

East Indian laborers in South 
Africa, 779 and note 

Ecclesiastical Commission, 658, 
660; court of, 389-390, 396 

Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, under 
William I and Stephen, 55, 
72; under Henry II, 72, 73; 
under the Tudors, 265 

Ecclesiastical Polity, Hooker's, 
279 



Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, 679 

Economic theory, in the seven- 
teenth century, 415, 416; in 
the eighteenth century, 558, 
559; in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, 636, 737 

Edgar the Peaceful, Anglo- 
Saxon King, 35, 36 

Edgehill, battle of, 330 

Edgeworth, Maria, 639 

Edict of Nantes, 262, 388 

"Edinburgh Letter," Russell's, 
671 

Edinburgh Review, the, 640, 731 

Edmund (Crouchback) of Lan- 
caster, 100, 103, 116, 159 note 

Edmund Ironside, 36, 37 

Edred, 35 

Education, under the Tudors, 
226, 227, 235; in the seven- 
teenth century, 405, 406; 
Bills of 1870, 1902, 1906, 
705-707, 755; made free, 
720; Bill of, 1918, 879-880 

Edward the Elder, 33 

Edward "The Martyr," 36 

Edward the Confessor, 38-40 

Edward I, King of England, as 
Prince, 102-103; accession 
and character, in; subdues 
Wales, in-112; his French 
and Scotch wars, 112-113, 
116-118; summons Model 
Parliament, 115; his con- 
firmation of the charters, 
116-117; as legislator and 
ruler, 112, 118-121; his expul- 
sion of the Jews, 120; trade 
regulations of, 138-139; as- 
serts sovereignty of the seas, 
139 

Edward II, King of England, 
first Prince of Wales, 112; as 
Regent, 116; his reign and 
deposition, 121-123 

Edward III, King of England, 
chosen King, 123; assumes 
the government, 125; his 
character, 125, 126; assumes 
title of King of France, 126; 
enters Hundred Years' War, 
126-128; victory at Cr6cy, 
128; capture of Calais, 128, 
129; ceases to take an active 
part in the war, 129; troubles 
with subjects, 129, 134-135; 
his death, 136; secures sover- 
eignty of the seas, 139 

Edward IV, King of England, 
his struggle for the succession, 
173, 174; his reign, 175-178 

Edward V, 178-180 

Edward VI, King of England, as 
Prince, 217-218, 233; his 
reign, 230-235 

Edward VII, King of Great 



Britain and Emperor of India, 
character and reign, 752-756; 
his foreign relations, 806-808, 
813 

Edward, the Black Prince, at 
Crecy and Poitiers, 128, 132; 
regime in Guyenne, 133-134; 
his opposition to the Court 
party and death, 134, 135 

Edward, Prince, son of Henry 
VI, 172, 177 

Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of 
the Duke of Clarence, 184 
and note; see Simnel 

Edwin, Northumbrian King, 24 

Edwin, Earl of Mercia, 40 

Egbert, West Saxon King, 29, 30 

Egypt, in the Napoleonic Wars, 
582, 597, 599; early history 
and the British occupation of, 
780-784; the Anglo-French 
agreement concerning, 784, 
806-807; in the World War, 
819, 896-897; British Labor 
Party demand Home Rule 
for, 878 

Eighteenth century, leading char- 
acteristics, 543 

Elba, island of, 608, 610 

Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 615, 625 

El Dorado, 273 

Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of 
Henry II, 69, 75 

Eleanor of Provence, Queen of 
Henry III, 99 

Election, the Clare, 624 

Elections, disputed, see Good- 
win's Case, Wilkes, and Gren- 
ville Act; bribery in, 649 

Elective Ministers, baronial de- 
mand for, 100 

Electricity, 739-740 

Elgar, Sir Edward, 744 

Eliot, Sir John, 304, 307, 308 

Eliott, General, defender of 
Gibraltar, 534, 539 

Elizabeth, Countess Palatine, 
295, and note, 440 and note 

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 
as Princess, 208, 210, 234, 
237; accession and character, 
244-245; her religious settle- 
ment, 245-246; her Scotch 
policy, 246-248; relation to 
Catholics and Catholic Powers, 
248-250; plots against, 248, 
251, 254, 255, 259; attitude 
toward Protestant extremists, 
255-257; intervention in the 
Netherlands, 257; support of 
English seamen, 257-259; her 
part in Mary's execution, 259; 
her part in the repulse of the 
Armada and the final struggle 
with Philip II, 259-262; de- 
clining years and death, 26?, 



qi8 



INDEX 



263; strength of her monarchy, 
264-265; restoration of the 
coinage, 270; agricultural and 
trade policy, 271, 274; her 
progresses, 275; estimate of 
her reign, 283, 284 

Elizabeth of York, 184 

Ely, monks of, 37 ; island of, 55 

Embargo Act, 608 

Emden, German raider, 856 

Emigration, 762, 763 

Emma, Queen, 37 

Empire, see British Colonies and 
British Empire 

Enclosures, beginning of, 142; 
in the fifteenth century, 187; 
in the sixteenth century, 215, 
224, 233, 270-271; in the 
eighteenth and early nine- 
teenth centuries, 554, 635 

Encumbered Estates Act, 677, 
704 

Encyclopedists, the, 414 

Engagement, the, 340 

England, area, 1; productive- 
ness, 5; origin of the name, 21; 
under the Anglo-Norman 
Kings, 57-61, 65-67; at the 
close of the twelfth century, 
82-87; in the thirteenth 
century, 104-110; under the 
first three Edwards, 129-132, 
137-152; in the fifteenth 
century, 186-192; develop- 
ment of sea power of, 257- 
262; under Elizabeth, 264- 
284; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 400-422; material char- 
acter of, under the first two 
Georges, 473-474; condition 
of, in the eighteenth century, 
543-568; conditions in, 1815- 
1830, 615; at the eve of the 
Reform Bill, 633-643; under 
Victoria, 727-751; see Great 
Britain 

English language, in the law 
courts, 132, 476 

Englishry, presentment of, 55 

Enniskillen, 426, 427 

Entails, 119 

Entente, the Dual, or Entente 
cordiale, 784, 806, 807; the 
Triple, 793, 808 

Enumerated goods, 514 

Episcopacy in Scotland, 291, 
314-315 

Episcopal elections, 64, 91-92, 
95. 265 

Epsom, 412 

Erasmus, 200-201, 226-227 

Erie, Eake, battle on, 609 

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cum- 
berland, 662 

Erskine, John, Earl of Mar, 465- 
466 



Escheats, 58 

Essay on Man, see Pope; on 

Woman, see Wilkes 
Essayists, 559, 639 
Essex, Earls of, see Devereux, 

Robert and Capel. Arthur 
Ethandun, 31 
Ethelrleda, 33 
Eugene, Prince, 447, 449, 45 i> 

454, 458 
Euphuism, 278 
Evangelicals, the, 727, 729 
Evans, Mary Ann, 735, 736 
Evesham, battle of, 103 
Evolution, see Darwin 
Exchequer, the, 66, 78, 83; 

Court, 268, 290 
Excise, Walpole's, 477 ; Irish, 717 
Exclusion, bills against James, 

376, 381-382; of the Ulster 

counties, 759, 882 
Excommunication, of John, 91- 

92; of Henry VIII, 208 and 

note 
Exhibition, the Great, 679 
Ex officio oath, 266, 287 
Exploration, under the Tudors, 

271-273 
Exports, British, 4, 633, 809— 

811; duties on, abolished, 669 
Eye, the witch of, 170 



Fabian Society, 750 

Factory, Acts, 656-657, 670, 

746 and note; system, 550, 

552, 553 
Faerie Queene, the, 280 
Fairfax, Thomas, Parliamentary 

Commander, 330, 333"335» 

338, 34i, 345 
Fairs, 86, 108 
Falkirk, battle of. 117 
Falkland Islands, battle of, 856 
Falkland, Lord, 413 
Family Compacts, the, 480, 483, 

508 
Famines, no, 146, 671, 676 
"Fantastic School," the, 417 
Faraday, Michael, 739-740 
"Farmer George," see George 

III 
Faro banks, 641 

Fashoda Incident, the, 784 note 
Fawkes, Guy, 288, 679 
Federation, see Australia, Can- 
ada, Imperial, Ireland 
Felony, counsel in cases of, 660 
Felton, John, 306 
Fenians, 703, 712 
Fens, draining of the, 403 
Fenwick (fen'ick), Sir John, 434 
Feorum fultum, 46 
Ferdinand of Aragon, 186, 195, 

196 



Ferdinand, Prince of Brunswick, 

499, 501, 502 
Feud, the, 44 

Feudal, dues, 267, 290; griev- 
ances under John, 93, 95; 

incidents, 58, 59; system 

abolished, 362 
Feudalism, 57-59 
Field, Cyrus, 740 
Field deputies, see Dutch in the 

War of the Spanish Succession 
Field of Cloth of Gold, 197, 223 
Fielding, Henry, 562 
Filmer, Sir Robert, 414, 415 
Financial effort, Great Britain's, 

in the World War, 832 and 

note 875 
Fining of juries abolished, 359 
Fire of London, the, 368-369, 410 
Firma bnrgi, 85 
First fruits, see Annates. 
Fisher, Admiral, Lord, 866-867 
Fisher, H. A. L., 879 
Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, 

209-210 
Fitch, Ralph, 272 
Fitzgeralds, the, Earls of Kildare, 

218-219 
Fitzherbert, Mrs., 619 note 
Five boroughs, the, 33 
Five Knights' case, the, 305-306 
Five Mile Act, the, 365 
Flagellants, the, 130 
Flambard, see Ranulf 
Flanders, 116; in the Hundred 

Years' War, 127-128, 133 
Fleet marriages, 491 
Flemish weavers, 139, 140 
Flodden, battle of, 195 
Flogging illegal for women, 643 
Flood, Henry, 538 
Florida, 510, 541, 675 
Florio, John, 2 78 
" Flying Coach," 404 
Flying shuttle, 550 
Foch, General (later Marshal), 

838, 850-853 
Folk, see Tribe 
Folkmoot, 45 

Fontenoy, the battle of, 484 
Food, 143, 1S8, 412; control of, 

during World War, 873-874, 

893 
Forced loans, see Loans 
Foreign Enlistment Act, 710 

note 
Foreign policy, see various 

countries 
Forests, under William I, 55, 

56 
Forfeiture, 58 
Forty-shilling freeholders, see 

Freeholders 
"Forwards," see "Die-Hards" 
Fountains Abbey, 67 
Four Days' Battle, the, 467 



INDEX 



919 



Fox, Charles James, 538; char- 
acter and American policy, 
537-538; coalition with 
North, 570; his India Bill 
and conflict with Pitt, 573, 
574; abolishes slave trade, 
578; position on the Regency 
question, 579-580; attitude 
toward French Revolution 
and breach with Burke, 581- 
582 ; Foreign Secretaryship 
and death, 601-602; his 
dress, 641 

Fox, Henry (later Lord Holland), 

495, 496, 539 
Foxe, John, 239, 280 

France, war with Edward I, 113- 
114, 117; Edward III assumes 
title of King of , 126; Hundred 
Years' War during reign of 
Edward III, 126-129, 132- 
134; under Richard II, 153; 
under Henry V and Henry VI, 
165-170; end of war, 172; 
relations of Edward IV with, 
176-178; relations of Henry 
VII with, 195-198, 205, 217- 
218; Somerset's policy toward, 
233; Mary's war with, and 
loss of Calais, 240; Eliza- 
beth's relations with, 245, 
248,253-262; marriage treaty 
with, 1624, 299; relations of 
Charles I with, 304-305, 312- 
313 ; Cromwell's alliance with, 
351-352; alliance of Charles 
II with, 360, 366, 373-374; 
aids Dutch, 368; English feel- 
ing against, 375; later policy 
of Charles toward, 377; re- 
lations of James II with, 385, 
388; aids James II, 397, 426; 
William Ill's war against, 
430-432, 435; in the War of 
the Spanish Succession, 441- 
443, 446-451, 453-455, 457- 
459; aids the old Pretender, 
465; in Triple Alliance, 467; 
in War of the Austrian Succes- 
sion, 480-485, 489-490; aids 
Prince Charles, 484, 485; in 
the Seven Years' War, 492- 

496, 497-504, 508-510; in the 
American Revolution, 533- 
536, 539-54i; significance of 
eighteenth century wars with, 
545-548; Pitt's commercial 
treaty with, 576-577; Revolu- 
tion in, and effect on England, 
580-585; war with, to peace 
of Amiens, 585-595; from 
Amiens to the overthrow of 
Napoleon, 600-613; inter- 
venes in Spain in 1820, 627; 
allied with Great Britain to 
assist Greeks, 629-630; Revo 



lution of 1830 in, 630; effect 
of, on England, 631; Revolu- 
tion of 1848 in, 677; see Don 
Pacifico Case; in Crimean 
War, 682-687; see Orsini; 
assists in Italian Unity, 688- 
689; proposes mediation in 
American Civil War, 692; see 
Palmerston; in War with 
Prussia, 709-710; relations 
with Great Britain in Egypt, 
. 780-784; see Entente, Fashoda, 
and Morocco ; British strained 
relations with, after 1870, 800; 
Entente with, under Edward 
VII, 806-808, 813; Great 
Britain supports, in 1911, 821 ; 
in negotiations of 1914, 825- 
829; in the World War, 833, 
836-854; in Syria, 890 

France, Isle de, 493 

Franchise, previous to Reform 
Bill of 1832, 648-650; by Bill 
of 1832, 653; by Bill of 1867, 
699; by Bill of 1885, 714- 
715; by Bill of 1918, 880- 
881 ; see also Reform Bills 

Francis, St., 104-105 

Francis, Sir Philip, 523 

Franciscan friars, 104, 105, 209 

Franco-Austrian War, 688-689 

Franco-Prussian War, 709-710 

Franklin, Benjamin, 515, 526, 
527, 533, 54° and note; ex- 
periments with electricity, 555, 
556 

Franz Ferdinand, see Serajevo 

Frederick II (the Great), King of 
Prussia, character and aims, 
48 r; in the War of the Aus- 
trian Succession, 481-482, 484, 
489; in the Seven Years' War, 
495-496,499-504; breaks with 
England, 509-510; cynical 
views of, 815 

Frederick, Prince, son of George 
II, 507 

Free, Church of Scotland, 730; 
United Presbyterian, ib. 

Freedom of Speech, 39S 

Freeholders, forty-shilling, 649- 
650, 653 

Free trade, 668-673 

French, General (later Marshal, 
Viscount), 759, 760, 837-838, 
841, 844-845 

Friars, see Dominicans and Fran- 
ciscans 

Friends of the People, 58? 
note 

Friendly Societies, 744, 747 and 
note 

Frobisher, Martin. 272 

Froissart, Jean. 148 

Fry, Elizabeth, 745 

Fulton, Robert, 634 



Gaels, 10 

Gage, General, 531 

Gainsborough, Thomas, 565 

Gallipoli campaign, 840-843 

Gama, Vasco da, 272 note 

Gambling, 412, 567, 641 

Game Laws, 642 

Gaol Acts, 745 

Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of 
Winchester, 231, 233, 236, 239 

Garrick, David, 565 

Garter, Order of the, 129 note 

Gas, use of, in World War, 834, 
844 

Gascony, under Henry III, 98- 
100; under Edward I, 113-114, 
116; in the Hundred Years' 
War, see Guyenne; shipping 
law against, 191 ; see also 
Aquitaine 

Gaskell, Mrs., 736 

Gates, General, 532 

Gaunt, see John of 

Gaveston, Piers, 122 

General Assembly, of the 
Church of Scotland, 241, 286, 
315; see Veto Act 

General Staff, 754 note 

General warrants, 511 and note, 
519 

Geneva Award, 710 

Geoffrey of Anjou, 69 

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 61, 83 

George I, King of England, reign 
of, 463-474 

George II, King of England, as 
Prince, 475; reign of, 475-504 

George III, King of Great Brit- 
ain and Ireland, significance 
of reign, 506; character and 
policy, 507-508; ends the 
Seven Years' War, 509-510; 
opposition to Wilkes, 511; 
supports Grenville program, 
512, 515 note; dismissal of 
Grenville, 518; opposes Rock- 
ingham Ministry, 519; makes 
Lord North Premier, 523; 
controls the Ministry, 525; 
secures Royal Marriage Act, 
526; aims to coerce Massa- 
chusetts, 528; rejoices pre- 
maturely, 532; refuses to 
yield to the Opposition, 534; 
disperses Gordon rioters, 535; 
wishes to continue the Amer- 
ican War, 537; attempts to 
thwart Rockingham, ib.; dis- 
misses his Ministry, 540; 
defeat of his policy, 541; op- 
poses the Coalition, 570; 
defeats Fox's India Bill, 573; 
calls in Pitt, ib.; attitude 
toward Hastings, 578-579; 
his insanity and recovery, 



920 



INDEX 



579; opposes Catholic relief, 
596-597; final eclipse, 60s; 
his death, 618 

George IV, King of Great Britain 
and Ireland as Prince, 570, 
579-580; as Regent, 605, 616; 
as King, 618-620, 625-626 

George V, King of Great Britain 
and Ireland, Emperor of India, 
his accession and visit to India, 
756-757 ; signs Home Rule Bill, 
760; changes name, 871-872 
note 

George, Duke of Clarence, 
brother of Edward IV, 176- 
178 

George, David Lloyd, his social- 
istic legislation, 748; his 
budget, 755; his plea for 
reduction of armaments, 823 
note; reiterates British War 
aims, 850; attempts to save 
in armaments, 865; becomes 
Minister of Munitions, 867; 
becomes Premier, ib. ; see 
Treasury Agreement; his War 
Cabinet, 868; his activity in 
producing munitions, 871 and 
note; his appointments, 878- 
879; his tribute to women's 
war work, 880; victory of 
his Coalition, 881-882; offers 
Irish Convention, 888; calls 
Imperial Conferences, 906, 907 

Georgia, colony of, 566 

Georgiana, Duchess of Devon- 
shire, 574 

Gerald de Barri, set Giraldus 
Cambrensis 

Geraldines, see Fitzgerald 

German East Africa, see Africa 

German, North, Confederation, 
700; Empire founded, 709 

German raids, 834, 858 

German Southwest Africa, see 
Africa 

Germanic invasions, 14, 18-21 

Germans, condition of the an- 
cient, 18-20 

Germany, Bismarck's social legis- 
lation in, 746 ; secures Heligo- 
land for concessions in Africa, 
774; activities in the East, 
792-793 ; Bismarck's policy, 
799-801; attitude in Russo- 
Turkish War, 801-804; in 
Triple Alliance, 804; new poli- 
cies under William II, 804- 
805; in the Morocco crises of 
1905 and 191 1, 807-808, 820- 
821; rivalry with England in 
trade and naval armaments, 
810-815 ; Kultur and Pan- 
Germanism ,815-818; Eastern 
policy, 818-822; backs Aus- 
tria after Serajcvo, 823-824; 



violation of Belgium, 827- 
829; resources of, in 1914, 
832-835; disappointment at 
British entrance into war, 
836; campaign of 1914, 836- 
839; of 191 5, 839-845; of 
1916, 845-847 ; peace drive, 
847; campaign of 1917, 847- 
849; 1918 drive, 850-851; 
final repulse, 851-853; the 
Armistice, 853-854; in naval 
warfare, 854-859; submarine 
warfare, 859-862; surrenders 
her fleet, 862-863 ; production 
of shells, 867 note; intrigues 
with the Irish, 884, 885 ; raid 
in behalf of Sinn Feiners, 886 ; 
propaganda in South Africa, 
895; loses Colonies, 895-896; 
activity in Egypt, 897; in- 
trigues in India, 900-901 
Ghent, treaty of, 609-610 
Gibbon, Edward, 556 
Gibraltar, British secure, 450, 
459; Spanish attempts to re- 
cover, 534, 539; government 
of, 761 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 273 
Gilbert and Sullivan, 744 
Gilds, origin and growth of, 86; 
in the thirteenth century, 
109; in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, 140-141, 148, 153-154; 
In the fifteenth century, 189- 
190; under Henry VIII, 224; 
under Elizabeth, 274; in the 
seventeenth century, 409; as 
ancestors of Friendly Societies, 
747 note; see also National 
Guilds 
Gin drinking, act to check, 566 
Giraldus Cambrensis, 84 
Gladstone (glad'ston), William 
E., early budgets of, 682; 
in Palmerston's second ad- 
ministration, 689; his repeal 
of the paper duty, 689-690; 
in sympathy with South in 
American Civil War, 690- 
691 ; Disraeli on policy of, 
toward Victoria, 701 ; charac- 
ter and policy of, 701-702; 
first Ministry of, 702-709; 
first Ministry of, foreign affairs, 
709-710; campaign speeches, 
711; second Ministry of, 712- 
715; his Land Act of 1881, 
713 ; his Franchise Bill of 1884, 
1885, 714-715; fall of his 
Becond Ministry, 715; adopts 
Home Rule, 716; his third 
Ministry and the defeat of his 
first Home Rule Bill, 717; 
repudiates Parnell, 719; his 
fourth Ministry and the defeat 
of his second Home Rule Bill, 



720-721 ; threatens the Lords, 
723; his resignation, ib.; 
death of, 723 note; his High 
Churchmanship, 729; his dis- 
astrous South African policy, 
773-774; his failure to relieve 
Gordon, 783 ; denounces the 
Bulgarian atrocities, 801 

Glamorgan, Earl of, 336 

Glanville, Ranulf de, 83 

Glasgow, 6 

Glastonbury, Abbey of, 15 

Glencoe, the Massacre of, 429, 
430 

Glendower, Owen, 162 

"Glorious Revolution," the, see 
Revolution of 1688 

Gloucester, 331-332 

Gloucester, the Duke of, see 
Thomas of Woodstock, Hum- 
phrey, and Richard 

Godfrey, Sir Edmund Bury, 378 

Godwin, William, 639 

Godwine, Earl of Wessex, 38-39 

Goidels, 10 

Gold, discovery of, 742, 770 note 

Goldsmith, Oliver, 563, 565 

Good Hope, Cape of, 272 note, 
599 

Good Parliament, 134-135 

Goodwin, Sir Francis, case of, 
289 

Gordon, General Charles ("Chi- 
nese Gordon"), in the Sudan, 
783 

Gordon, George, see Byron, Lord 

Gordon Riots, 534-535 

Gothic art, revival of, 732, 743 

Government, British, growing 
paternalism of, at Victoria's 
accession, 661-662; control of 
industry during the World 
War, 866 ff . 

Grafton, the Duke of, his Minis- 
try, 520-523 

Graham, John, of Claverhouse, 
later Viscount Dundee, 391, 
429 

Grail, the Holy, 15 

Grammar schools, under Henry 
VIII, 227; of Edward VI, 
235 ; see also, 706 

Grand Alliance, the, 443 

Grand National Consolidated 
Trade Union, the, 667 

Grand Remonstrance, the, 324- 
325 

Grand Tour, the, 641 

Granville, Lord, 783 

Grattan, Henry, 538, 592, 593, 
595, 840, 842 

Gray, Thomas, 564 

Great Britain, name of, adopted 
at the union of England and 
Scotland, 453 ; territorial gains 
of, by the peace of Utrecht, 



INDEX 



921 



458-459; achievements of, in 
the War of the Spanish Suc- 
cession, 459; struggle begins 
with American Colonies, 512; 
strength of, in American Revo- 
lution, 530; isolation of, by 
formation of "Armed Neutral- 
ity," 535, critical situation of, 
in 1796, 1797 and 1800-1801, 
590, 598; territorial gains of, 
at Congress of Vienna, 612; 
relations to Europe at close of 
Napoleonic Wars, 626-631; 
effect of separation of Hanover 
upon, 662; sentiment in, re- 
garding American Civil War, 
690; problems confronting, 
1865, 697; problems in 1901, 
725; foreign policy of, after 
1870, 799-804; see Entente; 
also Germany; policy of, 
previous to World War, 823- 
830; in the World War, 832 ff. 

Great Contract, the, 290-291 

Great Council, the, 59; sum- 
moned by Charles I, 317 

Greater Britain, see British 
Colonies and Empire 

Great Fire, the, 410, 421 

Great Mogul, the, 492 

Great Schism, 150 

Great Seal, the, 397 

Greece, independence of, 628- 
630; see Don Pacifico case; 
in the First and Second Balkan 
Wars, 821, 822; in the World 
War, 843, 853 

Green Ribbon Club, 376 

Greene, Nathaniel, General, 536 

Greene, Robert, 279, 282 

Greenwich, 416, 421 

Gregory I, Pope, 22-23 

Gregory XIII, Pope, 491 

Grenville, George, 496 note; 
becomes Prime Minister, 510; 
his colonial program, 512, 
516-518; his dismissal, 518- 
519; his Election Act, 525 

Grenville, Lady Hester, 496 
note 

Grenville Election Act, the, of, 
1770, 525 

Grey, Charles, later Earl Grey, 
becomes Prime Minister, 647 ; 
Ministry of, secures Parlia- 
mentary Reform, 651-654; 
resignation of, 658; adviser 
to the bishops, 728 

Grey, Lady Jane, 224-235, 236- 
237 

Grey, Sir Edward, Foreign Min- 
ister, refuses to sign Portu- 
guese treaty with Germany, 
805 ; states British position 
in 1911, 817-818; forces signa- 
ture of treaty of London in 



1913, 822; his attempts to 
avert war in 1914, 825, 827, 
829-830; his conciliatory at- 
titude, 865 
Griffith, Arthur, 883 
Grocyn, William, 200 
Grosseteste, see Robert 
Grote, George, 737~738 
Grouchy, Marshal, 611-612 
Grub Street, 561 and note 
Guesclin, Bertrand du, 133- 

134 
Guinegate, the battle of, 195 
Gulliver's Travels, 560 
Gunpowder, early use of, 144 
Gunpowder Plot, the, 288-289 
Gutenberg, John, 192 
Guthrum, Danish invader, 3 
Guyenne, in the Hundred Years' 
War, 127/^129, 133-134; see 
Aquitaine and Gascony 
Gwledig, British leader, 18 

H 

Habeas Corpus, 94, 96, 305 and 
note 

Habeas Corpus Act, 359; passed, 
381 ; James II aims to repeal 
the, 388; suspended, 589, 617 
and note; in Ireland, 594 

Hadrian's Wall, 13 note 

Hague Conference, the first, 
813 ; the second, ib. 

Haidar AH, 597 

Haig, Sir Douglas (later Mar- 
shal, Viscount), 845, 848, 851- 
853 

Haldane (hol'dane), Lord, 814, 
818 

Hakluyt, Richard, his Voyages, 
273, 280 

Hales, Sir Edward, the ca9e of, 
389 

Halidon Hill, battle of, 126 

Halifax, Earl of, see Montagu, 
Charles 

Halifax, Marquis of, see Savile, 
George 

Hal, Prince, see Henry V 

Halsbury, Lord, 756 

Hampden, John, 313, 320, 325, 
332 

Hampton Court Conference, the, 
387-288 

Hams, Anglo-Saxon, 42 

Handel, George Frederick, 565, 
744 

Hanover, kingdom of, 602, 662, 
700 

Hansard, case of Stockdale 
against, 665 

Hanseatic League, 108 

Harden, Maximilian, 829 note 

Hardinge, Lord, Viceroy of In- 
dia, 892, 901 note, 902 



Hardwicke's Marriage Act, 491- 
492 

Hardy, Thomas, 736 

Hargreaves, James, invents spin- 
ning jenny, 550 

Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford, 
intrigues with Mrs. Masham, 
455 ; leading Minister of Anne, 
456 ; negotiates for peace, 457 ; 
rivalry with Bolingbroke, 460; 
his dismissal, 460-461; founds 
the South Sea Company, 469 

Harold, son of Godwine, 39-41 

Harold Hadrada, King of Nor- 
way, 40 

Hartington, Marquis of, see 
Compton, Spencer 

Harvey, William, 416 

Hastings, see Senlac 

Hastings, Warren, 571-572, 578- 
579 

Havana, 509-5x0 

Havelock, Henry, 790 

Hawke, Admiral, 501 

Hawkins, John, 258, 272 

Hay-Pauncefote treaty, 768 

Hazlitt, William, 639-640 

Heads of Proposals, the, 338-339 

Health, public, in the Anglo- 
Saxon period, 50; in Anglo- 
Norman times, 60; in the 
twelfth century, 87; in the 
fourteenth century, 146; in 
the fifteenth century, 187-188; 
in the time of Henry VIII, 
225 

Hedjaz, King of the, 898, 900 

Heligoland, 612, 774, 857 

Hemans, Felicia, 730 

Henderson, Arthur, 877 

Hengist and Horsa, 18 

Henrietta Maria, Queen of 
Charles I, betrothed to 
Charles, 299; character of, 
303; fosters Roman Cathol- 
icism, 311; plots of, 322,324; 
incites arrest of five members, 
325; seeks foreign alliances, 
328, 336 

Henry I, King of England, 
accession and issue of Charter 
of Liberties, 63, 64; conquest 
of Normandy, 64; compromise 
with Anselm, ib.; character 
and policy, 64, 65 ; admin- 
istrative reorganization, the 
Curia Regis and Exchequer 
65, 66; founder of Curia Regis 
and Exchequer, 78 ; originator 
of scutage, 79 ; charters to Lon- 
don, 85; charter to Weavers' 
Gild, 86 

Henry II, King of England, 
recognized as heir of Stephen, 
69; accession and character, 
problems and policy, 71; 



922 



INDEX 



conflict with Becket, 7 2-74 J 
in Ireland, 74~7S; submission 
at Avranches, 75; last years 
and death, ib.; constitutional 
and legal reforms, 75-78; 
revenue of, 78-79; summary 
of his work, 79; literature and 
learning at his court, 82, 83; 
grants of borough charters, 

85 

Henry III, King of England, 
constitutional importance of 
his reign, 89; years of minor- 
ity, 98, 99; successful expedi- 
tions against Gascony, 99-100; 
beginning of his personal rule, 
99; marries Eleanor of Pro- 
vence, invasions of foreigners, 
ib.; breach with Simon de 
Montfort, 100; baronial war 
against, 101-103; death and 
character of, 103 

Henry of Lancaster, his conflict 
with Richard II, 158, 159; 
chosen king, 159; see Henry 
IV 

Henry IV, King of England, 
161-162; character and prob- 
lems, 161-162 ; revolts against, 
162-163; last years of, 163 

Henry V, King of England, as 
Prince, 163; accession and 
character, 164-165 ; sup- 
presses the Lollards, 164 note; 
reopens war with France, 165 ; 
his three invasions of France, 
165-166; his death, estimate 
of his work, 166, 167 

Henry VI, King of England, 
coronation of, 169; marries 
Margaret of Anjou, 170; 
struggles with the Yorkists, 
170-177; his death and char- 
acter, 177 

Henry, Duke of Richmond, rep- 
resentative of the Lancastrian 
line, lands in England, 180; 
victory at Bosworth, 180- 
181; proclaimed King, 1S1; 
see Henry VII 

Henry VII, King of England, 
problems and means of secur- 
ing his title, 183, 184; trouble 
with pretenders, 185-185; es- 
tablishes the Star Chamber, 
185; Irish policy of, 185, 186; 
foreign policy of, 186; mod- 
ern and medieval traits of, 
186-187 ; measures to promote 
manufactures, trade, and dis- 
covery, 190-192 

Henry Mil, King of England, 
marries Catharine of Aragon, 
1 86; accession and character 
of, 194-195; joins the Holy 
Alliance, 195; invades Flan- 



ders, ib.; allies himself 
with Louis XII; favor to 
Wolsey, 195-196; unsuccessful 
candidate for the Imperial 
crown, 196; his alliance with 
Charles V, 197; meeting with 
Francis I at the Field of Cloth 
of Gold, ib.', withdraws from 
the European war, 198; mo- 
tives of, for separation from 
Rome, 198, 199; a patron of 
the New Learning, 202; his 
divorce proceedings against 
Catharine, 203-204; throws 
over Wolsey, 204-205; takes 
Cranmer and Cromwell as 
advisers, 206; summons the 
Reformation Parliament and 
brings about the separation 
from Rome, 207-210; restricts 
powers of Convocation, 208; 
marries Anne Boleyn, ib.; 
secures divorce from Catharine, 
ib.; persecutions, 209-210; 
assumes title of Supreme Head, 
ib.', his dissolution of the 
monasteries, 210-212; divorces 
and executes Anne Boleyn, 
212; marries Jane Seymour, 
ib.; imposes the Ten Articles 
on the Church, 213; attitude 
of, toward the Pilgrimage of 
Grace, 214; disposal of the 
spoils of monasteries, 215- 
216; forces the Six Articles on 
Parliament, 216-217; marries 
and divorces Anne of Cleves, 
217; throws over Cromwell, 
ib.; Scotch policy, 217-218; 
war with France, 218; Irish 
policy, 218-219; closing years 
and death of, 222-223; nature 
of his absolutism, his revenue, 
and his extravagance, 223- 
224; attitude toward educa- 
tion, 226-227; character of 
his age, 227 

Henry, son of Henry II, 75 

Henry, Prince, son of James I, 
289, 294 

Henry, Cardinal of York, son of 
the Old Pretender, 487 

Henry of Navarre (later Henry 
IV, King of France), 253, 257, 
262 

Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 68 

Hepburn (heb'burn), James, Earl 
of Bothwell, 247 

Heptarchy, 21 

Herbert, Admiral (later Earl of 
Torrington), 427 

Herbert, George, 417 

Heresy laws, 164, 231, 238; see 
De Jiaeretico comburendo 

Heretics, persecution of, 207, 
238-240 



Heritable jurisdictions, abolished 
in Scotland, 488 

Herrick, Robert, 418 

Hertford, Earl of, see Seymour, 
Edward 

Hertzog, General, 779, 894 

Herzegovina, 801-803, 820 

Hide, 42 

High Church party, views and 
aims of, under Charles I, 
302-303; under the direction 
of Laud, 309-310; alliance 
with Charles II, 376; alienated 
by James II, 392-395; reac- 
tion of, against William III, 
424; principles of, 446; op- 
poses the Union, 453; alien- 
ated by the Education Act of 
1870,708; see Sacheverel and 
Oxford Movement 

High Commission, the Court of, 
begins to be active, 249; en- 
larged powers of, 256; under 
Elizabeth and the early Stuarts 
265-266; abolished, 323; see 
Ecclesiastical Commission 

High Court of Delegates, the, 
265 

High Court of Justice, 342; see 
also Supreme Court of Judica- 
ture Act 

Highlands, the Scottish, 5-6, 
429 

Highwaymen, 405, 567 

Hill, Abigail, see Masham 

Hill, Rowland, Post Office re- 
forms of, 665, 666 

Historical writing, 280, 556, 731, 
737-738 

Hindenburg, Marshal von, 847; 
Hindenburg Line, 852, 853 

Hobbes, Thomas, 414 

Hogarth, William, 565 

Hohenlinden, battle of, 598 

Holbein, 217 

Holinshed's Chronicles, 280 

Holland, joins the Armed Neu- 
trality of 1778, 535; England 
declares war against, 1780, 
ib.; decline of, 547; Orange 
Party of, in Triple Alliance, 
583 ; States General of, appeal 
to England for aid, 584; 
France declares war on, 1793, 
585; France prepares to in- 
vade, ib.; Batavian Republic 
set up in, 589; Belgium de- 
clares her independence from, 
890; see also Netherlands, 
Dutch and Austrian and 
Spanish Succession, wars of 
the 

Holland, Lord, see Fox, Henry 

Holies, Denzil, 307-308 

Holstein, Duchy of, 693 

Holy Alliance, the, 612 



INDEX 



923 



Holy Grail, 15, 148 

Holy League, 195 

Holy Places, the, in Palestine, 
683 

Holyrood palace, 247 

Holy Sepulcher, the, 683 

Home Rule, origin of the move- 
ment, 712; adopted by Glad- 
stone, 716; defeat of Glad- 
stone's first bill for, 716-717; 
Ulster opposition to, 716 note; 
the Conservative substitute 
for, 720; defeat of Gladstone's 
second bill in the Lords, 
720-721; the problem, 721- 
723; becomes an issue in the 
election of 1910, 755-766; 
revival of the struggle for 
757-760; becomes law, 760; 
suspended during the World 
war, 880-884; see Sinn Fein 
and Irish Convention; the 
Problem of, 889-890 

Hong-Kong, 674 

Honorius, Roman Emperor, 14 

Hood, Admiral, Lord, 589 

Hooker, Richard, 279 

Home, General, 853 

Hotspur, see Percy, Henry 

Household franchise, 653 

House of Commons, see Com- 
mons 

House of Lords, see Lords 

House, the "Other," under the 
Protectorate, 354 

"Hovering Act," the, 576 

Howard, Lord Charles, of Effing- 
ham (later Earl of Notting- 
ham), 260 

Howard, Catharine, see Catharine 

Howard, Henry, Earl of Surrey, 
poet, 220, 228 

Howard, John, prison reformer, 
566-567, 745 

Howard, Thomas, Earl of Surrey 
and Duke of Norfolk, 195, 214, 
220, 337 

Howard, Thomas, fourth Duke 
of Norfolk, 248, 251 

Howe, General, 531-532, 534 

Howe, Admiral, Lord, 591 

Hubert de Burgh, Justiciar, 
98-99 

Hubert Walter, Archbishop, 81- 
83,91 

Hudson Bay Company, 766 

Hugh, St., Bishop of Lincoln, 82 

Hughes, Thomas, 749 

Hughes, W. M., 906 

Huguenots, 244, 253, 305; intro- 
duction of new industries into 
England by, 401, 548 

Humanism, 199 

Humber River, 4 

Humble Petition and Advice, 
the, 354 



Hume, David, 356-357 

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, 
166, 168, 170, 200 

"Hundred Days," the, 610 

Hundreds, Anglo-Saxon, 44, 45; 
responsibility of the, 55 

Hundred Years' War, the, sig- 
nificance of, 126; causes of, 
126-127; opening campaigns, 
127-128; Crecy, 128; cap- 
ture of Calais, 128; Poitiers, 
132; peace of Bretigny, 132- 
133 ; turning of the tide 
against England, 133; long- 
bow and firearms in, 144; 
reopened by Henry V, 165; 
his three invasions of France, 
165-166 ; siege of Orleans, and 
relief of, by Jeanne d'Arc, 
168-169; end of, 172; effect 
on the nobility, 183 

Hunt, Holman, 743 

Hunt, Leigh, 639 

Hunting, in Anglo-Saxon times, 
50; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 406; see Game Laws 

Huskisson, William, 620-622 

Huss, John, 151 

Hussein, Kamel, 897-900 note; 
see also Hedjaz 

Hutchinson Letters, the, 763 

Huxley, Thomas, 739 

Hyde, Anne, 374, 376 and note 

Hyde, Dr. Douglas, 883 

Hyde, Edward, Earl of Claren- 
don, leader of the Constitu- 
tional royalists and author of 
the History of the Great Re- 
bellion, 320.325, 360; made 
Lord Chancellor, his character 
and policy, 361 ; his Code, 
364-366; foreign policy of, 
366; the fall of, 368-369 

Hyde Park, reform demonstra- 
tion in, 698 



I 

Impeachments, beginning of, 
134; of Latimer and Lyons, 
ib. ; of Suffolk, r7i ; revival of, 
295; of Bacon, 296, 297; of 
Buckingham, 304; of Laud, 
321; of Strafford, 321; of 
Clarendon, 369; of Danby, 
381 ; of Dr. Sacheverell, 456 ; 
of Bolingbroke, 465; of 
Warren Hastings, 578, 579 
Imperial Conferences, 796 
Imperial defense, 754, 891, 905- 

907 
Imperial federation, 796, 890 
Imperial War Cabinet and Con- 
ference, 903 note, 906, 907 
Imperialism, British, 700; Dis- 
raeli popularizes the idea of, 



701, 708, 799; Gladstone op- 
posed to extreme, ib. ; Victoria 
as the embodiment of, 725; 
growth of the idea of, 762- 
763; the problem of, 796-797, 
907 

Imports, Brtish, 809-812 

Impositions, 290, 322-323 

Impressment, see Search, right of 

"In and out" clause, the, 720 

Incandescent lamp, the, 740 

Incident, the, 324 

Income tax, the, established by 
Pitt, 598; Peel's second Min- 
istry revives, 668; increased 
by Lloyd George, 755 

Indemnity and Oblivion, Act of, 
361-362 

Independent Labor Party, the, 
749, 876 

Independents, the, 255, 336, 339, 
35o 

India, opened up by Englishmen, 
272 ; beginnings of the English 
activity in, 492, 493; the 
struggle with the French for 
supremacy in, 493 ; triumph of 
the British over the French in, 
502-503; mutual restoration 
of conquests in (1763), 509; 
state of, at close <pf Seven 
Years' War, 570-571; North's 
Regulating Act, 571; Fox's 
Bill for, 572-573; Pitt's Bill, 
575; Napoleon strikes at, 592, 
597 ; extension of British con- 
trol in, 784-787; the Mutiny 
in, 787-791 ; Government of, 
transferred to the Crown, 1858, 
791-792; recent history of, 
792-793; the problem, 793- 
795 ; British Labor Party de- 
mands freedom for, 878, 882; 
in the World War, 900-901; 
manifestations of discontent 
in, 901 ; grievances of, 901- 
902; demand for Home Rule 
in, 902-903; the Montagu- 
Chelmsford Report on, 903- 
905; the situations in, at the 
close of the War, 905; see 
Anglo- Japanese treaties 

India, All, Moslem League, 902, 
904 

Indian National Congress, 795, 
902-904 

Indians, American, in American 
Revolution, 530 note; in War 
of 1812, 609 

Indo-European "race," 9 note 

Indulgence, the Declaration of 
Charles II, 374; the first 
Declaration of James II, 392; 
the second, 394 

Industrial and social progress 
in the Victorian Era, 744, 745 



924 



INDEX 



Industrial Revolution, the, 3, 
548-553. 568 

Industry, in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, 109; under Edward I, 
II, III, 138-140; i n tho 
fifteenth century, 189-190; 
under Elizabeth, 274-275 ; in 
the seventeenth century, 401- 
403; before the great inven- 
tions, 548-549; following the 
inventions, 549-553 ', at end of 
Napoleonic wars, 616-617; 
laissez-faire theory opposes 
state interference with, 666; 
war control of, 869-874 ; 876- 

879 

Ine (e'ne or i'ne), King of the 
West Saxons, 29, 31 

Inkerman, battle of Mount, 
685 

Innocent III, Pope, 78, 91-92, 
96.97 

Inns, Anglo-Saxon, 50; in the 
Middle Ages, 145-146; in the 
seventeenth century, 405 

Inoculation, discovery of, 536 

Inquisition, the, 249-250 note 

Inquisition jury, the, 77—78 

Instrument of Government, the, 
349-350 

Insularity, importance of British, 
4 

Insurance against sickness and 
unemployment, 747-748 

Intercursus Magnus, 191 

Interdict, 91 

Interest, forbidden, 141-142, 
187; legalized under Eliz- 
abeth, 270 

Interludes, 281 

International Workingmen's As- 
sociation, the, 749 

Invasions into Britain, neolithic, 
9; Celtic, 9-10; Germanic, 
14, 18, 20-21; Danish, 29-31, 
36-38; Norman, 40-41 

Investiture, compromise on, 64 

Iona, monastery of, 24 

Ireland, physical characteristics, 
6-7 ; conquest of, under Henry 
II, 74, 75; description of, by 
Giraldus, 84; laws of Edward 
III relating to, 157; visited 
by Richard II, 157-15,8; sup- 
ports Simnel and Warbeck, 
184-185; Poynings's Law im- 
posed on, 185, 186; policy of 
Henry VIII toward, 218-219; 
movements in, against Eliz- 
abeth, 254; Essex's failure 
against, 262; difficulties with, 
under James I, 291-292; 
Wentworth's rule in, 315-316; 
rebellion of 1641 in, 324; 
Charles I's relations with the 
Roman Catholic party in, 



328, 335, 336; Cromwell's 
conquest of, 345~346; the 
Restoration in, 363; policy 
of James II in, 391-392 ; land- 
ing of James in, 426; flight of 
James from, and William's 
conquest of, 427-428; the 
treaty of Limerick and its 
violation, 428; oppressive re- 
strictions and penal laws 
against the Irish, ib. ; evil con- 
ditions in, under George III, 
537-538; independence of 
Parliament of, 538; French 
expedition to, in 1796, 590; 
conditions in, in 1782-1789, 
592; effect of French Revo- 
lution in, 593-594; rebel- 
lion of 1798 in, 594-595; 
parliamentary union of, with 
England, 595~597 ; agitation 
on behalf of Roman Catholics 
in, 623-624; Catholic emanci- 
pation, 624-626; parliamen- 
tary franchise under Bill of 
1832, 650, 653-654; the Tithe 
War and the Irish Church 
Bill, 654-656; potato famine 
in, 671-673, 676-677; effects 
of Revolution of 1848 upon, 
677-678; representation of, 
untouched, under Act of 1867, 
699; Fenian movement in, 
703; Gladstone's measures in 
behalf of, 1860-1870, 703- 
705; in 1881, 713; Home 
Rule agitation in, 712-714; 
first Home Rule Bill, 716-717; 
"Parnellism and Crime," 717- 
718; split in Home Rule 
party, 719; the second Home 
Rule Bill, 720-721 ; the Home 
Rule problem, 721-722; the 
revival of the Home Rule 
struggle and the Bill of 1914, 
757-760; British Labor Party 
demand Home Rule for, 878, 
882 ; the Rebellion of 1916 in, 
882 ff.; the problem in, 889- 
890 

Ireton, General, 338-339, 341 

Irish Agricultural Organization 
Society, the, 721 

Irish Convention, 888-889 

Irish Church, disestablishment 
of the, 703-704 

Irish Church Temporalities Bill, 
the, 655-656, 748 

Irish Land Acts, of 1870, th<\ 
704-705; of 1881, 713 

Irish Local Government Act, 721 

Trish Nationalists, see Nationalist 
Party 

Irish Nationalist Volunteers, 
883-885 

Irish Protestant Volunteers, 53S 



Irish Volunteers, 884, 886 

Irish Republican Brotherhood, 

883 note ; party, 889 
Irish Union, O'Connell agitates 

repeal of, 626 
Iron, development of English 

manufacture of, 401, 551; see 

also 810 
"Ironsides," Cromwell's, 330, 

33i, 333 
Isabel of Angoulerne, second wife 

of John, 90 
Isabel of Gloucester, first wife 

of John, 90 
Isabella of France, Queen of 

Edward II, 122-123, 125 
Isabella, Queen of Richard II, 

157 
Isabella of Castile, 186, 197 note 
Isle de Bourbon, see Bourbon 
Isle de France, see France 
Ismail, Khedive of Egypt, 780- 

781 
Italian Opera in England, 565 
Italian cities, commerce of, 546 
Italy, revolutions in, 627, 631; 

Cavour and unification of, 

68S-689; in the war of 1866,. 

700; in the Triple Alliance, 

804 ; in war with Turkey, 821; 

ambition of, 823 ; in the 

World War, 840, 845, 846, 849, 

853 
Itinerant justices, 66, 78, 82, 118 



Jackson, General Andrew, 609 

Jacobites,, the, under William III, 
427, 431, 434, 439; under 
George I, 446-466, 473 ; under 
George II, 476, 485 

Jamaica, 351-352, 663 

James I, King of England, signifi- 
cance of his accession, 285 ; 
early environment and char- 
acter of, 285-287 ; his treat- 
ment of the Puritans, 287-288; 
of the Catholics, 288-289; 
conflicts with Parliament, 289- 
292, 295-299; financial em- 
barrassments of, 290-292; re- 
lations with Scotland, 291 ; 
with Ireland, 291-292 ; con- 
flicts with his subjects during 
the interparliamentary period, 
292-295 ; his policy in the 
Thirty Years' War opposed 
to that of his subjects, 295; 
quarrels with the Commons 
over privilege, 297-298; adopts 
the anti-Spanish policy of the 
Commons, 298 ; arranges mar- 
riage treaty of Charles and Hen- 
rietta Maria, 299; death and 
estimate of, 298-299; Scotch 



INDEX 



925 



policy of, 314; regulation of 
trade and manufactures by, 401 

James, Duke of York, in the sec- 
ond Dutch war, 367 ; marries 
Mary of Modena, 374-375; in 
the third Dutch war, 375; be- 
comes a Roman Catholic, 376; 
his connection with the Popish 
Plot, 378-379; attempts to 
exclude from the succession, 
381-382 ; see James II 

James II, King of England, his 
character and aims, 385 ; first 
measures of, 386; vengeance 
of, after Monmouth's rising, 
387-388; the turning point in 
his reign, 388; his relations with 
Louis XIV, ib.; his encroach- 
ments on the Test Act, and 
Ecclesiastical Commission, 
388-390; his dealings with the 
Scots, 391; his Irish policy, 
391-392; his first Declara- 
tion of Indulgence, 392; his 
attack on the Universities, 
393; his attempt to pack a 
Parliament, ib.; his second 
Declaration of Indulgence, 
394; birth of a son to, ib.; 
fails in suit against the Seven 
Bishops, 395 ; issues belated 
concessions, 396; his flight, 
396-397; Parliament declares 
his abdication, 398; lands in 
Ireland, 426; flees again to 
France, 427; his Declaration, 
431; expedition of , defeated at 
La Hogue, ib. ; death of, 443 

James IV, King of Scotland, 186, 
195, 217 

James V, King of Scotland, 217- 
218 

James VI, King of Scotland (later 
James I, King of England), 
2 54. 259 note; see James I, 
King of England 

James Francis Edward, 394, 397, 
460; the rising of 17 15 in be- 
half of, 465-466 

Jameson Raid, the, 775 

Jane (Seymour), Queen of Henry 
VIII, 212, 217 

Japan in the World War, 856; 
see Anglo-Japanese Treaties, 
Russo-Japanese War 

Jay, John, 540 

Jeanne d'Arc, 168-170 

Jefferson, President Thomas, 608 

Jeffrey, Francis, 640 

Jeffreys, George, successively 
Chief Justice and Lord Chan- 
cellor, 387-388 

Jellicoe, Admiral, 858 

Jena, battle of, 602 

Jenkins' Ear, the War of, 479- 
480 



Jenner, Edward, 635-636 

Jennings, Sarah, Duchess of 
Marlborough, 396, 445, 456; 
see also Mrs. Freeman 

Jervis, Admiral Sir John (Lord 
St. Vincent), 590 

Jesuits, the founding of the 
Society of, 249; in England, 
254-255; see Popish Plot 

Jews, 139, 146, 492 ; expulsion of, 
by Edward I, 120; return of, 
35o-35i ; removal of exclusion 
from Parliament, 688 

Joffre, Marshal, 837, 838, 841 

Johannesburg, 775, 778 

John, King of England, opposes 
Henry II, 75; plots against 
Richard I, 81 ; scholarship of, 
83 ; treatment of the weavers' 
gild, 86 note; constitutional 
importance of his reign, 89; 
his character, 89-90; the three 
crises of his reign, 90-94; con- 
cession of Magna Carta, 94; 
final struggles and death, 96- 
97 

John, Duke of Bedford, 166, 168, 
170 

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan- 
caster, 134 and note, 135, 150 

John of Salisbury, 83 

John Bull, The History of, 442 
note 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 477, 560- 
561 

Jones, Inigo, 420 

Jonson, Ben, 283 

Joyce, Cornet, 538 

Jubilee, Victoria's, in 1887, 719, 
763. 769 

Judges, the conflicts of, with 
James I, 292-293; consulta- 
tion of, by James I, 293; by 
Charles I, 313; three dismissed 
by Charles I, 312 note; 
tenure of, 440 

Judgment by peers, 95, 96 

Judicial combat, 55 

Judicial Committee of the Privy 
Council, the, 265 

"Junius, the Letters of," 522, 523 

Junot, French commander, in 
Portugal, 604 

Junto, the Whig, 439-440 

Juries, introduced into England, 
by William I, 77 ; brought into 
general use by Henry II, 77- 
78; fining of, abolished, 359 

Justices of the Peace, 142, 269, 

275 _ 
Justiciar, the, 65 
Justification by faith, 202, 213, 

250 
Justinian Code, 76 
Jutes, the, 18, 20, 21 
Jutland, battle of, 858, 859 



Kaffirs, the, 773 

Kaiser, see William 

Kars, Russia secures, 686 

Katherine of France, succes- 
sively wife of Henry V and of 
Owen Tudor, 165, 166 

Kay, John, 550 

Keats, John, 638 

Keble, John, 728, 729 

"Keepsakes," 730 

Kelvin, Lord, see Thomson, 
William 

Kemble, John, 738 

Kendal, Duchess of, see Schulen- 
burg, Countess von 

Kenilworth, 103, 275, 276 

Kent, Duchess of, mother of 
Victoria, 662 and note; Duke 
of, ib. 

Kent, the Nun of, 209 

Kerensky, 848-849 

Kett, Robert, rebellion of, 232 

Keyes, Admiral, 862 

Khartum, 783-784 

Kiao Chau, 805, 807 

Kidd, Captain, 553 

Kielmannsegge, Countess von, 
463 

Kilkenny, Statute of, 157 

Killiekrankie, battle of, 429 and 
note 

Kimberley, 774 

King, the Anglo-Saxon, his func- 
tions, 47; see also Monarchy; 
office of, abolished by the 
Rump, 344 

" King of France," title, dropped 
by English monarch, 344 

King James' version, the, 288 

Kingmaker, see Neville, Richard 

King's Bench, Court of, 78; see 
Common Law Courts 

"King's evil," 473 

King's Friends, the, 507, 522 

King's Peace, 47 

King's Primer, the. 216 

Kingsley, Charles. 735-736, 749 

Kipling, Rudyard, 737 note 

Kirke, Colonel Percy, 387, 426, 
427, 625 

" Kirke 's Lambs," 387 

Kirk o' Field, 247 

Kirk sessions, 241 

Kitchener, General Herbert, 
Lord Kitchener, in the Boer 
War, 777-778; his conquest 
of the Sudan, 784; in the 
World War, 841, 866. 871 note; 
Kitchener's million, 844 

Knights' fees, 58 and note 

Knights Hospitallers, 67 

Knights Templars, 67 

Knox, John, 242, 247 

Korea, 792 note, 807 



926 



INDEX 



Koweit, 819 

Kruger, President, 776, 778 
Kultur, German, 815-817 
Kut-el- Amaru, SQ9 



Labor disturbances, 1911-1912, 

757 

Labor legislation, recent, 746, 
747; in New Zealand, 771-772 

Labor parties, 748; since the be- 
ginning of the World War, 876- 
879, 881-882 

Labor problems, in the World 
War, 869-872, 876-879; see 
Ministries 

Laborers, condition of, in the 
fifteenth century, 188; condi- 
tion of, under Henry VIII, 224 ; 
under Elizabeth, 276; in the 
seventeenth century, 407-409; 
in the eighteenth century, 553 ; 
in the Victorian period, 744- 
745; statutes of, 131, 142, 153, 
225 

"Labor's Call to the People," 881 

Lackland, see John, King of Eng- 
land 

Ladies' Gallery, the, 746 

Ladies-in-waiting, the royal, and 
party politics, 663-664 

Ladysmith, 777 

La Fayette, Marquis de, 533 

La Hogue, battle of 431 

Laissez-faire, policy of, 553, 661- 
662, 697-698, 749; in colonial 
administration, 762 

Lajpat Rai, 901 note 

Lake of the Woods, the, 675 

"Lake School," the, 637 

Lamb, Charles, 639 

Lamb, Mary, 639 

Lamb, William, Lord Melbourne, 
first Ministry of, 658; second 
Ministry of, 659; Victoria's 
instructor, 662; characteriza- 
tion of Ministry of, in 1837- 
1838, 663 ; conduct of, in Bed- 
chamber Question, 663-664; 
difficulties of, with Victoria, 
over Prince Consort, 664; 
resignation of, 668 

Lancaster, Duchy of, 662 note 

Lancaster, House of, parlia- 
mentary basis of, 159; con- 
stitutional importance of its 
regime, 161; causes for fall of, 
181 

Lancaster, James, 272 

Lancaster, Joseph, 706 

Land Purchase Acts, the Irish, 
7o.s, 713, 715, 716 and note; 
see also Irish Land Acts 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury. 55. 62, 89, 90 



Langland. William, 149, 150, *53 

Langton, Stephen, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 91-92, 94. 97 

Lansdowne, the Marquess of, 
756, 806; see also, Petty, 
William, Earl of Shelburne 

Larkin, James, 884 

Latimer, William, Lord, im- 
peachment of, 134, 135 

Latimer.Hugh, Bishop of Worces- 
ter, 227, 239 

Latitudinarians, the 413 

Laud, William, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 309-311, 321 

Lauderdale, Duke of, see Mait- 
land, John 

Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 767, 892 

Law Courts, reorganization of, in 
1873, 708 

Law, John, 688 

Lawlessness in Medieval Eng- 
land, 142, 185; in eighteenth- 
century England, 567 

Lawrence, Sir Henry, defense of 
Lucknow by, 789 

Lawrence, John (later Lord 
Lawrence), aids in suppressing 
the Indian Mutiny, 788, 789 

Layamon, 84 

Lay patronage, 730 

League of Nations, 854, 878, 881 

Leagues, see Anti-Corn Law, 
Catholic, Empire, Holy 

Leaving certificates, 872 note 

Leeds, 2, 699 

Leeds, Duke of, see Osborne, Sir 
Thomas 

Legislation, beginning of, under 
Edward I, 118 

Leicester (les'ter), Earl of, see 
Dudley, Robert 

Leighton (lay'ton), Alexander, 
311, 321 

Leinster (len'stcr), 71 

Leipzig, battle of, 607 

Lely (le'ly), Peter, 420 

Lenine, 849 . 

Lenthall, Speaker, 325, 326 

Leopold, Prince of Saxe-Coburg, 
later King of Belgium, 631, 664 

Lesage, 740 

Leslie, Alexander, Earl of Leven, 
315, 333 

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 780-781 

Letter from Sydney, the, 763, 769 

"Letters of Junius," the, 522, 523 

Lettow-Vorbeck, Colonel, 896 

Leuthen, the battle of, 499 

Levelers, the, 344 

Lever (le'ver), Charles, 735 

Leviathan, the, 4T4 

Lewes, battle of, 102 

Lexington, battle of, 529 

Libel, the law of, 438, 665 

Liberal party, origin of name, 
654; the, Gladstone causes 



breach in, 702, 717; the, social 
legislation of, 747 ; alliance of, 
with the Laborites and Na- 
tionalists, 749 

Liberal Unionist party, birth of, 
716, 717 

Liber de Unitate Ecclesim, 212 

Lichnowsky, Prince, 826, 827 

Liege, 836, 837 

Light Brigade, Charge of the, 
685 note 

Ligny, battle of, 611 

Lilburne, John, 311, 321, 344~345 

Limerick, the siege and treaty of, 
428 

Lincolnshire, rising in, 214 

Lindisfarne, 25, 30 

Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second 
son of Edward III, 159 note, 
171 

Lister, Joseph, Baron Lister, 739 

Literature, Anglo-Saxon, 48, 49; 
Anglo-Norman, 60, 61 ; at the 
court of Henry II, 83-84; in 
the thirteenth century, 107; 
in the fourteenth century, 148- 
150; in the fifteenth century, 
192; in the time of Henry VII, 
227-228; in the Elizabethan 
age, 277-283; in the seven- 
teenth century, 417-420; in 
the eighteenth century, 559, 
565; in the early nineteenth 
century, 636-640; the Vic- 
torian, 730-737 

Little Parliament, the, see Nomi- 
nated 

Liverpool, 4, 634, 692, 699 

Liverpool, Lord, Prime Minister, 
605, 606, 608, 609, 615, 620, 
622 

Livery and Maintenance, 142 and 
note, 153 

Livery Companies, 1S5 

Lloyd George, see George 

Llywelyn ap Gruff ydd, 112 

Llywelyn ap Jowerth, 112 

Loans, forced, 223, 267, 304-306 

Lob-lie-by-the-fire, 408 

Local government under the 
Tudors, 269 

Local Government Act, the, 719, 
721 and note 

Lochleven Castle, 247 

Locke, John, his political philos- 
ophy, 414; his LeUers on 
Toleration, 424; assists in 
restoration of coinage, 434; 
influence of, on revolutionary 
preachers, 513; indebtedness 
of Hume to, 557 

Lodge, Thomas, 279 

Logarithms, invention of, 416 

Lollards, 151, 164, 184, 249 

London, 4; taken by the North- 
men, 30; recovered by Alfred, 



INDEX 



927 



3 1 ; captured by William I, 53 ; 
granted a charter, ib. ; under 
Henry I, 66; charters to, from 
Conquest to Magna Carta, 85 ; 
gilds of, 86; population of, in 
the fifteenth century, 189 ; 
health regulations in, 225 ; in 
the first months of the Long 
Parliament, 321; the Plague 
and Fire in, 368; treaty of 
(1674), 375; condition of, in 
the seventeenth century, 409- 
411; in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 567-568; conference of, 
Belgian and Greek questions 
adjusted by, 630-631; con- 
ference at, Schleswig-Holstein 
Question before, 694; mem- 
bers from, 715; made a sepa- 
rate county, 719-720; treaty 
of (1913), 821-822 

Londonderry, the siege of, 426- 
427 

London Gazette, the, 438 

Longbeard, see William Fitz- 
Osbert 

Longbow, effectiveness of the, 
126, 128, 132, 144 

Longchamp, see William 

Long Parliament, the temper and 
aims, 319; the leaders in, 319- 
320; impeachments by, 321- 
322; remedial legislation of, 
322-323; struggle over religion 
and the Grand Remonstrance, 
323-325; alliance with the 
Scots, 332; intolerance of, 3.^7 ; 
conflict with the army, 338- 
340; Pride's Purge of, 341; 
see Rump; final dissolution 
of the, 356 

Loose, 844 

Lord Lieutenant, 269, 393 

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 625, 
656 

Lord Protector, the, see Cromwell, 
Oliver and Richard, and Sey- 
mour, Edward 

Lords Appellant, the, 156 

Lords, House of, the origin of, 
as a separate House, 115; 
spiritual power weakened by 
dissolution of the monasteries, 
215; composition of, under 
Henry VIII, 223 and note; the 
control of, by Elizabeth, 266; 
as a court of appeal, 268; 
temporarily abolished by the 
Rump, 344; yield right to 
amend money bills, 370; 
Country Party organized in, 
376; creation of twelve new 
peers in, 458; a Tory strong- 
hold under Pitt, 575; threat 
to create peers in, to carry 
Reform Bill, 652-653; Radi- 



cals call for reform of, 660; 
conflicts with the Commons, 
690, 704, 714-715, 721, 755- 
756; Irish bishops excluded 
from, 704; as a Court of 
Appeal under reform of 1873, 
708; decides in favor of lay 
patrons, 730; decisions of, 
in the Taff Vale and Osborne 
cases, 748-749; reduction of 
the powers of, 755-756; see 
also Witan, Great Council, 
Parliament, Barons, Nobility, 
and Peers 

Lords of the Congregation, see 
Congregation 

Lords Ordainers, 121 

Lothian, cession of, 37 

Lotteries, 651 

Loubet, President, 806 

Loughborough (luf'boro), Lord, 
see Wedderburn 

Louis (afterwards Louis VIII, 
King of France), invasion of 
England, 97; defeat and ex- 
pulsion, 98 

Louis XIV, King of France, 
alliance of Charles II with, 
366, 372; intervenes in the 
first Dutch War, 367; com- 
bines with Charles II in the 
treaty of Dover, 374; sub- 
sidizes the Opposition, 377- 
380; relation of James II with 
388 ; receives James II and his 
Queen, 397; aids James II, 

' 424, 426; alliance of William 
III against, 430; agrees to the 
peace of Ryswick, 435 ; see 
Spanish Succession; promises 
to recognize the son of James 
II, 443 ; makes peace of 
Utrecht with England, 458- 
459; death of, 465 

Louisburg (Cape Breton Island), 
484, 489, 499 

Louisiana, 510, 600 

L'Ouverture, Toussaint, 600 

Louvois, Minister of Louis XIV, 
430 

Lowestoft, battle of, 367 

Lowlands, the Scottish, 6 

Loyalists, American, 529, 541 

Loyola, Ignatius, 249 

Lucknow, siege of, 789-790 

Ludendorff, General von, 847 
note 

Luneville, peace of, 598 

Lusitania, the, 860 

Luther, Martin, 200, 201, 202 

Luttrell, Colonel, 322 

Luxembourg, Marshal, 430-432 

Lycidas, Milton's, 418 

Lyell, Sir Charles, 635 

Lyly (li'ly), John, 278 

Lyons, Richard, 134 



Lytton, Edward Bulwer, Lord 
Lytton, 734 

M 

MacArthur, John, 769 

Macaulay, Thomas Babington 
(Baron Macaulay), 730, 731 

Macedonia, 802-803, 822 

Mackensen, Marshal von, 843 

Mackay, General Hugh, 429 and 
note 

Mackintosh, Sir James, 582 

MacNeill, John, 886-887 

Mad Parliament of Oxford, 101 

Madras, see India 

Mafeking, 778 

Magdalen College, the Fellows 
of, 493 

Magna Carta, 90; the struggle 
for, 92-94; significance of, 
94 ; terms of, 95-96 ; means of 
enforcement and future im- 
portance of, 95-96; declared 
null and void by the Pope, 
96-97; confirmations of, 103, 
116-117 

Magnum Concilium, see Great 
Council 

Mahdi, the, 782-783 

Maine, U. S. A., Ashburton 
adjusts boundary of, 674-675 

Maintenance, see Livery 

Maitland, John, Earl and later 
Duke of Lauderdale, 372, 374 

Major-Generals, the rule of the, 
353 

Majuba Hill, the battle of, 773 

Malakoff Tower, the, 686 

Maldon, battle of, 36 

Malmesbury, the borough of, 
648 

Malory, Sir Thomas, 192 

Malta, captured by Napoleon, 
597 ; recovered by England, 
846 ; and the treaty of Amiens, 
599-600; secured to Great 
Britain by Congress of Vienna, 
612 

Malthus, Thomas, 636 

Mamelukes, the, Egyptian, 593 
and note 

Manchester, 2; cotton industry 
centered at, 549; massacre in, 
618; railroad to Liverpool 
from, opened, 634-635; free 
trade agitation centers at, 
668; representation of, under 
the Bill of 1867, 699; Fenian 
disturbance at, 703 

Manchester, Earl of, see Mon- 
tagu, Edward 

"Manchester martyrs," the, 703 

Manchuria, 807 

Manila, 509-510 

Manitoba, Province of, 766 note 



928 



INDEX 



Manor houses, in the fourteenth 
century, 147 

Manors, Anglo-Saxon, 43; in 
Anglo-Norman times, 59-60 

Mansfield expedition, the, 299 

Manufactures, measures to pro- 
tect, 190-191; regulations of, 
by James I and Charles I, 
401 ; development of, in Eng- 
land before the great inven- 
tions, 548-549; status in 
1832 of, 63.3 

Maoris, the, 771 

Map, Walter, 82, 84 

Mar, Earl of, see Erskine, John 

Marathas, 571, 785 

Marchand, Major, 784 note 

Marcher lords, the, 102, 103, 112 

Marconi, 740 note 

Marengo, Austria defeated at, 
598 

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of 
Henry VI, 170, 172-177 

Margaret of Burgundy, 176, 185 

Margaret, Queen of James IV of 
Scotland, 186 

Marian Exile, significance of, 
240-241 

Marian martyrs, the, 239-240 

Maritz, Colonel, 895 

Markets, 86, 87 

Markiewicz, Countess, 887 

Marlborough, Duchess of, see 
Jennings, Sarah 

Marlborough, Duke of, sec 
Churchill, John 

Marlowe, Christopher, 281-282 

Marne, battle of the, 837 ; second 
battle, 851 

Marprelate libels, the, 256-257 

Marriage, feudal incident of, 58; 
sacrament of, 213, note 

Marriage Act, Lord Hardwicke's, 
491-492 

Marryat, Captain, 735 

Marshall, see William Marshall 

Marshall, General, 898, 899 

Marston Moor, battle of, 333- 
334 

Martin, Richard, "Humanity 
Martin," 642 

Mary I, Princess and Queen of 
England, 203, 204; accession, 
character, and policy of, 236- 
237; restores the ecclesiastical 
system of Henry VIII, 237; 
marries Philip of Spain, ib.; 
suppresses Wyatt's rebellion, 
ib. ; secures reunion of Church 
of England with Rome, 238; 
the Marian persecutions, 238- 
240; last years and death of, 
240 

Mary II, Princess, later Queen of 
England, marries William of 
Orange, 376-377 ', chosen joint 



sovereign with William, 398- 
399; influence of, in purifying 
the drama, 420; her death, 
432, 433 

Mary (of Modena), Queen of 
James II, 374-375. 394, 397 

Mary, Queen of Scots, birth of, 
218; crowned Queen, ib.; 
taken to France, 352; mar- 
ried to the Dauphin (later 
Francis II of France), 233; 
returns to Scotland, 246; 
marries Darnley, 247; mur- 
der of Darnley, ib. ; her mar- 
riage to Bothwell, defeat, and 
flight to England, 247-248 ; her 
trial and captivity, 248 ; rising 
of the Northern Earls to put 
her on the throne of England, 
ib.; aim of Philip II to make 
her Queen, 250; Babington's 
plot in behalf of, 251; her 
execution, ib. 

Masham, Mrs., 455 

Ma^honaland, 774 note 

Mason, James M., Confederate 
Commissioner to England, 691 

Massachusetts, in the American 
Revolution, 518, 528 

Massacre, the "Peterloo," 618 

Matabeleland, 774 note 

Mathew, Father, 745 

Matilda, daughter of Henry I, 
64-65 ; her war for the throne, 
67-69; mention of, 203 

Matthew Paris, 107, 114 

Maude, General, 899 

Mauritius, secured to Great Brit- 
ain by Congress of Vienna, 
613 

Maynooth College, 702 and note 

McAdam, John, 634 

McCaithy, Justin, 719 

Medicine, in fourteenth century, 
146; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 416; in the eighteenth 
century, 556; in the nine- 
teenth century, 636, 739 

Medway, the Dutch enter the, 
368 

Meerut, rising at, 788 

Melbourne (mel'bun), Lord, see 
Lamb, William 

Melrose Abbey, 67 

Menshikov, Prince, 683 

Mercantilism, 190, 415-416, 558, 
559 

Merchant Adventurers, the, 273 

Merchant gilds, 86 

Merchant Seamen's League, 881 

Merchants, concessions to, in 
Magna Carta, 95; foreign, in 
England, 139; in the fifteenth 
century, 190-191 ; under 
Henry VIII, 224 

Mercia, supremacy of, 27 



Mercians, the, 21 

Merciless Parliament, the, 156 

Meredith, George, 736 

Merlin, 61 

Messines salient, 848 

Mesopotamian campaign, 898- 
900 

Methodism, rise of, 557-558 

Metternich, Prince, 612, 626-627 

Mexico, 628, 692, 768 

Middlesex election, the, 522 

Milan decree, 603 

Mile End, 155 

Militant suffragists, 746, 880 

Military and Naval Officers' Oath 
Bill, the, 623-624 

Military Service Bill, 869, 883; 
Canadian, 892 

Military tenures, 58, 362 

Mill, John Stuart, 737, 746 

Millais (mil la'), John Everett, 
743 

Millenary Petition, the, 287 

Millet, Constable's influence on, 
641 

Milton, John, 418-419, 513 

Minden, the battle of, 502 

Mines and collieries, acts relat- 
ing to, 672; in 1872-1906, 746 
and note 

Minimum Wage Bill, the, 757 

Ministerial responsibility, 543- 
545 

Ministry of All the Talents, 601 

Ministries, creation of new, dur- 
ing World War, 868 

Minorca, captured by the British, 
454; ceded to Great Britain, 
459; captured by the French, 
495; restored, 509; ceded to 
Spain, 541 

Miquelon, Island of, 541 

Miracle plays, 148 

Mistress of the Robes, the, 663- 
664 

Mobilization, Russian, 825 

Mogul, the Great, 492-493, 788- 
790 

Mohammed Ali, 903 

Molasses Acts, 515, 517 

Moldavia, see Rumania 

Monarchy, rise and decline of 
Anglo-Saxon, 47-48; strength- 
ened by Anglo-Normans, 171; 
strength of, under the Tudors, 
183, 264; at the accession of 
James I, 285 ; declining respect 
for, under the first two 
Georges, 473 

Monasteries, hospitality of, 66, 
145; dissolution of the, 210- 
212, 214-216; as centers of 
poor relief, 225; of education, 
227 ; see Monks 

Monastic revival in twelfth cen- 
tury, 66-67 ; decline of, under 



INDEX 



929 



Henry II, 82; see Monks, 
Monasteries, and Cluniac re- 
form 

Monck, George, later Duke of 
Albemarle, 356, 357. 367 

Money bills, the Lords yield right 
to amend, 370; to veto, 756 

Money lending, see Interest and 
Usury 

Monks, work and influence of, 
25; the, as landlords, 188, 224; 
proceedings against, under 
Henry VIII, 210-212, 214-216; 
see Monasteries and Monastic 
revival 

Monmouth, Duke of, see Scott, 
James 

Monopolies, attitude of Eliza- 
beth on, 262-263; under the 
Tudors and Stuarts, 267; 
attack on, 295-296 and note; 
grants of, by Charles I, 309; 
justification for, 401 

Monroe Doctrine, the, 628 and 
note, 723, 1028 

Mons, 837 

Montagu (mon'ta-gu), Charles, 
later Earl of Halifax, 436, 
440 and note 

Montagu, Edward, Earl of 
Manchester, 32r, 334 

Montagu, Mrs., 567-568 

Montagu-Chelmsford Report, 
903-905 

Montcalm, Marquis of, 500-501 

Montenegro, 821 

Montfort, de, see Simon 

Montgomery, Robert, 788 

Monthly assessments, 328 

Montreal, British capture of, 503 

Montrose, the Earl of, 335 

Moore, Sir John, 604 

Moore, Thomas, 639 note 

Morality plays, 148 

Moray, Earl of, see Stewart, 
Lord James 

More, Sir Thomas, Speaker of 
the Commons, 197-198; char- 
acter and work of, 201-202 ; 
Lord Chancellor, 204, 206; re- 
signs, 208; arrest and execu- 
tion of, 209-210; as a writer, 
228 

Morea, the, Ibrahim Pasha in, 
629 

Morkere, Earl, 39-40 

Morley, Mrs., see Anne, Queen of 
England 

Mornington, Lord, see Wellesley, 
Richard, Marquis of Wellesley 

Morley-Minto Reforms, 902 

Morocco, 806-808, 820-821 

Morris, William, 743 

Morse, Samuel, 740 

Morte d' Arthur, Malory's, 192 

Mortimer, Edmund, Earl of 



March, heir presumptive of 
Richard II, 159 note, 162, 165 

Mortimer, Roger, 123, 125 

Mortmain, Statute of, 119 

"Morton's Fork," 185 

Moscow, 607 

Mummings, 148, 280 

Municipal corporations, attacks 
on, by Charles II, and James 

II, 383, 393 ; forfeited charters 
restored, 396 

Municipal Reform Act, the, 659 
Munitions, production of, in 

World War, 833-834, 839-840, 

867 note, 869-872 and notes; 

War Act, 871, 876 
Municipal Reform Act, the, 659 
Mirnster, the Bishop of, 367-368 
Murray, Lord George, 485-487 ; 

General, 898 
Music, 420-421, 565, 744 
Mutiny Act, the, 424, 573 
"My son's Ministry," 570 
Mysore, 597 

N 

"Nabobs" in Parliament, 649 
Namur, 431, 610-611, 836-837 
Nana Sahib, 787, 789-790 
Nankin, treaty of, 674 
Nantes, the Edict of, 262; re- 
voked, 388 
Napier, John, 416 
Napoleon, see Bonaparte 
Napoleon, Louis, later Napoleon 

III, Palmerston approves the 
coup d'ital of 1851 of, 681; 
ambition of, a cause of Crimean 
War, 682, 683; anxiety of, 
to end Crimean War, 686; 
Orsini's attempt to assassinate, 
687-688; Orsini's plot stimu- 
lates to intervention in Italy, 
688-689; unfriendly attitude 
of, to United States during 
Civil War, 692; attitude and 
policy of, in Schleswig-Holstein 
question, 694; in the Franco- 
Prussian War, 709 

Naseby, battle of, 335 

Nash, Richard (Beau Nash), 412 

Nash, Thomas, 279-280 

Natal, 772, 777-779 and note 

Nation, the Irish, 677 

National Debt, beginning of the, 
436; at end of Napoleonic 
wars, 616; at end of the World 
War, 832 note, 875; see South 
Sea Company 

National Guilds, 877 

National Land League, the Irish, 
713 

National Registration Bill, 869 

National Society, the, 706 

National Volunteers, 886 



Nationalist party, split in the 
ranks of, 719; reunion of, 721 ; 
combination with Liberals, 
749; the agreement with, 
in 1910, 755-756; collapse of, 
882; during the World War, 
882 ff. ; see Home Rule, Parnell, 
Redmond, and Sinn Fein 

Nationalization of industry, 877— 
879, 882 

Nations, see League of 

Navarino, 629 

Navigation Acts, beginning of, 
140, 190, 191; Elizabethan, 
273-274; of 1660, 362, 363; 
their effect on trade, 402; 
scope of, and effect of, on the 
American Revolution, 513-514, 
516-517; repeal of, 621; 
suspension of, 677 

Navy, beginning of English, 
139-140; under Henry VII 
and Henry VIII, 226; under 
Elizabeth, 257-261; under 
the Commonwealth, 347; un- 
der Charles II, 367 ; in Dutch 
wars, 347-348, 367-368, 375J 
in Seven Years' War, 495-502 ; 
in American Revolution, 534- 
536, 538; in the Napoleonic 
wars, 587-588, 590-592, 597- 
599, 6or, 603; in the War of 
1812,608-610; under Victoria, 
741 note; in the World War, 
835, 839, 854-863 

Near East, see Austria, Balkans, 
Bulgaria, Germany, Great Brit- 
ain, Greece, Russia, Serbia, 
Turkey 

Neerwinden, battle of, 432 

Nelson, Admiral, 590-591, 597, 
599, 6or 

Neolithic man, in Britain, 9 

Netherlands, commercial treaty 
with (the Great Intercourse), 
191; revolt of, against Philip 

II, 250-251, 253-254; Eliza- 
beth's intervention in the, 257 ; 
French aggressions in, 583- 
585; the kingdom of, 630; 
see also Flanders, Burgundy, 
Dutch War of Spanish Suc- 
cessions, Louis XIV, William 

III, Holland, Belgium, and 
Batavian Republic 

Neutral goods in "Declaration 
of Paris," 681 

Neutrals, regulations regarding, 
under Continental system, 
602-603; i n the World War, 
833, 839, 855, 859-861 

Neuve Chapelle, 843, 844 

Neville (nev'il), Richard, Earl of 
Warwick, the kingmaker, 173- 
177 

Newberrie, John, 272 



30 



93Q 



INDEX 



New Brunswick, Province of, 

765 
Newbury, first battle of, 332; 

second battle of, 334 
Newcastle, Dukes of, see Pelham- 

Holles and Clinton 
Newcastle, the Earl of, 330-331 
Newfoundland, 273, 766 note, 
fisheries of, 458, 5°9, 54* , 767 
New Learning, the, 199-202 
Newman, John Henry, 728-729, 

732 
"New Model" army, the, 334- 
335; breach ^vith Parliament, 
336-337 ; conflicts with Parlia- 
ment, and rise of democratic 
opinion in, 338-341. 356-357! 
disbanded, 362 
New Netherland, 366-368 
New Orleans, battle of, 609 
Newsletters, 412 and note 
New South Wales, 769-770 
Newspapers, 412, 437 - 438, see 

Press 
New Testament, 201, 216; see 

Bible 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 416, 434 
Newton Butler, battle of, 427 
New York, 375, 532, 856, 891 
New Zealand, 771-772, 893-894 
Ney, Marshal, 611 
Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, 683, 

686 
Nicoll. Colonel Richard, 366 
Niger Company, 774 
Nightingale, Florence, 685 
Nile, battle of the, 597 
Nineteen Propositions, the, 326 
Nixon, General Sir John, 898 
Nobility, weakness of, under the 
Tudors, 183; condition of, in 
the fifteenth century, 189; 
in the seventeenth century, 
406 
Nominalists, the, 106-107 
Nominated Parliament, the, 349 
Nomination boroughs, 648 
Nonconformists, their rise, 255; 
effect of the Act of Uniformity 
upon, 364-365; in the Revo- 
lution of 1688, 424; decline of, 
in eighteenth century, 556; 
see Dissenters and Education 
Bills 
Non-intercourse Act, the Ameri- 
can, 608 
Non-residence of clergymen, 287, 

660, 728 
Non-resistance, Tory, High 

Church theory of, 382, 398 
Nootka Sound, 583 note 
Nore, mutiny at, 591 
Norfolk, Dukes of, see Howard 

and Mowbray 
Norman barons, risings of, 56, 
57,62 



Norman Conquest, results of, 57 

Normandy, Duchy of, 30, 38, 69, 
90 

North, Lord, enters the Grafton 
Ministry, 523; becomes Prime 
Minister, 525; efforts at con- 
ciliation with American Colo- 
nies, 529, 533; resignation of, 
537; Irish reforms of, 538; 
unites with Fox to attack 
Shelburne, 570; Regulating 
Act of, 571 

North, Thomas, 278 

North America, voyage of Cabots 
to, 191; the English Colonies 
in, see Colonies; struggle of 
the French and English in, 
493-494 

North Britain Review, No. 45, 
Sio-511 

Northcliffe, Lord, 867 

Northern earls, rising of the, 248 

Northern Rising, the, see Pil- 
grimage of Grace 

North Island, 771 

Northmen, 30; first invasion of 
England and Ireland, ib. ; 
their kingdoms and the West 
Saxon reconquest, 33-36; sec- 
ond coming of, 36-37; estab- 
lish a dynasty under Cnut, 37 

Northumberland, Duke of, see 
Dudley, John 

Northumbrians, 21, 23-25, 27 

Norton, Thomas, 281 

Nottingham, Earl of, see Howard, 
Charles 

Nova Scotia, 458 and note 

Novel, the, rise of, 561-563; 
development of, in the late 
eighteenth and early nine- 
teenth centuries, 639; in the 
Victorian period, 734-737 

Noy, William, suggests ship 
money to Charles I, 312 

Nun of Kent, the, 209 

Nymwegen, the peace of, 377 



Oates, Titus, 337-339, 382 note, 
386 

Oath helpers, 44-45; see Com- 
purgators 

Oaths, see Supremacy and Alle- 
giance 

O'Brien, William Smith, 678 

Observants, the friars, 209 

Occasional Conformity Act, 457; 
repealed, 468 

O'Connell, Daniel, champions 
cause of Catholics, 623-624, 
626; secures franchise reform 
in Ireland, 650; attitude of, 
toward English remedial legis- 
lation for Ireland, 656; names 



"Chartist" agitation, 667; 
death of, 677 
O'Connor, Feargus, Chartist 

leader, 678 
O'Donnell, Frank Hugh, 718 
Offa, King of Mercia, 27, 50 
Oglethorpe, James, 566 
Old Age Pensions Act, 747 
Oldcastle, Sir John, 164 note 
Old Sarum, borough of, 648 
"Oliver the Spy," 617 
Oliver Twist, 666 
Omdurman, 784 
Ontario, Province of, 765 
Opium traffic, measures for the 

suppression of, 795 note 
Opium War, the, 673-674 
Orange, see William 
Orange Free State, 772, 777-779 
Orange River Colony, 772, 779 
Ordeals, 45, 55, 78 
"Orders in Council," the, 603, 

608, 609 
Ordinances, the, of 1311, 121- 

122; royal, 267 
Oregon boundary question, the, 

674-675 
Orford, Earl of, see Walpole, 

Robert and Horace 
Orleans, siege of, 168-169 
Ormonde, Duke of, see Butler, 

James 
Ormonde, Marquis of, see Butler, 

James 
Orsini, conspirator, 687, 688 
Osborne, Sir Thomas, successively 
Earl of Danby, Marquis of 
Carmarthen, and Duke of 
Leeds, becomes Lord Treas- 
urer, 375; his use of bribery, 
376; his religious policy, ib.; 
fall of, 380-381 ; his dismissal. 
544 
Osborne Judgment, the, 749 
O'Shea, Captain, 719 
Ostend, 838, 862-863 
Oswald, Northumbrian King, 25 
Oswy, Northumbrian King, 25 
Ottoman Empire, see Turkey 
Oudenarde, battle of, 454 
Oudh, 571-572 and notes, 579, 

7S6-788 
"Outdoor Relief," 657 
Outram (oot'ram), Sir James, 

790 
Owen, Robert, 666-667, 748-749 
Oxford, Provisions of, 101 ; head- 
quarters of Charles I, 328, 330, 
335; the last Parliament of 
Charles II at, 382 
Oxford, Earl of, see Vere, Aubrey 

de, and Harley, Robert 
Oxford Gazette, the, 438 note 
Oxford Movement, the, 729-731 
" Oxford Reformers," the, 200- 
202 



INDEX 



931 



Oxford, University of, not 
founded by Alfred the Great, 
32 ; origin of, 84; friars at, 105 ; 
colleges at, 106; in the 
fourteenth century, 147; in 
the time of Henry VIII, 227; 
James II's attack on, 393 



Pageants, 148 and note 

Paine, Thomas, 531, 581-582 

Painter, William, 278 

Painting, in the seventeenth 
century, 420; in the eigh- 
teenth and early nineteenth 
centuries, 565-566, 640-641 ; 
in the Victorian Age, 743-744 

Palatinate, of the Rhine, see 
Frederick V 

Palatinates, 54 

Pale, the Irish, 157 and note, 186 

Paleolithic men, 8, 9 

Palestine, see Holy Place; cam- 
paign in, 897-898 

Palladio, 420 

Palmers, 145 

Palmers ton, Lord, foreign policy 
of, 673-674, 680-682, 684; 
first Ministry of, 685 ; fall of, 
687-688; beginning of second 
Ministry of, 689-690; in sym- 
pathy with South in Ameri- 
can Civil War, 690; in Trent 
affair, 691; attitude of, in 
question of Schleswig-Holstein, 
693-694 ; characterization and 
death of, 694-695 ; opposes the 
Suez Canal project, 781 

Panama Canal and tolls, 768; see 
also Darien 

Pandulph, papal legate, 92 

Pan-German movement, 817, 821 

"Papal Aggression," the, 678- 
679 

Paper Duty Repeal Bill, the, 
689-690 

Papineau, Louis Joseph, 764 

Paradise Lost and Paradise Re- 
gained, see Milton 

Pardoners, 145 

Paris, siege of, 709 

Paris, treaties of (1763), 509- 
510; (1783), 541; (i8i4),6io 
(1815), 612; (1856), 686-687 

Paris, University of, 84 

Paris, see Matthew 

Parish, the, 269 

Parish priest, the, 105-106 

Parish registers, 214 

Parker, Sir Hyde, 599 

Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 246, 256 

Parliament, origin of, 114; 
Simon de Montfort's, 102, 114- 
115; the Model, 115; separa 



tion into two Houses, ib.; 
declaration of 1322, 122; 
deposes Edward II, 123; the 
Good, 134-135; beginning of 
impeachments in, ib.; gains 
in the fourteenth century, 137- 
138; the Merciless, 156; de- 
poses Richard II, 159; gains 
of, under Henry IV, 163; 
causes of weakness under the 
later Lancastrians, the York- 
ists, and the Tudors, 181-184; 
resists Subsidy of 1523, 197- 
198; the Reformation, 207- 
212; see also Monasteries; 
Henry's management of, 222- 
223; religious test excluding 
from, 247 ; control of, by 
Elizabeth, 266-268; conflicts 
of, with James I, 285, 289-291, 
292; the "Addled," 295- 
300; early conflicts of, with 
Charles I, 303-304, 306-308; 
the Short, 316; the Long, 
early work of, 319-320; 
struggle with Charles I for con- 
trol of the kingdom, 326; its 
organization during the Civil 
War, 327-329; conflicts with 
the Army, 336-340; Pride's 
Purge of, 341 ; see the Rump ; 
see also the Nominated ; 
quarrels of Cromwell with, 
348-350, 353-354; final dis- 
solution of the Long, 356; the 
Convention, 356, 357, 359- 
362; see the Cavalier; gains 
of, under Charles II, 369-370; 
origin of corruption in, 376; 
new tests excluding Roman 
Catholics from (1678), 379- 
380; breach of James II with, 
388, 389; the Convention, of 
William, 398-399; Scotch 
members admitted to, 453; 
corruption in, in the time of 
Walpole, 472; question of its 
supremacy over the Colonies, 
512-513, 51S-S16; struggle 
over reporting of debates in, 
525-526; Pitt's attempts at 
reform of, 577 and note; Irish 
admitted to, 596; Roman 
Catholics admitted to, 625- 
626; causes of reform of, in 
nineteenth century, 631, 645; 
Bentham's influence upon 
reform of, 645-646; abuses 
in, 647-651; question of 
privileges of members of, in 
Stockdale vs. Hansard, 665; 
property qualification for elec- 
tion to, abolished, 688; aboli- 
tion of disabilities of Jews to 
sit in, ib.; open to atheists, 
712; powers of the Lords re- 



duced in, 755-756; term of, 
shortened to five years and 
payment of members restored, 
755-756; in the World War, 
865-882, passim; women ad- 
mitted to, 880-881; see Re- 
form Bills of 1832, 1867, 1884, 
1885 and 1918; see also House 
of Commons and House of 
Lords 

Parnell, Charles Stewart, 712- 
714, 7I7-7I9 

Parsons, Robert, 25 

Parties, political, rivalry of, 
checks political evils in eigh- 
teenth century, 651 ; see 
Cavalier, Roundhead, Court, 
Country, Tory, Whig, Con- 
servative, Liberal, Radical, 
Young Ireland, Nationalist, 
Labor 

Partition Treaties, the, 442 

Party system, the, beginning of, 
376, 543-5-45 

Pasha, Ibrahim, 629 

Paterson, William, 436, 452 

Palriarcha, the, see Filmer 

"Patriots," the, 476 

Patronage, see Lay Patronage 

Paul's Walk, 276, 411 

Pauncefote (pounce 'foot), Sir Jul- 
ian, 768 

Pauperism, 657 

Payment of members, 749, 756 

Peace, see Justices 

Peace Drive, in 1916, 847 

Peace Preservation Acts, see Ire- 
land 

Peacham's case, 293 

Pearse, Padraic, 887 

Peasant Revolt, the, 149, 153- 
155 _ 

Pecquigny, treaty of, 177 

Peel, Sir Robert, made Home 
Secretary, 620 ; reforms crimi- 
nal code, 643; first Ministry 
of, 658-659 ; precipitates Bed- 
chamber crisis, 663-664 ; 
second Ministry of, begins, 
668 ; the Bank Charter Act of, 
669; furthers development of 
free trade, 669-670; views 
of, on Ashley's labor legis- 
lation of 1843-1844, 670-671; 
secures Corn Law repeal, 671- 
673; death, and estimate of 
work of, 673 

Peele, George, 281 

"Peelites," the, 673, 682, 701 

Peers, judgment by, 95-96; Tu- 
dor creations, 266 and note; 
creations of, in 171 2, 458; Pitt 
and creation of, 575; see 
Lords, House of, Nobles and 
Parliament 
Pelham, Henry, 483, 492 



932 



INDEX 



Telham -Holies, Thomas, Duke 
of Newcastle, character of, 
476 ; makes his brother Prime 
Minister, 483 ; becomes Prime 
Minister, 492; his quandary, 
494-495; makes Byng a 
scapegoat, 495; resigns, 496; 
forms his second Ministry with 
Pitt in control of foreign 
affairs, 498, 500; end of his 
Ministry, 509 

Penal laws, under Elizabeth, 245, 
255; under James I, 288-289, 
295, 297; under Charles I, 
302, 305; operation of, sus- 
pended for Protestant Dis- 
senters, 425 ; done away with, 
534, 623; see Declaration of 
Indulgence, 682 

Penal servitude, 682 

Penda, King of Mercia, 24, 25 

Peninsular War, the, 605-606 

Penn, William, 392 note 

Pennine Mountains, the im- 
portance of, 2 

Penny postage, 412, 665-666, 796 

Penry, John, 257 

Pensions, 663 note; see Old Age 
Pensions 

Pensionary Parliament, the, see 
Cavalier Parliament 

Pepys (peeps), Samuel, 365, 367 

Perceval, Spencer, 605 

Percival, Dr., 656 

Percy, Henry, Earl of Northum- 
berland, 162, 163 

Percy, Sir Henry (Hotspur), 162 

Percy, Thomas, Bishop of Dro- 
more, 564 

Periodical literature, 640 

Perrers, Alice, 134-136 

Perry, Commodore, 609 

Persia, 786-787, 792-793, 808, 
890 note, 899, 900 and note 

Peter of Amiens, 63 

Peter of Wakefield, 91-92 

Peterborough, Earl of, see Mor- 
daunt, Charles 

Peter's Pence, 27, 208 

Petition of Right, the, 306 

Petitioners, the, 381 

Petitions and the origin of legis- 
lation, 137, 138 

Petrarch, 149 

Petre (pe'ter), Father, 389 

Petty, Sir William, 415 

Petty, William, Earl of Shel- 
bourne and Marquis of Lans- 
downe, 537, 539-54©, 570 

Pevensey, 40 

Philip II, King of Spain, 237- 
240, 245, 250-251; Catholic 
leader, 257-259; recalls Alva, 
245; plans expedition against 
England, 259; claim to the 
English throne, 259 and note; 



sends the Armada against 
England, 259-261 ; final strug- 
gle with Elizabeth and death, 
261-262 

Phillip, Captain, 769 

Philosophy, in the seventeenth 
century, 414-415 ; in the eigh- 
teenth century, 557; in the 
late eighteenth and early nine- 
teenth centuries, 636; in the 
Victorian Age, 737 

Phcenix Clubs, 702 

Phcenix Park murders, the, 713- 

714 
Photography, 739 
Picts, the, n and note 
Piers the Plowman, 149-150 
Pigott forgeries, the, 718 
Pilgrimage of Grace, 213-214 
Pilgrims and pilgrimages, 145, 213 
Pilgrim's Progress, see Bunyan 
Pillory, the, 567, 643 
Pinkie, battle of, 233 
Piracy, in eighteenth century, 

553 
Pitt, Fort (Pittsburgh), 499 
Pitt, William (later Earl of 
Chatham), the beginning of 
the political career of, 490; 
opposition of, to Newcastle, 
495; made Secretary of State, 
496; estimate of, 496-497; 
his "system," 497-498; his 
dismissal and recall as Secre- 
tary in the second Newcastle 
Ministry, 498; his conduct of 
the campaigns of 1 757-1760, 
498-504; anti-party attitude 
of, and effect of victories, 506; 
his resignation, 508; distinc- 
tion of, between taxation and 
regulation of trade, 515; his 
opposition to the Stamp Act, 
519-520; forms the Grafton- 
Pitt Ministry, 520; becomes 
Earl of Chatham, ib.; his 
illness and retirement, 521; 
attacks the Grafton Ministry, 
523 ; opposes British Colonial 
policy and proposes concilia- 
tion, 529; views of, regarding 
American Colonies in 1778, 
533 ; death of, 534 ; advocates 
parliamentary reform, 646 
Pitt, William, the Younger, strug- 
gle of, with the Coalition, 
573-574; sketch of career of, 
574-575; India Bill of, 575; 
his financial reforms, 576-577; 
his political strength and 
achievements, 577-578; atti- 
tude of, in Hastings's impeach- 
ment, 578-579; thwarts Fox 
on Regency question, 579- 
580; attitude towards French 
Revolution, 581 ; foreign pol- 



icy of, 582-583 ; in the war 
with France, during the First 
Coalition, 583, 585, 588-590; 
his Irish policy, 593, 595, 
596, resignation of, 596-597 ; 
organizes Second Coalition 
against France, 597; second 
Ministry and death, 601 ; 
advocates parliamentary re- 
form, 646; Quebec Govern- 
ment Bill of, 763 

Place Bills, 441 and note, 650, 
866 note 

Plague, the, 146, 225, 568; see 
also Black Death 

Plantagenet (plantaj'enet) dy- 
nasty, the, beginning of, 71 and 
note; end of, 159-160 

Plassey, the battle of, 503 

Platonists, the Cambridge, 413- 
414 

Plautius, Aulus, 12 

Plautus, 281 

Plunkett, Sir Horace, 721, 888 

Plural voting, 699 and note, 757, 
881 

Pluralities, 287, 660, 728 

Pocket boroughs, 648 

Poet laureate, 732 

Poetry, Anglo-Saxon, 48; Anglo- 
Norman, 60-61; in th? Mid- 
dle Ages, 107, 149-150, 192, 
Henrician, 228; Elizabethan, 
278-280; in the seventeenth 
century, 417-419; in the eigh- 
teenth century, 563-564; Ro- 
mantic, Victorian, 636-638 

Poison gas, see Gas - 

Poitiers, 132 

Poitou, 90, 92, 93 

Pole, Reginald, later Archbishop 
of Canterbury, 212, 238-240 

Pole, Michael de la, created Earl 
of Suffolk, 156 

Pope, William de la, Duke of 
Suffolk, 170-171 

Political Register, Cobbett's, 618 
and note 

Poll taxes, 153 

Polo, Marco, 768 

Pondicherry, 493, 503 

Pontiac, the conspiracy of, 515 

Poonah, the Peshwa of, 581, 787 

Poor Laws, the, of Henry VIII, 
225-226; of Elizabeth, 275; 
the New (1834), 657-658, 
666, 741 

Poor preachers, Wiclif's, 151 

Pope, Alexander, 563-564, 636 

Popish Plot, the, 368-369, 377- 
380 

Population, of England, in the 
Anglo-Norman period, 60; in 
the fifteenth century, 189; in- 
crease of, under Henry VII 
and Henry VIII, 224 and note; 



INDEX 



933 



in the Restoration period, 407 ; 

growth of, in the eighteenth 

century, 566; decrease of, 

in Ireland, 721; increase of, 

in the United Kingdom and 

in England and Wales in the 

nineteenth century, 1, 744; 

of the British Empire, 1, 761 

Port Jackson, 769 

Porte, the Sublime, see Turkey 

Portland, Earl of, see Bentinck, 

William 
Portland, Duke of, see Bentinck, 

William Henry 
Porto Bello, 480 

Portugal, marriage alliance of 

Charles II with, 366; as a 

maritime power, 493. 547! in 

the Peninsular War, 603-606; 

loses Brazil, 627-628 

Portuguese West Africa, 774, 805 

Positivism, 737 and note 

Potato famine, the, 671, 676, 

721 
Pottery manufacture, 750-751 
Poundage, see Tonnage 
Poynings' Law, 185-186 
Praemunire (pre'mu nire), Stat- 
ute of, 131 and note; employed 
against Wolsey, 204; invoked 
by Henry VIII against the 
clergy, 208 
Pragmatic Sanction, 480 and note, 

483, 484, 489 
Prague, peace of, 700 
Praise of Folly, see Erasmus 
Prayer Book, see Common Prayer 
Preferential trade, 753, 809 
Preraphaelites, the, 733 note, 743, 

744 
Prerogative, the royal, magnified 
by the High Church party, 
302 
Presbyterians, organization of, 
241-242; aims of, under 
Elizabeth, 256; religious and 
political theories of, 287-288; 
relations of, with James I, 291 ; 
effort of, to capture the Estab- 
lished Church of England, 323 ; 
see Solemn League and Cove- 
nant, and Westminster As- 
sembly; breach of, with the 
Independents, 333 _ 334J lose 
ground in England, 365 ; estab- 
lishment of, guaranteed in 
the union, 453; Irish, Glad- 
stone's treatment of, in 1869, 
see United and Free Church 
Presentment jury, 77, 78 
Press, the censorship of the, 310- 
311 ; end of the censorship of, 
437-438; in struggle over 
reporting debates, 525-526; 
progress of, as a political 
factor, under George III, 526; 



influence of, in Crimean War, 
685 ; in the World War, 867 

Pressburg, peace, of, 601 

Pressing to death, 567 

Preston, battle of, 341 ; Jacobite 
surrender at, 466 

Prestonpans, the battle of, 485 

Pretenders, see James Francis 
Edward, Charles Edward, 
Simnel, and Warbeck 

Pretoria, 778-779 

Price, Dr. Richard, 577 

Pride's Purge, 341 

Priest, see Parish 

Priestley, Joseph, 555 

Prime Minister, first use of the 
name, 476, 481; rise of, 543- 
545; in World War, 867-868 

Primer, the King's, 331 

Primogeniture, 85 

Prince Edward Island, 766 note; 
see also Louisburg } 

Printing, introduction into Eng- 
land, 192 

Prisons, in the Middle Ages, 
142-143; efforts of Ogle- 
thorpe and Howard to re- 
form, 566-567; improvement 
of, in the nineteenth century, 
745-746 

Privateering, abolition of, in 
"Declaration of Paris," 687 

Privateers, American, during 
Revolution, 534; British, in 
American Civil War, 691-692 

Privilege, see Parliament 

Privy Council, the, under the 
Tudors, 266-268; in relation 
to Colonial affairs, 516 note; 
Cabinet evolved from, 544; 
Judicial Committee of the, 
265 and note 

Probate, Court of, 708 

Proclamations, royal, 293 

Profiteering during the World 
War, 870 and note, 874, 875, 
876 

Progresses, royal, 275 

Prohibitions, 293 

Prose writers, see Literature 

Protection, 669-670, 671-673, 
682; see Chamberlain, Joseph; 
Corn Laws, Gladstone, Huskis- 
son, Mercantilism, Peel, and 
Adam Smith 

Protectorate, the, 553-557 

Protectorates, British, 776, 774, 
897 

Protestant extremists, under Ed- 
ward VI, 230-235; under 
Elizabeth, 255-257; see Bap- 
tists, Brownists, Congrega- 
tionalists, Dissenters, Fifth 
Monarchy Men, Independ- 
ents, Presbyterians, Puritans, 
Quakers, Nonconformists 



Protestant Association, 535 

Protestant flail, the, 379 

Protestant Union, the, 295 

Protestation, the, of the Com- 
mons, 298 

Provisions of Oxford, the, 101- 
103 

Provisions of Westminster, the, 
102-103 

Provisors, Statute of, 131 and 
note 

Prussia, becomes a power of 
the first rank, 489; joins 
Triple Alliance of 1781, 583; 
joins armed neutrality of 
1800, 598; signs Holy and 
Quadruple Alliances, 612- 
613; signs treaty of Paris 
after Crimean War, 686-687; 
see Frederick II (the Great), 
King of ; see Wars of Austrian 
Succession, Seven Years' War, 
French and Napoleonic wars, 
Schleswig-Holstein, Austro- 
Prussian and Franco-Prussian 
Wars, Germany 

Prynne, William, 311-321 

Public debt, the, in Pitt's Min- 
istry, 576-577; see National 
debt and Sinking Fund 

Public works for Ireland, 676 

Punishments, 142-143, 567, 643 

Punjab, the annexation of, 786 

Purcell, Henry, 421 

Puritans, the origin of, 255; de- 
mands of, at the accession of 
James I, 287 ; their views and 
aims in the time of Charles I, 
301-302; their moral and 
religious discontent, 293, 309- 
311; moral influence of, 355; 
hostility of, to the stage, 419 

Puritan revolution, the, 151; 
causes of, 285; results of, 342, 
357 

Purveyance, 290 

Pym, John, 316, 319-320, 322- 
323 ; attempted arrest of, 323 ; 
arranges the Solemn League 
and Covenant, 332; his death, 
ib. 
Pyramids, battle of the, 397 
"Pyrenees, There are no more," 

442 and note 
Pytheas of Marseilles, 10 note 



"Q" boats, 862 
Quadrivium, 85 
Quadruple Alliance, 613 
Quakers, the, 365, 386 and note, 

425, 492 
Quarter Sessions, 268 
Quartering Acts, 515, 528 
Quarterly Review, the, 640 



934 



INDEX 



Quatre Bras, battle of, 611 
Quebec, the siege and capture of, 
500-501 ; the Province of, 765 
Quebec Act, the, 528, 763 
Quebec Government Bill, the, 

763 
Quebec Ordinances, the, 764- 

765 
Queen's Bench, Court of, 708 
Queensland, 770 
Quia Emptor es, 120-121 
Quiberon Bay, battle at, 733 
Quinquennial Bill of, 1911, 866 

note 
Quiros, De, 768 
Quo Warranto, writs of, 383 



Rack-renting, Irish, 624 
Radicals, the, in the Whig party, 
616-618; agitate for parlia- 
mentary reform, 646; oppose 
New Poor Law of 1834, 658; 
claims of, under Melbourne's 
second Ministry, 660, 663; 
Chartism embodies aims of, 
667; oppose Civil Lists of 
Victoria and Edward VII, 662, 
753 
Raglan, Lord, 685 
Railroads, development of, 634- 
635; in the Victorian Age, 
740-741 ; government owner- 
ship of, in Australia, 770; in 
New Zealand, 771; Govern- 
ment control of, in World War, 
869-870; Labor party de- 
mands nationalization of, 878, 
882 ; see Steam engine 
Railway strike, the, 757 
Rainsborough, Colonel, 339 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 244, 261, 

273, 294 note, 416 
Ralph Roister Doister, 281 
Ramillics, the battle of, 451 
Ranulf Flambard, 62, 64 
Rates, compulsory Church, aboli- 
tion of, 660 note 
Rates, the poor, burden of, 657, 

74i 
Rating franchise, 659, 699 
Rationing, see Food control 
Rawlinson, General, 853 
Raymond, George, 272 
Reade, Charles, 736 
Real Presence, the, see Transub- 

stantiation 
Realists, the, 106 
Recognition juries, 78 
Reconstruction, 868 : 878-879 
Recruiting in the World War 

869, 883, 884 
Recusants, measures against 
255; under James I, 289, 299: 
see Penal Laws 



Redan, the, 686 

Redmond, John, succeeds to 
Parnell's leadership, 719; be- 
comes leader of the reunited 
Nationalists, 721; and the 
Home Rule Bill of 1914, 760, 
882-883, 888; activity in re- 
cruiting, 883, 885; denounces 
Rebellion, 888 

Reeve, the Anglo-Saxon, 63, 65 

Reflections on the French Revo- 
lution, Burke's, 581 

Reform Bill, of 1832, 651-654; 
its effect on the Church, 728; 
of 1867, 697-700; of 1884- 
1885, 714-715; of 1918, 880- 
881 

Reform of the Calendar, see Cal- 
endar 

Reformation, the, in England, 
causes for, 198-199, 202; 
some results of, 207 ; effect of, 
on poor relief, 225; principles 
of, in England, Germany, and 
Scotland contrasted, 241 

Reformation Parliament, the, 
207-212 

Regency Bill, the, 579~58o 

Regicides, the, 361 

Regium Donum, 704 

"Reign of Terror," the, 588-589 

Relief, feudal incident of, 58 

Religion, of the Celts, io-n; in 
thirteenth century, 106; in 
the eighteenth century, 556- 
558; in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, 727-730 

Renascence, the, 149, 199-200; 
in England, 200-202; in- 
fluence of, on English litera- 
ture, 277 

Representation, inequalities in, 
in House of Commons, 647- 
648; after Reform Bill of 
1832, 696 ; see American Revo- 
lution and virtual representa- 
tion 

Responsibility of Ministers, 543- 
545 

Restoration, causes and nature 
of, 357 

Restoration of the coinage, see 
Coinage, 46-47 

Revenues, Anglo-Saxon, 46-47; 
Anglo-Norman, 59; under 
Henry II, 78-79 ; under Henry 
VIII, 223-224; under the 
Tudors, 267-268; of the 
royalist and parliamentary 
parties in the Civil War, 528- 
529; settlement of, at the 
Restoration, 382; the, of 
James II, 386; settlement of, 
under William III, 425-426; 
during the World War, 875; 
see Civil List 



Revenue officers deprived of 
right to vote, 537 

Revolution of 1688, the nature 
and results of, 399 ; see Ameri- 
can Revolution 

Revolution, Belgian, of 1830, 
630-63 1 

Revolution, the French, effect 
of Hobbes on, j.15; effect of 
Deists on, 556; outbreak of, 
reception of, in England, 
580-582; governments of, 581 
and note; English societies to 
spread doctrines of, 583; 
aggressions of leaders of, 584- 
585; Reign of Terror of, 588- 
589; effect in Ireland of, 593; 
attitude of English poets to- 
ward, 637; social effects of, 
64r; Bentham's fear of, 645; 
decline of fear of, ib. ; of 1830, 
630; spread of movement of 
1830, 630-631 ; stimulates re- 
form in England, 631 

Revolution, Greek, 628-630; 
Spanish, of 1820, 627-628 

Revolution, European, of 1848, 
677 

Revolution Society, the English, 
581-583 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 565 

Rhe, the expedition to, 304-305 

Rhodes, Cecil, 774-776 

Rhodesia, 774 and note 

Rhondda, Lord, 874 

Rhuddlan, Statute of, 112 

Richard I (Cceur de Lion), King 
- of England, revolt against 
Henry II, 75; accession and 
character, 80; participation in 
the Third Crusade, 80-81; 
return and imprisonment in 
the German Empire, 81; bis, 
ransom and visit to England, 
ib.; departure for France and 
death, 81-82; growth of 
boroughs under, 85 

Richard II, King of England, 
navigation laws under, 140; 
accession, 153; attitude to- 
ward the Peasant Revolt, 
154-155; the reign of, 155- 
159; visits Ireland, 157, 158; 
deposition of, 159; death and 
final estimate of, 159-160 

Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 
makes himself Protector, 179; 
character and policy, ib.; pro- 
claimed King, ib. ; see Richard 
III 

Richard III, King of England, 
crimes and vain efforts to 
secure popularity, 179-180; 
defeat and death at Bosworth, 
180-181 

Richard, Duke of York, 170-173 



INDEX 



935 



Richard, son of Edward IV, 178- 
180, 185 

Richard de Clare ("Strongbow"), 
Earl of Pembroke, 74~75 

Richard Fitzneal, 83 

Richardson, Samuel, 562 

Richelieu, Cardinal, 299 

Ridley, Nicholas, Bishop of Lon- 
don, 239 

Ridolfi plot, the, 25 1 

Rights, Bill of, see Bill 

Right, the Declaration of, 398; 
see Bill of Rights 

Rights of Man, Paine's pamphlet, 
581-582 

Riot Act, the, 464-465 

Ripon, negotiations with the 
Scots at, 317 

Rising of 1715, the, 465-466; 
of 1745. 484-487 

Ritualism, 729-730 

River systems, 3, 4 

Rizzio, David, 247 

Roads, Roman, 15; in the four- 
teenth century, 144; in the 
fifteenth century, 188; in the 
seventeenth century, 404; in 
the early nineteenth century, 
634: in Scotland, 48 

Robert (Curthose), Duke of Nor- 
mandy, 57, 62-64 and note 

Robert, Earl of Gloucester, 67-69 

Robert of Jumieges, 38, 39 

Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of 
Lincoln, 99 

Roberts, General (Marshal, Earl 
Roberts), opposes Home Rule 
Bill, 759; in the Boer War, 
777-778; in the Afghan War, 
792 ; advocates compulsory 
training, 813, 815, 865 

Robespierre, 589 

Robin Hood, 149 

Rochambeau, Count, 536 

Rochdale, 748 

Rochester, Earls of, see Wilmot, 
John 

Rochester, Viscount, see Carr, 
Robert 

"Rocket," the, Stephenson's 
locomotive, 894 

Rockingham, the Marquis of, 
519-520, 537, 539-540 

Rodney, Admiral, 501, 536, 538 

Roger of Salisbury, 65, 68 

Roi Pacificateur, Le, 808 

Rollo, 38 

Roman Catholicism, contrasted 
with Calvinism, 241 ; Puritan 
fears of, 311; see Charles II 
and James II 

Roman Catholics, excluded from 
the House of Commons, 249; 
Elizabeth's further measures 
against, 255; treatment of, 
by James I, 289; the party of, 



fostered by Henrietta Maria, 
311; mostly on the side of 
Charles I, 328; Charles I's 
intrigues with, in Ireland, 328, 
335-336; the condition of, 
under Cromwell, 350; Charles 
IPs attempts to reintroduce, 
362, 372-374; the Test Act 
against, 374; see the Popisji 
Plot; excluded from Parlia- 
ment (1678), 379-380; ad- 
mitted to office by James II, 
389-390; progress of, in Scot- 
land, 391; indulgence granted 
to, 392-394 ; fanaticism 
against, in England, in 1780, 
534-535; disabilities of, be- 
fore the Relief Acts, 623 ; 
emancipation of, 623-626; 
status of, at Victoria's acces- 
sion, 661; Russell's legislation 
against, 679; see Ecclesiastical 
Titles Bill and Accession 
Declaration Act 

Roman Catholics, Irish, penal 
laws against the, 428; condi- 
tion of, 1782, 537-538; con- 
cessions to, 538, 592-594; 
failure of, to secure conces- 
sions after the Union, 595-597 ; 
proportion of, in Ulster, 758 
note 

Roman fortifications in Britain, 
13 note 

Roman Law, 76 

Roman roads, 15 

Romans, their occupation 
Britain, 12-16 

Romantic movement, the, 
literature, 564, 636-637 

Romilly, Sir Samuel, 643 

Romney, George, 565, 566 

Rood of Boxley, see Boxley 

Rooke, Sir George, 450 

Root and Branch party, 
323 

Roses, see War of the 

Rossbach, the battle of, 499 

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 
note, 743-744 

Rothschild, Baron, 975 

Rotten boroughs, 648, 653 

Roundheads, the, 325, 544 

Rouse's Point, 675 

Royal African Company, the, 402 

Royal Marriage Act, 526 

Royal Society, the, 416 

Royal title, the, changes in, 453, 
596, 753 and note, 792 

Rubens, 611 

Rumania, 822, 847, 850 

Rump Parliament, the, 341 ; 
abolishes the kingship and 
the House of Lords, 345; re- 
fuses to dissolve, ib.; dis- 
solved by Cromwell, 348, 349; 



of 



the. 



734 



recalled and finally dissolved, 
356 

Runnymede, 94 

Rupert, Prince, 329, and note, 
333, 347, 367, 375 

Ruskin, John, 732, 743 

Russell, Edward (later Earl of 
Orford),43i 

Russell, John, Lord, carries 
repeal of Test and Corpora- 
tion Acts, 624; identifies par- 
liamentary reform with Whigs, 
646; introduces Reform Bill, 
651; becomes an advocate of 
free trade, 671-672; first 
Ministry of, 676; religious 
problems of first Ministry of, 
678-679; criticizes Palmer- 
ston's independent tendencies, 
681 ; dismisses Palmerston,i'6. ; 
fall of first Ministry of, ib. ; in 
Coalition Ministry, 682; re- 
tires, 685 ; in sympathy with 
South in American Civil War, 
690; hasty policy of, in Trent 
affair, 691; favors inter- 
vention in behalf of Danes, 
694 ; second Ministry of, 697 ; 
Reform Bills of, 697-698 ; fall 
of second Ministry, and death 
of, 698 and note ; see Alabama 
Claims 

Russell, Sir William Howard, 
correspondent of Times during 
Crimean War, 685 

Russia, opening up of, in the 
sixteenth century, 271; see 
Wars of Austrian Succession 
and Seven Years' War; joins 
the armed neutrality of 1778, 
535; Pitt's failure to check 
the expansion of, 583 ; in 
war of First Coalition, 588; 
in Second Coalition against 
France, 597 ; armed neutrality 
of 1800 organized by Tsar of, 
597-598; Alexander I be- 
comes Tsar of, 599; joins 
Third Coalition against 
France, 601 ; alliance with 
Napoleon, 602 ; Napoleon's 
campaign in, 606-607; com- 
bines against Napoleon, 607- 
608; in Holy and Quadruple 
Alliances, 612-613; favors in- 
tervention, 626-627; attitude 
of, toward Greek struggle for 
independence, 629-630; con- 
cession of, on American bound- 
ary, 675 ; in the Crimean War, 
682-687; Napoleon III pro- 
poses mediation in American 
Cival War by England, France, 
and, 692; England isolated by 
Palmerston from, 694; brings 
her ships again into the Black 



93^ 



INDEX 



Sea, 710; advances of, in 
Afghanistan, 786, 792; Anglo- 
Japanese treaties against, 792 
note; British agreement with, 
793, 808; distrusts British 
democracy, 800; in League 
of Three Emperors, 800-801; 
in Russio-Turkish War, 801- 
804; Kaiser draws away 
from, 805; in Russo-Japanese 
War, 807; changed British 
attitude toward, 818-819, 820 
note; and the Balkan problem, 
820-823; in the negotiations 
preceding the World War, 
824-827; in the World War, 
in 1914, 839; in 1915, 840, 
845; in 1916, 846-847; the 
collapse of, 848-849, 867 
Russia Company, the, 413 
Ruyter, Admiral de, 367-368 
Ryswick, the peace of, 435 



Sabbath, better observance of, 
641 

Sacheverell, Dr. Henry, 455~456 

Sackville, Lord George, 502 

Sackville, Thomas, Lord Buck- 
hurst, 281 

Sacraments, definition of, 213 
note 

Sadowa, battle of, see Konig- 
gratz 

St. Albans, 114; battle of, 172- 
173; second battle of, 174 

St. Albans, Viscount, see Bacon, 
Sir Francis 

St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 
253 

St. Benedict, 26 

St. Brice's Day, massacre of, 36 

St. Dominic, 105 

St. Francis, see Francis 

St. Giles' Cathedral, the riot in, 
314 

St. Helena, Napoleon at, 612 

St. John (sin jin), Henry, later 
Viscount Bolingbroke, charac- 
ter of, 456 ; his peace negotia- 
tions with France, 457 ; rivalry 
with Oxford, 460-461; failure 
of his succession schemes, 461 ; 
enters the service of the Pre- 
tender, 465; aims to stop 
the rising of 1715, ib.; dis- 
missed by the Old Pretender, 
466; his activity in opposition, 
476; end of his political career, 
478 

St. Paul, 15 

St. Paul's Cathedral, 276, 309, 
411; see Paul's Walk 

St. Peter, 15 

St. Peter's Fields, 618 



St. Pierre, Island of, 541 

St. Thomas, sec Becket 

Saladin, 79 

Salian Franks, law of, 126 

Salisbury, Marquis of, see Cecil 

Salisbury oath, the, 82 

Salonika, 801, 843 

Sancroft, William, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 394-395 

San Domingo, revolt in, 600 

Sanitation, 146, 225 

San Jacinto, the, 691 

San Stefano, the treaty of, 802 

Saratoga, surrender of Burgoyne 
at, 532 

Sarum, see Old Sarum 

Saskatchewan, Province of, 766 
note 

Sati, see Suttee 

Saunders (san'ders), Admiral, 500 

Savery, Thomas, 552 

Savile (sav'il), George, Marquis 
of Halifax, 382 

Saxons, invasions of Britain by, 
13-14, 20-21 

Scapa Flow, 855, 857, 863 

Scheldt, French open, to naviga- 
tion, 584 

Schism Act, 460; repealed, 468 

Schleswig-Holstein, 692-694, 700, 
808 note 

Scholasticism, 106, 227 

Scholemaster, The, 227 

Schomberg, Count, 427 

Schools, 147, 226, 235, 705-707; 
see Chantry and Grammar 

Schulenburg, Countess von, 463 

Science, in the twelfth century, 
83; in the Elizabethan Age, 
277; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 416-417; in the eigh- 
teenth century, 555-556; in 
the early nineteenth century, 
635-636; in the Victorian 
Age, 737-740 

Scone (scoon), coronation stone 
of, 113 

Scotch-Irish Church, the, 15, 25 

Scotland, physical features, 5, 6 ; 
see Scots; wars with Edward I, 
1 1 2-1 14 ; alliance with France, 
ib.; rising of W r allace, 116- 
117; rising of Bruce and last 
campaign of Edward I against, 
1 1 7-1 18; repulse of Edward 
II at Bannockburn by, 122; 
disputed succession in, 126; 
expedition against, by Edward 
III, ib.; in time of Henry IV, 
161-163; supports Warbeck, 
185 ; James IV, King of, mar- 
ries Margaret of England, 
186; invasion from, repulsed 
at Flodden, 195; designs of 
Henry VIII on, 217-218; 
impolicy of Seymour toward, 



232-233; the Reformation in, 
241-242, 246; conflicts be- 
tween Mary and the Protestant 
lords, 246-248; attempted 
Catholic revival in, 254; 
condition of, at the accession 
of the Stuarts, 285-286; rela- 
tions with, under James I, 
291; the first Bishops' War, 
314-315; the second Bishops' 
War, 317; Montrose in, 328, 
335; the Solemn League and 
Covenant arranged with, 332; 
troops from, surrender the 
King, 336, 337; "Engagers 
from," invade England, 340, 
341 ; conquest of, by Crom- 
well, 346, 347; defeat of in- 
vaders from, at Worcester, 
347; the Restoration in, 356, 
363 ; landing of Argyle in, 386 ; 
the situation in, under Charles 
II and James II, 390-391 ; the 
Revolution in, 429; the mas- 
sacre of Glencoe in, 429-430; 
union of, with England, 451- 
453; rising of 1715 in, 465- 
466; the rising of '45 in, 484- 
487; the transformation of, 
in the eighteenth century, 487- 
489; parliamentary franchise 
in, before first Reform Bill, 
650; under bill of 1832, 653; 
representation of, under Act 
of 1867, 699; visits of Victoria 
to, 724; secessions from the 
Church of, 730 

Scots, homages, 33, 113; in- 
vasion of Britain, 14; union 
of, and Picts, 33 note; early 
invasions of England, 53, 68 

Scott, James, Duke of Mon- 
mouth, 382, 386-387 

Scott, Sir Percy, 865 

Scott, Sir Walter, 485 note, 
637-639, 728, 730, 732; his 
literary work, 897, 899 

Scrope, Richard, Archbishop of 
York, 163 

Scutage, 79 

Scutari, hospitals at, 685 

Seamen, Elizabethan, their 
achievements, 257-259, 271- 
273 

Sea power, rise of the Eliz- 
abethan, 271-273; in the 
eighteenth century, 538-539. 
546-547; in War of 1812, 609, 
German rivalry in, 809-815 

Search, the right of, as a cause 
of the War of Jenkins' Ear, 
478-479; of the War of 1812, 
608-609; given up, by Great 
Britain, 610; see also, 859-860 

Sebastopol, siege of, 684-686 

Secretary of State, the, 267 



INDEX 



937 



Secretary of State for India, the 
institution of, 791 

Secretary for War, 686, 754 

Sedan, the battle of, 709 

Sedgemoor, battle of, 387 

Seditious writings, royal proc- 
lamation against, 583 

Seditious Meetings Bill, the, 589; 
passage of a new, 617 

Seely, Colonel, 759~76o 

Self-denying ordinance, the, 334- 
335 

Selling, William, 200 

Seminary priests, 254 note 

Seneca, 281 

Senlac, battle of, 40-41 

Sennussi, 897 

Separatists, 255 

Sepoys, 789 

Septennial Act, the, 466-467, 
660 

Serajevo, 823 

Serbia, in Russo-Turkish War, 
801-802; in Balkan War, 
821-822; events in, leading 
to World War, 823-827; in 
the War, 843, 853 

Serf, the Anglo-Saxon, 43 

Serfdom, 155 

Settlement, the Act of, 440-441; 
the law of, 657-658 

Seven Bishops, the Case of the, 
394-395 

Seven Years' War, the, issues in, 
492; chief events in, 492-504, 
508-510; effect of, in pre 
cipitating the American Rev- 
olution, 514-515 

Severus, Septimius, Roman Em 
perori 13 note 

Seymour, Edward, Earl of Hert- 
ford, becomes Protector and 
Duke of Somerset, 230; his 
rule, 230-233; his fall, 233; 
execution of, 234 

Seymour, Jane, Queen of Henry 
VIII, 212, 217 

Seymour, Thomas, Lord High 
Admiral, 233 

Shaftesbury, Earls of, see Cooper 

Shakespeare, William, 94 note, 
184 note, 279-280; his writ- 
ings, 282 

Shanghai, opened to British 
trade, 674 

Sharp, James, Archbishop of 
St. Andrew's, 391 

Sheep raising, 155, 187, 270- 
271; in Australia, 769 

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 638 

Shells, see Munitions 
Sheppard, Jack, 567 
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 565, 

599 
Sheriff, the, or shire-reeve, 
Anglo-Saxon, 46; at the 



Exchequer, 6'6; decline of, 
under the Tudors, 269 

Sheriff Muir, the battle of, 466 

Sheriff's "aid," the, 72 

"Shining armor," 809, 820, 826 

Ship money, 312-314; declared 
illegal, 323 

Shipping laws, relating to, 139- 
140; in the fifteenth century, 
190-191; increase of, under 
Huskisson's reforms, 622; 
status in 1830, 633-634; de- 
velopment of, in Victorian 
period, 740-741 ; in compari- 
son with German, 809-812; 
control of, during World War, 
869, 872-873 

Shires, 31, 32, 45, 46; see 
County 

Shirley, Sir Thomas, case of, 289 

Shop stewards, 877 

Shorthouse, Joseph Henry, 737 
note 

Short Parliament, the, 316 

Shovel, Sir Cloudesley, 450 

Shrewsbury, Earl of, see Talbot, 
Charles 

Shrines, 145; destruction of, 215 

Siddons, Mrs., 565 

Sidmouth, Lord, see Addington 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 278-279 

Sikh Wars, the, 786 

Silesian Wars, the first and sec 
ond, 481, 483-484; the third 
495-496, 499-502. 503-504, 
509-510 

Silk manufacture, the, in the 
seventeenth century, 401 

Simnel, Lambert, 184-185 

Simon de Montfort, 100-103; 
Parliament of, 102, 114-115 

Simpson, Sir James, discoverer of 
chloroform, 739 

Sind, annexation of, 786 

"Singeing the King of Spain's 
beard," 259 

Sinking Fund, the beginning 
of the, 468-469; Pitt's, 577 

Sinn Fein (shin fane), 882-890, 
passim ; meaning of name, 883 ; 
in Australia, 894 

Sinope, Russians attack Turkish 
fleet at, 684 

Six Articles, the, 216-217; re- 
pealed, 231 

Skager Rak, see Jutland 

Skeffington, Francis Sheehy, 887 
note 

Slave trade, Anglo-Saxon, 51; 
abolition of African, 578 

Slavery, 59 note; abolition of, 
in the British colonies, 656, 
772; see American Civil War 

Slidell, Confederate commis- 
sioner, 691 

Small Holdings Acts, 743 



Smith, Adam, 416, 558-559, 636, 

737 
Smith, Sidney, 640 
Smollett, Tobias, 562-563 
Smuts, General, in the World 

War, 868, 894-896, 907 
Smuggling, 477~479, 514-517, 

567, 576; in postal service, 

English traders promote, with 

China, 674 
Soap Company, the. 309 
Social classes, in the seven- 
teenth century, 405-406; in 

the Victorian period, 745 
Social Compact, the, 414 and 

note 
Social Democratic party, the, 

749-750 
Socialism, 617, 666-667, 749~75o; 

see Labor party 
Society, see Revolutionary so- 
ciety 
Society, the British and Foreign 

School, 706 
Society, the National, 706 
Society, Royal, for Prevention 

of Cruelty to Animals, 642 
Society for the Improvement of 

Prison Discipline, the, 745 
Society, London Correspondence, 

583 
Society of Friends of the People, 

the, 583 
Society of Jesus, see Jesuits 
Solebay, see Lowestoft and 

Southwold Bay 
Solemn League and Covenant, 

see Covenant 
Solway Moss, battle of, 218 
Somers, John (later Lord), 434, 

439-440 
Somerset, Dukes of, see Seymour 
Somerset, Earl of, see Carr, 

Robert 
Somme, first, second, and third 

battles of the, 845-846, 847- 

848, 852 
Sophia, Electress of Hanover, 

440, 463 
South Africa, the British in, 

772-780; the union of, 778- 

779; military system of, 891; 

in the World War. 894-896 
South African Republic, see the 

Transvaal 
South American Republics, the, 

Canning and the recognition 

of, 627-628 
South Australia, 769 
South Island, 771 
South Saxons, the, invasion of 

Britain, 20, 21 
South Sea Bubble, the, see South 

Sea Company 
South Sea Company, the, 468- 

47i 



938 



INDEX 



Southwold Bay, the battle of, 
375 

Soviets, 849, 876, 877 

Spain, war of England with, 133 ; 
matrimonial alliance with 
Henry VII, 186; see Philip II, 
aggressions of Elizabethan sea- 
men against, 257-262; see 
Armada ; marriage negotia- 
tions with, under James I, 
294-295, 298-299; Crom- 
well's war with, 351-352; in 
the war of the Spanish Suc- 
cession, 441-4431 447> 45°. 
454-455; see Utrecht, peace 
of ; helps to defeat the Darien 
project, 452; see Jenkins' 
Ear, the War of, see Aix-la- 
Chapelle, the peace of (1748); 
joins France in the Seven 
Years' War, 508-509^ see 
Paris, the peace of; joins 
France against England, 534; 
joins the armed neutrality of, 
1780, 535; concludes peace 
with England, 541; antago- 
nism between England and, in 
1 789-1 790, 583 note; joins 
First Coalition against France, 
1 793 1 588; cedes Louisiana to 
France, 599; signs peace of 
Amiens, ib.; Peninsular War 
in, 603-606 ; Spanish- Amer- 
ican colonies of, declare in- 
dependence, 622; revolutions, 
626-628; sends expedition to 
Mexico in i860, 692; see 
Morocco 

Spanish Succession, War of the, 
441-443, 446-452, 453-459 

Speakers of the House of Com- 
mons to decide on Money 
Bills, 756 

Spee, Admiral von, 856 

Speech, freedom of, 398 

Spencer, Herbert, 737, 738 note 

Spencer, Robert, Earl of Sunder- 
land, 389, 396, note, 438 

Spenser, Edmund, 280 

Spinning jenny, 550; mule, ib. 

Spithead, mutiny at, 591 

Sports, the Declaration of, 310 

Spurs, battle of the, 195 

Stafford, Lord William, 380 

Stage coaches, 404, 634 

Stair, Earl of, see Dalrymple, 
John 

Stair, the Master of, see Dal- 
rymple 

Stamford Bridge, battle of, 40 

Stamp Act, the, 517-518 

Standing army, nucleus of the, 
562; increased by James II, 
388; at the outbreak of the 
World War, 835; see Mutiny 
Bill 



Stanhope, James, first Earl 
Stanhope, 468, 470 

Stanhope, Philip Dormer, Earl 
of Chesterfield, Letters to His 
Son, 563 

Stanley, Edward George, Lord 
Stanley and fourteenth Earl 
of Derby, Irish Secretary, 
655; Colonial Secretary, 656; 
first Ministry of, 682; second 
Ministry of, 688 ; third Minis- 
try of, 698-700; resignation 
and death of, 700 

Staple towns, 139 

Star Chamber, Court of, 185, 
267-268, 323 

Steamboats, 634, 740-741 

Steam engine, the, 551-552 

Steam railways, 634, 740-741 

Steele, Sir Richard, 559-560 

Steelyard, the, 87 note 

Steenkirke, battle of, 431 

Stephen, King of England, char- 
acter and problems, 67-68; 
attack on the Salisburys, 68; 
involved in Civil War, 68-69; 
results of his rule, 69-70; 
extension of Church courts 
under, 72 

Stephenson, George, develops 
steam transportation, 634-635 

Sterne, Laurence, 563 

Steuben, Baron, 532 

Stevenson, Robert Louis, 736- 
737 

Stewart, Esme, 254 

Stewart, Henry, Lord Darnley, 
247 

Stewart, Lord James, later Earl 
of Moray, 247 and note, 251 

Stigand, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 39 

Stirling Bridge, battle of, 116 

" Stockdale and Darlington," 
see Steam railways 

Stockdale vs. Hansard, 665 

Stonehenge, 11 

Stourbridge Fair, 108 

Stow, John, 280 

Strafford, Earl of, see Wentworth, 
Sir Thomas 

Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord, 683 

Strikes, 549; use of, by British 
trades unions, 667; in 191 1- 
191 2, 757; during the World 
War, 871-872, 876-879 

" Strongbow," see Richard de 
Clare 

Stuart, John, Earl of Bute, 507- 
509 passim 

Sturdee, Admiral, 856 

Submarines, 834, 857-862, 865 

Submission of the clergy, 208 

Subsidies, 132, 198, 267-268 

Succession, acts of, providing for 
the heirs of Henry VIII and 



Anne, 209; relating to heirs 
of Henry VIII and Jane 
Seymour, 212; see Northum- 
berland's plot; plan for 
regulating, in 1689, 398; see 
Act of Settlement 

Sudan, the, 780,' 782-784 

Suez Canal, the, 780-781, 815, 
897 

" Suffolk Resolves," the, 528 and 
note 

Suffrage, manhood, 667, 880- 
881 

Suffrage, women's, in Australia, 
770; in New Zealand, 771; in 
the United Kingdom, 746, 881 

Suffragists, the militant, see 
Suffrage, women's 

Sumptuary laws, 132, 140 

Sunday Schools, 558 

Sunderland, Earl of, see Spencer, 
Robert and Charles 

Superstition, 160, 277, 407-408 

Supremacy, Act of, 245, 265-266 

Supremacy, oaths of, 245, 249, 
379, 425, 624-625 

Supreme Court of Judication Act, 
the. 708 

Supreme Head of the Church of 
England, 209-210, 245 

Surgery, in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, 146, 739; in the nine- 
teenth century, 739 

Surrey, Earls of, see Howard, 
Henry and Thomas 

Suspending, royal prerogative of, 
398 

Sussex, 860 

Suttee, 785 

Swansea, 5 

Swein, Danish invader, 35, 36 

Swift, Jonathan, 457, 472, 560 

Swinburne, Algernon Charles, 
733 

Sydney, 769; Australian cruiser, 
856 

Syndicalism, 750, 757, 876 

Synods, 241 



Tacitus, 18 

Taff Vale case, the, 7^8 

Tag, Der, 815, 858; see also 836 

Talbot, Charles, Earl, and, later, 

Duke of Shrewsbury, 461, 463 
Talbot, Richard, Earl of Tyrcon- 

nel, 389, 392 
Talbot, William, 739 
Tallard, Marshal, 749 
Tangier, 366 and note, 807 
Tanks in the World War, 834. 

849 and note 
Tariff, Huskisson's reform of the, 

621-622; reductions of, under 

Peel, 668-673 J Gladstone's 



INDEX 



939 



reductions of, 689-690; Cham- 
berlain advocates reform of, 
753; preferential, 753, 811 
note; in the Dominions, 762, 
767, 796; German, fear of 
foreign, 809; German, 810 

Tasman, Abel, 769 

Tasmania, 770 

Taxation, see Revenue and Poll 
Taxes ; under the Tudors, 267- 
268; the arbitrary, of James 
I, 292; of Charles I, 305-307, 
309, 312-314; curtailed, 322- 
323; of the American Colonies, 
515-520, 521; Huskisson's re- 
form of, 621-622 

Taylor, Jeremy, 413 

Tea, the tax on, 521, 527 

Telegraph, the, 740 

Tel-el-Kebir, battle of, 782 

Telephone, the, 740 note 

Telford, Thomas, 634 

Temperance revival, the, 745 

Temple, Richard, Lord Temple, 
496 note 

Temple, Lord, his son, 573 

Tenant farmers, 406, 555 

Tennyson, Alfred, 732-733 

Tenths and fifteenths, 267 

Tenures, see Military 

Test Act, the, 374, 388, 624 

Testament, see New Testament 

Test and Corporation Acts, 468, 
624, 728 

Teutonic, see Germanic 

Tewkesbury, battle of, 177 

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 
735 

Thagi, or thugs, suppression of 
the, 785 

Thanet, 18, 23 

Theaters, 282-283 \ see Drama 

Tliegns, 47 

Theobald, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 108, 116, 126 

Theology, 106-107, 151, 413, 
556-558 

Thirty-nine Articles, the, 249, 
729 

Thirty Years' War, the, 294-295, 
297-299, 3Si 

Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of 
Gloucester, 156, 158 

Thomson, James, 564 

Thomson, William, Lord Kelvin, 
740 

"Thorough," Wentworth and 
Laud's policy of, 316 and note 

Thrale, Mrs., 568 

Three-field system, 42 

Thugs, see Thagi 

Ticonderoga, 500 

Tilak, Mr., 902 

Tilbury, 260 

Tilsit, treaty of, 602 

Times, the London, founded, 640 



note; Russell special corre- 
spondent of, during Crimean 
War, 6S5; suit of Parnell 
against, 718; demands "a 
better machine for running the 
War," 867 

Tin in Britain, 10, 11 

Tinchebrai, battle of, 64 

; Tipu, Ruler of Mysore, 597 

j Tirpitz, Admiral, 812 

j Tithe, Saladin, 79 

1 Tithes, English, 658-660; Irish, 

! 538, 624, 654-656 

Toleration, religious, in Utopia, 
201-202; absence of, in the 
sixteenth century, 238; or in 
the seventeenth, 302; failure 
of Charles II to secure, 362-363, 
374; and of James II, 392, 394 

Toleration Act, the, 424-425 

Tone, Wolfe, 593, 595 

Tonnage and poundage, 137, 267, 
307, 322 

Torbay, William's landing at, 
396 

Torgau, the battle of, 504 

Tories, the High Church, ap- 
proach the Dissenters, 392; 
changed attitude of, toward 
lawfulness of resistance, 395; 
see High Church 

"Torrens System " of land regis- 
tration, 770 and note 

Tory party, the, origin of, 381 
and note, 543-545; reaction 
of, against William III, 424; 
its relations to William III, 
439; make-up and aims of, 
446; the eclipse of, under the 
first two Georges, 471, 473; 
return of, to power under 
George III, 506; French 
Revolution and the, 580; re- 
forms of the Liberal, 62off.; see 
Bolingbroke, Pitt the younger, 
Peel, Disraeli, Conservatives 
and Liberal Unionists 

Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, 
39-40 _ 

Towns, in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 409 ; see Borough 

Townshend, Charles, Viscount, 
463, 467-468, 470, 471 note, 
476, 555 

Townshend, General, 898, 899 

Townshend Acts, the, 521 

Townships, Anglo-Saxon, 42, 43 

Towton, battle of 175 

Tractarian movement, see Ox- 
ford movement 

Tracts for the Times, the, 729 

Trade, Anglo-Saxon, 50, 51; 
Anglo-Norman, 60; in the 
twelfth century, 86, 87; in 
the thirteenth century, 107- 
109; under Edward I, II, III, 



138-141 ; in the fifteenth cen- 
tury, 189-191; under the 
Tudors, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, 224, 264, 269-275; under 
James I and Charles I, 401- 
402; during the Restoration, 
402; rivalry with Germany, 
809-812; control of, during 
World War, 869-873 
Trade Unionism, 667 and note, 
748-749; during the World 
War, 871, 876-877 
Trading companies, under Eliza- 
beth, 273-274; justification 
for, 296, 401 
Trades Disputes Act, the, 748- 

749 
Trafalgar, battle of, 601 
Transportation, see Canals, 
Steamboats, and Steam rail- 
ways 

Transportation of criminals, see 
Australia. 

Transubstantiation, 227, 331; 
the declaration against, 621, 
880; see also Real Presence 

Transvaal, the, see Boer War 

Travel, in Anglo-Saxon times, 
50; in fourteenth century, 145 ; 
in seventeenth century, 404; 
see Stage Coaches and Steam 
railways 

Treasons, Statute of, 131-132; 
punishment for, 143 ; Acts of, 
of Henry VIII, 209; Acts of, 
under Edward VI, 231, 233; 
under Elizabeth, 255; new 
theories of, 321-322, 342; see 
Casement 

Treason, Act regulating trials for, 
437 

Treasonable Practices Bill, the, 
589 

Treasurer, 65 

Treasury Agreement, 871, 876, 
877 

Treitschke, Heinrich von, 816 

Trent, the Council of, 250 

Trent affair, the, 691 

Trial by battle, 55, 78 

Trial by jury, 77-78 

Tribe, the, n, 19, 32 

Triennial Acts, 322, 437 

Trinoda necessitas, 46 

Triple Alliance, (1716), 467; 
(1788), 583; of Germany, 
Austria, and Italy, 804, 822 

Trivium, 85 

Trollope, Anthony, 736 

Trotsky, 849, 900 note 

Tudor, Henry, Duke of Rich- 
mond, see Henry 

Tudor, House of, basis of the new 
absolutism of, 183-184 

Tudor monarchy, strength and 
weakness of, 264-265 



94° 



INDEX 



Tull, Jethro, 554 

Tun-moot, 43 
' Tunscipe, see township 

Turco-Italian War, the, 821 

Turkey, Russia at war with, 583 ; 
in the French War, 598-599! 
Greece revolts from, 628-630; 
see Crimean War; relations 
with Great Britain in the last 
years of Victoria, 818-820; 
see also Russo-Turkish War; 
Young Turkish Revolution in, 
820; in Balkan Wars, 821- 
822; in the World War, 839; 
in Gallipoli, 839-842; sur- 
renders, 853; in Egypt and 
Palestine, 897-898; in Meso- 
potamia, 899-900 

Turner, Joseph Mallard, 640, 732 

Turnips, the cultivation of, 403 
and note, 554 

Turpin, Dick, 567 

Tweed River, 3 

Two-bottle orthodox, the, 728- 
729 

"Two-penny Trash," see Cob- 
bett 

Two Power standard, the, 812, 
815 

Tyler, Wat, 154-155 

Tyndale, William, 216 

Tyne River, 3 

Tyrconnel (terc5n'nel), the Earl 
of, see Talbot, Richard 



U 



Udall, Nicholas, 281 

Uganda, 774 

Uitlanders, the, 774, 776 

Ulster, the plantation of, 291- 
292; the rebellion in, of 1641, 
324; rebellion of 1798 in, sup- 
pressed, 592-595 ; Tenant 
Right, 705; beginning of op- 
position to Home Rule in, 
716 and note, 722; growth of 
the opposition, 757-760; coali- 
tion attitude to, 881 ; attitude 
of, during the World War, 
882-883, 885; toward the Con- 
vention, 888-889; as a factor 
in the problems, 889-890 

Ulster Volunteers, 758, 885 

Undertakers, 292 and note 

Unemployment, insurance 

against, 747-748 

Uniformity, first Act of, 231-232 ; 
second Act of, 234; the Act 
of Elizabeth, 245 ; the Act of 
1662, 364-365 

Union, the, of England and Ire- 
land, 595-596 

Union of England and Scotland, 
project for, 291; brought 
about in 1707, 451-453 



Union of South Africa, 778-780 
Unitarians, 425 note 
United Irishmen, 593~594 
United Kingdom, see England 

and Great Britain 
United Presbyterians, 730 
United States, the, independence 
of, acknowledged by England, 
540-541 ; war of Great Britain 
with, 608-610; commercial 
relations of, with Great Britain 
improve after war of 1812, 622; 
thwarts European intervention 
in South American Republics, 
627, 628 and note; boundary 
disputes adjusted with, 674- 
675 ; refuses to agree to "Dec- 
laration of Paris," 687 note; 
British relations with, during 
the Civil War, 690-692 ; Eng- 
land estranged by Palmerston 
from, 700; Fenian movement 
in, 702-703 ; Venezuela dispute 
with, 723, 724; British im- 
migration to, 763; attempted 
reciprocity of, with Canada, 
767; relations with, under 
Edward VII and George V, 767— 
768; in the World War, 833, 
847, 849, 850-853, 859-861, 
874; Irish party in, 884, 886 
Universities, the, rise of, 84-85 ; 
in the thirteenth century, 106- 
107 ; in the fourteenth century, 
147-148; in the time of Henry 
VIII, 207-208, 227; in the 
seventeenth century, 393, 405- 
406, 413-414, 416 
"University Group," the, of 
Elizabethan dramatists, 281- 
282 
Uses, Statutes of, 214 note 
Usury, legislation against, 141- 
142, 187 and note; see also 270 
Utilitarians, the, 414, 646 
Utopia, More's 

Utrecht, the Peace of, 458-460 
Utrecht, the Union of, 253-254 



Vacarius, 84 note 

Valentine, Benjamin, 307-30S 

Valera, Eamon De, 890 

Valhalla, 19 

Valley Forge, 532 

Vancouver, 583 note, 675, 766 

note 
Van Dieman's Land, 769 
Vandyke, 420 

Vane, Sir Harry, 320, 361 note 
Vauban, 430 
Vauxhall, 412 
Vendome, the Duke of, 451, 453, 

454 
Venezuela boundary, 723-724 



Venizelos, 847 

Verdun, 845 

Vere, Robert de, Earl of Oxford, 
156 

Vernon, Admiral, 480-481 

Verona, European congress at, 
627 

Versailles, treaty of, 541 

Verulam, Baron, see Bacon, Sir 
Francis 

Verulamium, destruction of, 13 

Veto Act, the, 730 

Veto, the royal, 223, 266, 516, 
761 and note 

Vicegerent, the, see Cromwell, 
Thomas 

Viceroy of India, 791 

Victoria, Australia, 770 

Victoria, Queen of Great Britain 
and Ireland and Empress of 
India, early life and accession 
of, 662; Civil List of, 662- 
663 and note; in Bedchamber 
crisis, 663-664; marriage of, 
664-665; opposed to national 
liberal movement in Europe, 
680; memorandum to Palmer- 
ston from, 681 ; tries to inter- 
vene on Austria's behalf in 
war of Italian Unification, 689; 
in Trent affair, 691 ; in Schles- 
wig-Holstein question, 694; 
Bismarck repulses mediation 
offer of, 700, 709; Disraeli's 
policy toward, 701 ; attitude 
toward Gladstone of, ib. ; aids 
passage of Gladstone's dis- 
establishment bill, 704; abol- 
ishes purchase of army com- 
missions, 708; her mediation 
in the extension of the fran- 
chise, 714; her Jubilee of 1887, 
719, 763, 796; death and esti- 
mate of, 724-725; problems 
of her reign, 725; excludes 
Prince Albert from political 
activities, 752; made Empress 
of India, 792 

Victoria, Empress of Germany, 
694, 808 note 

Victorian age, 661-662 ; see also 
art, historians, literature, phi- 
losophers, poets, prose, and 
science 

Vienna, Congress of, 610, 612-613 

Villars, Marshal, 454 

Villeins, see Serfs and Villenage 

Villenage, 59 and note, 87, 94, 
109, 131, 142, 153, 155 

Villeneuve, Admiral, Nelson de- 
feats, off Trafalgar, 850 and 
note 

Villeroy, Marshal, 449, 451 

Villiers, George (later Duke 
of Buckingham), 294; journey 
to Spain, 298; adopts an anti- 



INDEX 



941 



Spanish policy, 298-299; char 
acter of, 303; impeachment 
of, 304 ; his expedition to Rhe, 
304-305 ; his murder, 306-307 

Villiers, George, second Duke of 
Buckingham, 372-374 

Villiers, George, Earl of Claren- 
don, 682 note, 686 

Vimy Ridge, 848 

Vindictive, the, 862, 863 

Virgate, 43 

Virginia, 273 

Visitations, see Metropolitical 
and Sheriffs 

Vittoria, battle of, 606 

Volta, Alessandro, 739 

Volunteers, the Irish, 538 and 
note; the Ulster, 758 

Vorbeck, see Lettow-Vorbeck 

Votes for women, 746, 880-881 
note 

Vulgate, the, 216 

W 

Wade, General George, 486, 488 
Wagram, battle of, 605 
Wakefield, battle of, 173 
Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 763, 

769, 77i 
Wakes, the Somerset, 310 
Walcheren, battle of, 605 
Wales, physical features and 
resources, 5 ; conquest of, by 
Edward 1, 111-112; Statute of, 
or Rhuddlan, 112; revolt of, 
against Henry IV, 162; repre- 
sentation granted to, 223 note; 
disestablishment of Church in, 
757 
Wales, Prince of, origin of title, 

112 
Wales and the Marches, Council 

of, 268-269, 323 
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 738 note 
Wallace, Sir William, 116, 117 
Wallingford, treaty of, 69 
Walpole, Horace, later Earl of 

Orford, 563 
Walpole (wol'pole), Sir Robert, 
later Earl of Oxford, his scheme 
for reducing the debt, 469; 
settles the affairs of the South 
Sea Company, 471; begin- 
ning of his ascendancy, ib.; 
his character and policy, 
471-472; becomes Prime and 
sole Minister, 476; his excise, 
476-478; his pacific policy, 
478-479; his attitude toward 
the War of Jenkins' Ear, 479- 
481 ; forced out of office, 481 ; 
influence of, on Cabinet, 545 ; 
created Earl of Orford, ib. 
Walsingham (wol'singham), Sir 
Francis, Secretary of State, 244 



Walter, John, 640 note 

Walter Map, 83-84 

Walton, Izaak, 417 

War of the Roses, the, opening 
of, 171-172; the course of, 
172-177 ; effect on the nobility 
of, 183 and note 

Warbeck, Perkin, 184-185 

Wards and Liveries, Court of, 269 

Wardship, feudal incident of, 58 

Warfare, art of, in the fourteenth 
century, 144; innovations in, 
in World War, 833-834 

Warwick, Earl of, see Neville, 
Dudley 

Washington, destruction of, by 
British troops, 609 

Washington, George, in the 
Seven Years' War, 494; Com- 
mander-in-Chief of Conti- 
nental Army, 530; in cam- 
paign of 1776, 531-532; at 
Valley Forge, 532; hardships 
of army of, 536; receives sur- 
render of Cornwallis, ib. 

Washington, the treaty of, 710 

Water frame, the, see Arkwright 

Waterloo, campaign of, 611-612 

Watling Street, 31 

Watt, James, development of 
steam engine, 551-552 

Watts, George Frederick, 744 

Waverlev Novels, see Scott, Sir 
Walte'r 

Wavre, 611-612 

Wealth, increase of, in the nine- 
teenth century, 744 

Wealth of Nations, see Smith, 
Adam 

Wedderburn, Alexander, later 
Lord Loughborough, 527 

Wedgwood, Josiah, 551 

Wedmore, peace of, 31 

Weekly Political Register, see 
Cobbett 

Wei-hai-Wei, 807 

Wellesley (wels'ley), Sir Arthur, 
Duke of Wellington, in the 
Peninsular Campaign, 603- 
606 ; at the Congress of Vienna, 
610 and note; in Waterloo 
Campaign, 610-612; becomes 
Prime Minister, 623 ; Catholic 
Emancipation passed under 
Ministry of, 624-625; doom 
of Ministry of, 626; at Con- 
gress of Verona, 627; atti- 
tude and policy of, in Greek 
revolt, 629; recognizes Louis 
Philippe, 630; resignation of 
Ministry of, 647; attempts to 
form Ministry during Reform 
Bill agitation, 652; furthers 
Corn Law repeal, 672; meas- 
ures of, against Chartist agi- 
tation, 678 



Wellesley, Richard, successively 
Lord Mornington, Marquis 
Wellesley, 597, 785 

Welsh Church, disestablishment 
of, 757 note 

Wentworth, Sir Thomas (later 
Earl of Strafford), character of, 
303 ; his "apostasy," 306-307 ; 
his rule in Ireland, 315-316; 
advises Charles to summon 
an English Parliament, 316; 
created Earl of Strafford, ib.; 
advises arbitrary methods, 
316-317; impeachment and 
execution of, 321-322 

Wergeld, 44 

Wesley, Charles, 557 

Wesley, John, 557-558 

Wesleyan revival, 557, 558, 727 

West Australia, 769-700 and note 

West Florida, 541 

West Indies, 509, 514, 534, 536, 
see Slavery and Jamaica 

Westminster, Provisions of, 102, 
103; Statutes of, 119, 120- 
121; peace of, 375 note; see 
London, treaty of 

Westminster Abbey, 103, 107, 
"3 

Westminster Assembly, the, 332- 
333 

"Westminster Scrutiny," the, 
574 

Westphalia, the peace of, 351 

West Saxons, the, 21, 29-30 

Wexford, rebellion in, 594-595 

Wheeler, General, 789 

Whig party, the, origin and rise 
of, 376, 381 ; and note, 382, 343, 
344; reverse of the, at the 
close of the exclusion struggle, 
382-383; relations of, to 
William III, 423-424, 435, 
438-440, 544-545 ; make-up 
and aims of, 446; driven out 
by Anne, 455~457; advan- 
tages of, in the struggle over 
the Hanoverian succession, 
460; factions of , under George 
II and George III, 506; 
North breaks power of, 524; 
Pitt routs, 573-574. 579-58o; 
French Revolution and the, 
580; split in the, 1791, 581- 
582; views of, in 1816-1817, 
615-617; rally to cause of 
Queen Caroline, 619; identi- 
fied with movement for parlia- 
mentary reform, 646-647 ; 
carry Reform Bill of 1832, 651- 
653; in first reformed Par- 
liament, 654; change of name, 
ib.; advocates laissez-faire in 
industry, 656; attitude of, 
toward Victoria upon her 
accession, 662; advocate free 



942 



INDEX 



trade, 671 ; in Coalition Minis- 
try, 682; Disraeli opposed to 
commercial aristocracy of, 700; 
see also Liberal party 
Whip with six strings, the, 216- 
217, 219, 231; see also Articles 
of Faith 
Whistler, James McNeill, 744 
Whitby, Synod of, triumph, 25 
White, General Sir George, 77 
White Book, German, 825 
Whiteboys, the, 538 
Whitefield, George, 557-558 
Whitefriars, 411 
Whitehall, 342, 4" 
Whiteley Report, 878-879 
Whitgift, John, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 256 

Wiclif , John, career and activities 

of, 135-136; development of 

views, and influence of, 150- 

152; attitude toward Peasant 

Revolt, 154; Bible of, 164-216 

Wigs, discarded in England, 641 

Wilfrid, leader of Roman party 

at Whitby, 25 
Wilkes, Captain, in Trent affair, 

691 
Wilkes, John, 510-512, 522 
William, Fort, see Calcutta 
William I (the Conqueror), Duke 
of the Normans, visits Eng- 
land, 38; declared heir of 
Edward the Confessor, 39; 
claims the Crown, 39-40; 
victory at Hastings, 40-41 ; 
captures London and crowned 
King, 53 ; disposal of lands of 
conquered, puts down risings 
and wastes vale of York, 53-54 ; 
quells a rising of the Earls, 54; 
method of keeping down dif- 
ferent classes of his subjects, 
ib.; relations with the Church. 
54-55. 72; his laws, 55-56; 
orders Domesday Survey, 56; 
last years and death, 56-57; 
introduces feudal tenures into 
England, 57-58; brings jury 
system to England, 77; 
charter to London, 85 
William II (Ruf us), character and 
policy, 61-62 ; his rule, 62-63 
William of Orange, Stadholder 
of the Dutch, later William III 
of England, marries Mary, 376 ; 
the English begin to look to, 
388; sends Dykevelt to Eng- 
land, 392-393; invited to 
England, 395 ; issues a Decla- 
ration and sails for England, 
395-396; lands at Torbay, 
396; arrives in London, 397; 
calls a convention which 
chooses him and Mary as joint 
sovereigns, 398-399 ; signifi- 
cance of his reign, 423; re- 



action against, 423-424 ; works 
for toleration, 424-425 ; dissat- 
isfied with the revenue settle- 
ment, 425-426; victor at the 
Boyne, 427-428; opposition of 
the Scots to, 429; sanctions 
the massacre of Glencoe, 430; 
forms an alliance against 
France, 430; his succession 
of defeats, 431-432; plot to 
assassinate, 434; arranges the 
peace of Ryswick, 435; forms 
a Whig Cabinet, 438-439, 544~ 
545'; quarrels with Parliament, 
439-440; arranges the Parti- 
tion Treaties, 442; forms the 
Grand Alliance, 443; death 
and character of, 443-444 
William IV, King of Great 
Britain and Ireland, personal 
traits of, 645 ; attitude toward 
parliamentary reform, 647- 
652; accepts resignation of 
Melbourne, 658; death of , 660 
William I, German Emperor, 709 
William II, German Emperor, 
his accession and early policies, 
804-805; asserts himself in 
Morocco, 807-808, 820-821; 
attitude of, to England, 808; 
attitude of, to Hague Con- 
ference, 813; toward naval 
program, 812, 814, 815; his 
utterances, 813, 816, 817; 
Eastern policy of, 818-819; 
"in shining armor," 820, 826; 
in the negotiations leading to 
the World War, 824; his 
abdication, 852; to be called 
to account, 881 
William (the Silent), of Orange, 
250-251, 254-255 and note, 257 
W T illiam Augustus, Duke of Cum- 
berland, 486-487, 499 
William FitzOsbert (Longbeard), 

82 
William, Lord Latimer, 134-135 
William Longchamp, 80-81 
William Marshall, Earl of Pem- 
broke, Regent of England, 9S 
William of Malmesbury, 61 
William of Newburgh, 83 
Willoughby, Sir Hugh, 271 
Wills, see Probate 
Wilmot, John, Earl of Rochester, 

360 
Wilson, President, 768, 860 
Winchester, court school at, 32 
Winchester, Statute of, 1 19-120 
Winchester Fair, 108 
Wireless telegraphy, 740 note 
Wishart (wish 'art), George, 242 
Witchcraft, 106, 277, 407-408 
Wite, 44 
Witenagemot, 46 
Woden, 19 
Wolfe, General James, 499-501 



Wolseley, Marshal Garnet, Lord 
Wolseley, 77 note, 783 

Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, 
and Archbishop of York, rise 
of, 195-196; concludes the 
Treaty of Universal Peace, 
196; vain attempts to secure 
the Papacy, 197-198; his 
policy of alliance with the 
Emperor, 197 ; unpopularity 
of his subsidy and of his 
amicable loan, 197-198; atti- 
tude toward the New Learning, 
202 ; his share in the divorce of 
Henry VIII and Catharine, 
203-204; fall and death of, 
204-205 ; dissolves some 
smaller monasteries, 211 

Women, legislation regulating of 
employment of, 670; condi- 
tion of, in the nineteenth 
century, 746, see Votes for 

Wool, act for burying in, 401; 
trade, 138-140, 191, 271, 273 

Woolsack, the, 273 note 

Worcester (woos'ter), battle of 
347 

Wordsworth, William, 636-637, 
730 

Workingman's Association, the, 
667 

Workmen's Compensation Acts, 
747 

Wren, Christopher, 420-421 

Writs, legal, 78 

Wyatt, Sir Thomas, the poet, 228 

Wyatt's Rebellion, 237 



Yeomen, in the fifteenth century, 
188; in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, 406; in the eighteenth 
century, 555 

York, vale of, wasted by William 
I, 53, 54 

York, Dukes of, see Edward, 
Frederick Augustus, George 
James, Richard 

York, House of, causes of triumph 
of, 175; causes of fall of, 181 

Yorktown, surrender of Lord 
Cornwallis at, 536 

Young, Arthur, 554, 635 

Young, Edward, 564 

Young England Party, the, 669, 
700 

Young Ireland Party, the, 677 

Young Turks, 820 

Ypres, 838, 844 



Zamindars, 787 
Zanzibar, 774 
Zeebrugge, 838, 862-863 
Zukunft, see Harden 
Zulu War, the, 773 
Zwingli, Ulrich, 202, 231 



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